Plaque number 74 can be found at this location.
This plaque can be found on St Osmund's church near the entrance in Exeter Street.
The O/S grid position is SU 14548 East 29503 North.
Salisbury Civic Society
A.W.N. Pugin
1812-1852
Gothic Revivalist designed this church in 1847-8 and converted to Roman Catholicism in Salisbury 1835.
St Osmund's Church.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, (1812-1852) architect, designer and leading apostle of the Victorian Gothic style, is probably most famous for his collaboration with Sir Charles Barry on the (then) new Houses of Parliament, but he was an amazingly prolific worker. He designed a house for himself (St. Marie's Grange) at Alderbury, and lived there from 1835 to 1837. His time in Salisbury coincided with his conversion to Roman Catholicism, and he subsequently designed the first Catholic church, St Osmund's in Exeter Street, to be built here since the Reformation.
Having been received into the Roman
Catholic Church in Salisbury in 1835, Pugin designed St Osmund's in 1847-8 while working on the Houses of Parliament. He grieved that the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary had become Anglican and built St Osmund's as a mini-cathedral in medieval style directly behind it.
St Osmund's Church is almost completely in line with the tomb of St. Osmund in the Cathedral's Trinity Chapel. St. Osmund, the first bishop of the Cathedral, appears between St Thomas and St Martin in the stained glass of Pugin's East Window. The beautiful Church that he built is now Grade 1 listed.
The plaque was unveiled at St Osmund's Church on 6 June 2007 by Lord Congleton, President of the Salisbury Civic Society.
The Mayor and other Civic dignitaries attended a thanksgiving service before the unveiling, conducted by Father Andrew Goodman. Representatives of other churches were present, together with some of St. Osmund's parishioners. The homily was given by Rev. Mgr. Canon Jeremy Rigden V. G.
Pictured below from left to right: Father Paul Sakala, Rev. Mgr. Canon Jeremy Rigden, Lord Congleton, the Mayor Kevin Cardy, Mayoress Jan Cardy and Chairman of the Council, Elizabeth Chettleburgh.
Augustus Pugin - a blue plaque - article by Charles Villiers in Salisbury Civic Society journal - September 2007.
Pugin - Phoebe Stanton - Thames and Hudson 1971
The Pugin Society website
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