St Lawrence serves the large market town of Alton in E Hampshire. It is a capacious church, with a broad double-pitched roof covering the main vessels. The plan is sometimes described as a double nave, with the original nave now serving as a S aisle. To its E is a tower (formerly crossing tower) with an external stair turret, followed by a chapel (formerly chancel). A new nave and chancel were added to the N in the 15thc, with a Perp arcade replacing the former N wall. A porch and vestry project to the S, and an organ chamber to the N.

Two string courses on the exterior of the tower are carved with billet, zigzag and chip-carving. The four tower arches are carved with Romanesque capitals of late 11thc date, including animals, birds and heads. The Victorian font is located under the tower; its predecessor, a plain tub font, has been moved to the SE corner of the chapel (formerly chancel). Several decorated frieze or impost blocks are situated in the S wall of the S aisle (formerly nave).

Alton was a royal manor before the Conquest, and was recorded in Domesday Book as Aultone. It was granted to New Minster (Hyde Abbey), Winchester, in 1072, but no church was mentioned in 1086. A new nave and chancel were added in the early 15thc.

The church was restored in 1867-68 to designs by Ewan Christian, carried out by the local firm Dyer & Sons. At the same time, a new font was carved by the vicar. The old font was reportedly discarded, but rediscovered in 1934 at Will Hall Farm on the outskirts of Alton (or, by some accounts, in Cirencester) and bought back to the church (information inside church). Additions of 1867-68 included an external stair turret serving the belfry and an organ chamber over a boiler room for a hot water heating system. The clearance of galleries and raising of the belfry revealed the Norman arches with their carved capitals which had been ‘almost hidden from observation’ (Hants Chronicle, 18 April 1868, 5).

Bullen et al. dated the church, including the tower, to c.1070-1100, assuming that it was erected in the first 30 years of New Minster’s ownership. It was not mentioned in 1086, and the inclusion of chevron and scallop motifs suggests the later part of the period, corresponding to the date of c.1100 suggested by Pevsner & Lloyd in 1967. The tub font is contemporaneous with the original building.

The surviving frieze or impost fragments in the S wall are later, perhaps c.1120-40, and seem to be (at least partially) in situ. Squared ashlar masonry of early-to-mid 12thc date, beneath the fragments, is undisturbed. The scalloped fragments may relate to an arch springer, possibly representing a lost S aisle (Pevsner & Lloyd 1967, 76). While Pevsner & Lloyd opted for a date of c.1140, the ornament is compared by Bullen et al. to Winchester Cathedral Treasury c.1150-60 (Bullen et al. 2010, 121).