12 CHAPTER 12: ARCHITECTURAL AND MATERIAL LEGACY
**Learning Objectives**
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
– Identify the surviving buildings and physical structures associated with Bailey’s mission
– Describe the architectural significance of Christ Church, Kottayam
– Understand the material culture of the mission compound and its preservation
– Trace the history of Bailey’s grave and memorial
– Evaluate current heritage conservation efforts and their importance
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### 12.1 The Christ Church, Kottayam (Built 1837-1841)
Among the physical structures that survive from Benjamin Bailey’s time in Kottayam, none is more impressive or more significant than Christ Church. Consecrated in 1841, this Anglican church stands as a lasting monument to Bailey’s vision and to the presence of the CMS mission in central Travancore.
The construction of Christ Church was a major undertaking. Bailey was closely involved in the planning and execution of the project, which required raising funds, sourcing materials, and supervising construction in a location where building on this scale was unusual. The church was designed to serve the growing Anglican congregation in Kottayam, which included both European missionaries and Indian converts, and to provide a worthy setting for Anglican worship.
The architecture of Christ Church reflects a blend of influences. The basic form is that of an English parish church, with a nave, chancel, and tower. But the building has been adapted to its Kerala context in significant ways. The steeply pitched roof, with its deep overhanging eaves, responds to the heavy monsoon rains. The high ceilings and large windows provide ventilation in the tropical climate. Local materials and building techniques were employed alongside imported elements, creating a structure that is both recognisably Anglican and distinctively Keralan.
The tower of Christ Church is a notable feature, rising above the surrounding landscape and visible from a considerable distance. For generations of travellers approaching Kottayam, the church tower was a landmark that signalled their arrival at the mission station. The bell that hung in the tower called worshippers to service and marked the rhythms of the Christian week in a town where temple bells and the call to prayer from mosques also sounded.
The interior of the church reflects Anglican liturgical sensibilities. The arrangement of pews, pulpit, and altar follows the patterns of Anglican worship, with an emphasis on the reading and preaching of scripture that was central to evangelical practice. Memorial plaques on the walls commemorate missionaries, Indian clergy, and notable members of the congregation, creating a physical record of the community’s history.
Christ Church remains an active place of worship today, belonging to the Church of South India. It is also a site of heritage tourism, visited by those interested in the history of Christianity in Kerala and the legacy of the CMS mission. The building has been maintained and restored over the years, though the challenges of preserving a 19th-century structure in a tropical climate are considerable.
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### 12.2 The Mission Bungalow and Compound
The mission compound at Kottayam, of which Christ Church formed the spiritual centre, included a variety of buildings that served the practical needs of the mission community. Among these, Bailey’s own residence—the mission bungalow—is of particular historical interest.
The bungalow was Bailey’s home for more than three decades, from his relocation to Kottayam in 1817 until his departure in 1850. It was here that he and Elizabeth raised their children, hosted visitors, conducted correspondence, and retreated from the demands of public life. The bungalow was both a family home and a centre of mission activity, its rooms serving multiple purposes as needs required.
The architecture of the bungalow reflected the adaptation of British domestic forms to Indian conditions. Like the Anglo-Indian bungalows found across British India, it featured wide verandahs that shaded the interior from the sun, high ceilings that allowed hot air to rise above living spaces, and large windows positioned to capture breezes. The kitchen and service areas were typically separate from the main house, a practice that reflected both European preferences and caste-based protocols about food preparation.
The compound also included the buildings that housed the CMS Press—Bailey’s workshop and the centre of his professional life. These structures, more utilitarian than the church or bungalow, were nonetheless of great historical significance as the birthplace of Malayalam printing. The press buildings, with their large windows to admit light for compositors, their sturdy floors to support the weight of presses, and their practical arrangements for the flow of work from composition to printing to binding, embodied Bailey’s printer’s understanding of how a print shop should function.
Other structures on the compound included school buildings, where generations of Kottayam students received their education; staff quarters, housing the Indian workers who were essential to the mission’s operation; and various outbuildings for storage, stables, and other practical purposes. Together, these buildings formed a small settlement—a community within the larger community of Kottayam, with its own rhythms, its own hierarchies, and its own distinct character.
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### 12.3 The Old Seminary Buildings
The Old Seminary, known originally as the Kottayam College, predated Bailey’s arrival in Kottayam but became closely associated with the CMS mission. The seminary had been established with the support of Colonel John Munro as a training institution for Syrian Christian clergy, and its buildings formed an important part of the mission’s physical infrastructure.
