St Olave's Church, Gatcombe is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

located in

Gatcombe Gatcombe is a village in the civil parish of Chillerton and Gatcombe, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is located about two and a half miles south of Newport, in the centre of the island. The parish, which includes Chillerton, had a population ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

History

Building began on the site in the 13th century and the church was dedicated in 1292. It originally served the Estur family as a chapel to

Gatcombe House Gatcombe House is a manor house in Gatcombe on the Isle of Wight, England. The original building was constructed by the Stur (Estur) family as noted in the Domesday Book. St. Olave's Church, built next to the manor to serve as its chapel, was d ...

. The manor later passed into the hands of the Worsley family who provided the church with both financial support and a number of Rectors. The font is probably early 13th-century. The chancel was rebuilt by R. J. Jones in 1864–65; and the church was further restored by W. D. Caröe in c.1920. The tower contains three bells which are hung dead.

Stained glass

East window, St Olave's Church, Gatcombe, Isle of Wight

The church is noted for its

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...

and

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...

, dating from 1865 and 1866. Rossetti founded the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

with which Morris, Brown and Burne-Jones were associated.

Monuments

St Olave, Gatcombe - Monument - geograph

A carved wooden military effigy with crossed legs in the style of the early 14th century lies in a recess in the chancel, on the north side of the altar. It has an angel by its head and a lion at its feet. Scholarly opinion is divided as to whether it is a genuine medieval figure, recut, restored and embellished at a later date; or an early modern concoction in deliberately archaic style. It has been speculatively identified as representing an ancestor of the Estur family. Various legends have been attached to it, and in the 1960s it inspired the " Lucy Lightfoot" hoax. At the west end of the church stands a monument to Captain Charles Grant Seely, eldest son and heir of

Sir Charles Seely, 2nd Baronet Sir Charles Hilton Seely, 2nd Baronet, VD, KGStJ (7 July 1859 – 26 February 1926) was a British industrialist, landowner and Liberal Unionist (later Liberal Party) politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1895 to 190 ...

, who was killed in action serving with the

Isle of Wight Rifles The 1st Isle of Wight Rifle Volunteers, later the 8th (Isle of Wight, 'Princess Beatrice's Own') Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, but known informally as the 'Isle of Wight Rifles', was an auxiliary unit of the British Army formed to defend the Isl ...

at the

Second Battle of Gaza The Second Battle of Gaza was fought on 17-19 April 1917, following the defeat of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) at the First Battle of Gaza in March, during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Gaza was defended by t ...

in 1917. It takes the form of a tomb chest bearing a recumbent effigy of Seely, who is depicted in uniform and with legs crossed in allusion to his service as a modern-day "crusader". It was the final work of the eminent sculptor

Sir Thomas Brock Sir Thomas Brock (1 March 184722 August 1922) was an English sculptor and medallist, notable for the creation of several large public sculptures and monuments in Britain and abroad in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His mos ...

, and was unveiled in 1922. In 1927 it was vandalised by a local woman, Nellie Kerley, who appears to have been aggrieved by the contrast between the memorial's grandiosity and the relative neglect of the memory of her brother, who had also died in the war. The damage to the effigy's face and sword-hilt is still clearly visible.

Organ

The organ was built by Henry Speechly in 1919. It was donated to the church by Sir Charles and Lady Seely as a memorial to the officers, NCOs and men of the Isle of Wight Rifles who had died in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and was dedicated in September 1922 on the same occasion as the unveiling of the monument to Charles Grant Seely. The organ chamber was designed by W. D. Caröe. The organ was overhauled in 2000 by Griffiths & Cooper and incorporated pipework from an organ in Upper Chine School,

Shanklin Shanklin () is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the Isle of Wight, England, located on Sandown Bay. Shanklin is the southernmost of three settlements which occupy the bay, and is close to Lake, Isle of Wight, Lake ...

. A specification can be found on the

National Pipe Organ Register The British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) is a British organisation and registered charity which aims to promote study and appreciation of all aspects of the pipe organ. Further, it acts as a lobbying body to raise awareness of organ issue ...

Churchyard

The churchyard contains two

Commonwealth war graves The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...

, of an officer (Flight Lieutenant Antony Basil Langton) and a sergeant (Sergeant William Reuben Cooper) of the

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF ...

from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.
CWGC Cemetery report, details from casualty record.

Gallery

File:St Olaves Church , Gatcombe - geograph.org.uk - 70255.jpg, View from the west File:St Olave, Gatcombe - Sanctuary - geograph.org.uk - 1171865.jpg, Sanctuary File:St Olave, Gatcombe - East end - geograph.org.uk - 1171860.jpg, East end File:St Olave, Gatcombe - Interior - geograph.org.uk - 1171864.jpg, Interior File:St Olave, Gatcombe - Font - geograph.org.uk - 1171871.jpg, Font

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gatcombe, St Olave Church of England church buildings on the Isle of Wight Grade I listed churches on the Isle of Wight Churches dedicated to Saint Olav in the United Kingdom