The Friends are committed to preserve and improve this important building. Built and paid for by the Revd George Gainsford and consecrated on Ascension Day 1865, Holy Saviour Church was built to serve the rapidly developing area of Hitchin between the town centre and the railway station. Almshouses, an orphanage and a school, also in Radcliffe Road, completed Gainsford's scheme. George Gainsford w
as a High Church Anglican, and both the style of the church building and the traditions of worship established there reflect the principles of the Oxford Movement. His chosen architect was William Butterfield, famous for his involvement with the High Church movement, and designer of, amongst many other churches, All Saints Margaret Street, London, and the Chapel of Keble College Oxford. The neo-gothic building of red brick and Bath stone displays the polychromatic brick patterning characteristic of many of Butterfield's buildings. The stained glass of the windows is of high quality - mostly made by the eminent firm of Hardman & Co of Birmingham.