The architecture of the Old Seminary reflected its purpose as an educational institution. Classrooms, a library, a chapel, and residential quarters for students and faculty were arranged around courtyards that provided light, air, and space for communal activities. The buildings were constructed in a style that drew on both local traditions and European institutional architecture, creating a physical environment that was conducive to study and community life.
The seminary played a central role in the sometimes-contentious relationship between the CMS missionaries and the Syrian Christian hierarchy. Control of the seminary—its curriculum, its faculty, its theological orientation—was a point of ongoing negotiation and occasional conflict. The physical spaces of the seminary—who taught in which rooms, who worshipped in which chapel, who controlled access to which resources—were implicated in these struggles over authority and identity.
Despite these tensions, the Old Seminary remained an important educational institution throughout Bailey’s time and beyond. Its buildings, some of which survive today, are physical reminders of the complex history of theological education in Kerala and the role of the CMS mission in that history.
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### 12.4 Bailey’s Grave and Memorial
Benjamin Bailey died in England in 1871, having left Travancore more than two decades earlier. His body was buried in English soil, far from the land where he had spent the central decades of his life. But his memory is preserved in Kottayam through memorials that mark his association with the place and its people.
Within Christ Church, a memorial plaque commemorates Bailey’s life and work. Such plaques, typical of Anglican church memorials of the period, record the essential facts—name, dates, positions held—and often include a brief tribute to the deceased’s character and achievements. Bailey’s plaque speaks of his long service, his translation of the scriptures, and his establishment of the printing press, summarising a lifetime’s work in a few lines of engraved stone.
The memorial serves multiple purposes. It is a marker of remembrance, ensuring that Bailey’s name is not forgotten by those who worship in the church he helped to build. It is a historical document, providing information about Bailey’s life for future generations. And it is a statement of values, identifying the achievements for which Bailey wished to be remembered—or for which his colleagues wished him to be remembered.
Beyond the formal memorial, Bailey’s presence lingers in the landscape of Kottayam. The buildings he constructed, the press he established, the institutions he founded—these are his true monuments, living legacies that continue to serve the community long after the man himself has gone. For those who know the history, a walk through the CMS compound is a walk through Bailey’s world, a physical encounter with the spaces he inhabited and shaped.
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### 12.5 Heritage Status and Conservation
The buildings and sites associated with Benjamin Bailey and the CMS mission form an important part of Kerala’s architectural and historical heritage. In recent decades, there has been growing recognition of the need to preserve and protect these physical remains for future generations.
Christ Church is the most prominent of the surviving structures. It benefits from its status as an active place of worship, which ensures ongoing maintenance and use. But the challenges of conserving a 19th-century building in a tropical climate are considerable. Monsoon rains, humidity, insects, and the general wear of time all take their toll. Conservation efforts must balance the desire to preserve original features with the practical needs of a functioning church community.
The CMS Press buildings, where they survive, present different conservation challenges. No longer used for their original purpose—modern printing technology long ago rendered the hand-press era obsolete—these structures require adaptive reuse that respects their historical significance while making them viable for contemporary purposes. Some have been incorporated into the CMS College campus; others have been altered or replaced over time.
The question of heritage status is complex. Official designation as protected heritage can bring resources and expertise for conservation, but it can also impose restrictions that complicate the use and management of historic buildings. The communities that worship in Christ Church, study at CMS College, and live and work in the historic mission compound have their own relationships with these spaces—relationships that may or may not align with the priorities of heritage conservation.
What is at stake in these conservation debates is more than the preservation of old buildings. The physical remains of the CMS mission are tangible connections to a formative period in Kerala’s history. They are sites of memory, places where the story of Bailey and his colleagues can be told and encountered. Their preservation—or their loss—shapes what future generations will be able to know and feel about this history.
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### 12.6 Archaeological and Archival Remains
The material legacy of Benjamin Bailey extends beyond buildings to a range of objects and documents that survive in archives, museums, and private collections. These material remains provide evidence for historical research and tangible connections to Bailey’s world.
The printed books that emerged from the CMS Press are perhaps the most widely distributed of these remains. Copies of early Malayalam Bibles, dictionaries, and other publications survive in libraries in Kerala, in the British Library, and in various institutional and private collections. These books are studied by bibliographers and historians, who examine their typography, paper, bindings, and marginalia for evidence of how they were produced and used.
