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Our Lady, Warnford, Hampshire

Location
Church Of Our Lady, Warnford, 41 A32, Southampton SO32 3LB, United Kingdom (50°59′59″N, 1°6′51″W)
Warnford
SU 622 226
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Hampshire
now Hampshire
medieval unknown
now Our Lady
  • James Cameron
  • James Cameron
16 Aug 2018

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Description

A single-vessel church with no architectural division between nave and chancel, but with a wide span. Assertive W tower with big Romanesque strip-buttresses on the corners, of three stories, with Romanesque round-headed windows in the top two stages, and two circular windows at the top of third stage. No sculpture on the tower except roll-mouldings between the stories and around the windows (the E face of the tower, and the whole parapet is of brick, with an attractively cogged lower frieze). Two inscriptions help date the fabric of the building and are likely also Romanesque in themselves. The font is also of the 12thc, but heavily mutilated.

History

The two inscriptions are of some use for dating the church building. The lord of the manor in 1066 were the monks of Winchester, but by 1086 it was Hugh of Port. His descendant Adam of Port held the manor from 1171 to his death in 1215, placing at least the tower and the walls of the nave in the last quarter of the 12thc. The mention of its founding by St Wilfrid (633-709) implies that there was a church on this site for some time when Adam of Port renovated it. The rectory was assessed at £21, 6s, 8d in 1291. The medieval dedication of the church is not recorded.

Features

Exterior Features

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The church is in the private (but with a right of way to the church for for pedestrians) grounds of a now-demolished country house, a descendant of the now ruined hall just a short distance E of the building. This hall was a building of some ambition, built mostly it would seem in the 13thc, with extremely high columns that probably supported a timber ceiling. It demonstrates the close links the church must have had with the lord of the manor.

Bibliography

S. Pegge, A Sylloge of the remaining authentic inscriptions relative to the erection of our English Churches, London 1787, 24-25.

N. Pevsner and D. Lloyd, The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Harmondsworth 1967, 642.

W. Page ed. A History of the County of Hampshire: Vol. 3, Victoria County History, London 1908, 268-273