In 1844-6 St John the Evangelist Church was built. It was designed by Anthony Salvin in the Early English style, with windows by William Wailes.
St John’s was commissioned at a cost of £6,100 following an incident in St Nicholas Chapel, when visitor John Motteux, the then owner of Sandringham, had attempted to find a seat to pray but was refused, as the pew he attempted to use had to be paid for and was already owned. Offended by the inequity of the arrangement, he donated a large sum, believed to have been £1,000, towards the building of a new free church and with the help of many of the wealthy merchant class of the town, Daniel Gurney in particular, who donated £500. Aided by a parliamentary grant designed to assist in the building of more Anglican churches in the ever-growing manufacturing towns and cities in the country, the necessary funds were raised to pay for what was to be the first Anglican church to be built in the town since the Reformation.
Architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, recorded that the consecration of the church emphasised the role of the church in providing free Anglican seats for the poor, in competition with the Catholic and non-conformist chapels of the town.
For more information, visit the church’s website here.