The printing equipment itself—the presses, type, and tools that Bailey used—has largely not survived. Metal type was melted down and recast; wooden presses deteriorated or were replaced; the tools of the printer’s trade were used until they wore out and were discarded. What remains are a few precious artifacts: individual pieces of type, perhaps, or printing blocks, or bound volumes of early proofs. These objects, preserved in museums or archives, are relics of a vanished craft tradition.
The archival record is richer. Bailey’s correspondence with the CMS headquarters in London, his journals, his translation drafts, and his administrative records survive in the CMS Archives at the University of Birmingham. These documents provide the foundation for historical research on Bailey’s life and work, enabling scholars to reconstruct his activities, his thoughts, and his relationships in considerable detail.
The Kerala State Archives and the archives of CMS College, Kottayam, also hold relevant materials. Church records, school registers, government documents, and local publications supplement the CMS records, providing multiple perspectives on Bailey and his context. The work of cataloguing, digitising, and making these archives accessible is ongoing, and new discoveries continue to enrich our understanding of this history.
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### A Heritage Trail for Contemporary Pilgrims
The sites associated with Benjamin Bailey in Kottayam form a natural heritage trail for visitors interested in the history of printing, education, and Christianity in Kerala. A walk through these sites—Christ Church, the mission compound, the CMS College campus, the site of the original press—is a walk through the physical remains of a transformative period in the region’s history.
For the contemporary visitor, the experience can be powerful. Standing in Christ Church, one can imagine the congregation that Bailey served, the hymns that were sung, the scriptures that were read from the Bible he translated. Walking through the CMS College campus, one can sense the generations of students who have passed through, beneficiaries of an educational tradition that Bailey helped to establish. Even where the original buildings have been altered or replaced, the continuity of use—worship, education, community—connects the present to the past in tangible ways.
This heritage has the potential to attract visitors from beyond Kerala—scholars of mission history, students of printing and typography, pilgrims interested in the history of Indian Christianity, and general tourists drawn to the rich cultural heritage of the region. The development of interpretative materials—signage, guidebooks, digital resources—could enhance the visitor experience while contributing to the local economy and to public understanding of this history.
The Benjamin Bailey heritage sites are not only relics of the past. They are active places where history is made as well as remembered, where communities continue to worship, learn, and live. Any heritage development must respect these living uses while enabling visitors to encounter and understand the history that the sites embody.
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**Key Takeaways**
– Christ Church, Kottayam, consecrated in 1841, is the most significant surviving building associated with Bailey and the CMS mission.
– The mission compound included Bailey’s residence, the CMS Press buildings, and various other structures that formed a distinct community within Kottayam.
– Bailey’s grave is in England, but his memory is preserved in Kottayam through memorial plaques and the living institutions he founded.
– Heritage conservation of the CMS sites faces challenges of climate, funding, and the need to balance preservation with active use.
– Surviving printed books, archival documents, and a few material artifacts provide evidence for historical research and tangible connections to Bailey’s world.
– The CMS sites form a potential heritage trail that could attract visitors and contribute to public understanding of Kerala’s history.
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**Discussion Questions**
1. What does the architecture of Christ Church reveal about the adaptation of European religious forms to the Indian context?
2. Why is the preservation of heritage sites like the CMS compound important? What is at stake if such sites are lost?
3. How do the physical remains of Bailey’s work—buildings, books, documents—shape our understanding of his legacy differently from written accounts?
4. What are the challenges and opportunities of developing heritage tourism around mission sites in contemporary Kerala?
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**Primary Source: Bailey on the Building of Christ Church**
*”We have at last completed the church, after several years of labour and much anxiety respecting the means. It is a building which, I trust, will be an ornament to the station and a witness to the truth among this people. The consecration was a solemn and joyful occasion, attended by a large congregation of Europeans and natives. May the worship offered within these walls be acceptable to Almighty God, and may many souls be born to eternal life through the ministry of this place.”*
*(CMS Archives, C I1/M13, Bailey to Secretary, 20 November 1841. Spelling and punctuation modernised.)*
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**Further Reading**
Cherian, C. V. (1935). *A History of Christianity in Travancore*. Kerala Historical Society. (Contains descriptions of mission buildings and institutions.)
Davies, Philip. (1985). *Splendours of the Raj: British Architecture in India, 1660-1947*. Penguin Books. (For context on Anglo-Indian architecture.)
Singh, Sarina, et al. (Various). *Lonely Planet India*. (Guidebook entries on Kottayam often include descriptions of Christ Church and other heritage sites.)
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