Brough Church
Brough Church, one of the chief worship centers of the region was
founded by Mr. Antony Watson Brough, an Australian missionary. This church of
South India was established in the year 1928-29.
The church missionary is engaged in various public service
activities in interest of the society. Situated in the middle of the city of
Erode nearby Panneerselvam Park, the church can be advanced from a Brough road,
which is also named after the church.
The construction of the church started in 1930 and it was
completed in the year 1933 by Antony Watson Brough. The church was dedicated in
1933 by Vedanayagam Samuel
Azariah. The church is built with lime mortar with egg and the stones
were brought from Karur. The church is constructed in the Indo-Saracenic style
architecture.
It is normal church like every other Church across various cities
across India. The specialty of this Church is that it is the biggest Church of
Erode and located in the prime area of Brough Road , P.S Park signal, the
largest signal of Erode. The Church is big and accommodates large no. of people
on Sunday prayers.
History
Rev. Antony Watson Brough (1861-1934) came to Coimbatore from
Australia in 1894 and served there for two years. He came to Erode in 1897 and
constructed around twenty churches. It was planned to build the church in 1930
and was dedicated in 1933 by Rt. Rev. Azariah and was named as Brough Memorial
Church. It is learnt that the foundation depth is equal to the height of the
wall above the ground. The church was built with lime mortar ground with egg.
The walls were plastered with ground lime mortar with egg. The stones were
brought from Karur. The windows were made and brought from Karur. It is said
that the Church was constructed in the Indo-Saracenic style in order to attract
the Muslims in Erode. In is the front, there is one inscription in Tamil and
Arabic as “Only God”.
Details on
the Structure of the Church
It is made of stone pillars, arches, plinth stones in doors and
windows, steps and brick and mortar. The size of the church is around 30X20
meters. The height is about 8 meters. It has got the main area and the side
areas. The ceiling is made of concrete and the weathering course is with lime
mortar and covered with roofing square tiles and pointed with cement. The walls
are plastered and painted. The frontage has two minarets which are made of
stone and brick structures.
Details of the Pillars
The stone pillars are around 2.5 meters and the height is 2.3
meters. The pillars and arches are made of granite stones carved out as square
pedestals and hexagonal structure in the middle and with support structures in
the top to support the arches. The pillars are constructed as pedestal, stem
and the upper support head. It is fortunately not painted as the front three
arches are painted brown. Fortunately the arches are not painted with enamel,
but associated with lime and strainers. There are five arches with ten pillars,
two in the altar and three in the entrance. Two pillars are embedded into the
wall near the entrance; ten pillars in the middle are also supporting the
arches.