Pear Tree Church, Southampton
Pear Tree Church, Southampton
Pear Tree Church, also listed as Jesus Chapel – St Mary Extra, stands on Peartree Green, Southampton. It is a Grade II* church in the Diocese of Winchester and the parish of St Mary Extra.
- Location
- Southampton, Hampshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Hampshire
- City / town
- Southampton
- Address
- Pear Tree Avenue, Southampton, Hampshire, SO19 7RT
- Postcode
- SO19 7RT
- Built
- 1618–20; west porch and south transept 1822; north aisle 1846; east aisle 1866; new chancel and south chapel 1883
- Consecrated
- 1620
- Architect
- E. Burrough and J. Ede (1822 porch and south transept)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- Winchester
- Parish
- St Mary Extra, Southampton
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Post-Reformation chapel with 19th-century Gothic additions
- Materials
- Rubble; ashlar additions; the original centre west gable has diagonal buttresses and a gabled bell turret
- Grid reference
- SU 438 116
- Opening hours
- Apart from organised services and events the church is open every Wednesday in the Spring and Summer for people to come and browse and learn about the history of the church. The church can always accessed by emailing when you would like to arrange a visit.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England records that the chapel was built as Jesus Chapel in 1620 to serve the part of the old parish of St Mary, Southampton, that lay across the Itchen, and that it was the first church consecrated in Southampton after the Reformation. Sotonopedia dates the building to 1618 and the consecration to 1620. Only the centre west gable of rubble survives from the original fabric, with diagonal buttresses, a dressed coping, a small gabled bell turret and an early-seventeenth-century stone-mullioned window on the south return. In 1822 E. Burrough and J. Ede added a west porch and south transept in ashlar with flat-headed Neo-Tudor windows. A north aisle followed in 1846, an east aisle in 1866, and a new chancel and south chapel in 1883. The listing notes a plain interior with a complete set of early-nineteenth-century panelled oak pews and contemporary wall monuments. The Rosoman Monument in the churchyard is separately listed at Grade II.