3-053-508 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

All Saints' Church, Coimbatore, India, 1873. 'So long ago as 1858, Mr. Thomas, collector of the district, made preparatory arrangements for a building to accommodate resident English Churchmen. Plans were furnished by the Government engineer, an officer who in India is supposed to design any structure, from a sentry-box to a cathedral...Mr. Chisholm, Government architect, having furnished drawings in the Early English style, the church was built by an intelligent native Christian, M. Joseph Pillay, at a cost of £1800. The most active promoter of the good work was Colonel Hessey. The low hills of Muddigherry, close by, furrnished the material, which is pink crystallised limestone, and takes a polish like marble. The church, which seats one hundred people, consists of chancel, transepts, and nave. It is remarkable for its simplicity and absence of florid ornament. Punkahs are not needed; and, without hindrance, wherever the eye falls it rests on arches of cut stone. The windows are fitted with stone tracery, to be filled in with stained glass. While the design is thoroughly ecclesiastical, the material and execution of the stonework would pass muster anywhere'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.