St Mary the Virgin, Fordingbridge - geograph

St Mary's Church,

Fordingbridge Fordingbridge is a town and broader civil parish with a population of 6,000 on the River Avon in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England, near the Dorset and Wiltshire borders and on the edge of the New Forest, famed for its late medieva ...

is a 12th–13th-century church in Hampshire, England. It was restored in the 19th century.

History

A church is mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

'' in 1086. It was rebuilt by the

Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...

around 1150 and would then have been an open space internally. The North Chapel and north and south aisles were added around 1230. Within another 100 years the clerestory had been added, the tower raised (in modern times housing 8 bells plus a Sanctus bell) and the North Chapel extended. The Chapel has a straight tie beam

truss roof A timber roof truss is a structural framework of timbers designed to bridge the space above a room and to provide support for a roof. Trusses usually occur at regular intervals, linked by longitudinal timbers such as purlins. The space between each ...

of chestnut that masquerades as a hammerbeam roof. Lands in Fordingbridge and the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living ...

of the church were granted to

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

in 1447 by Henry VI, after being given to the Crown by Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham. Font, Church of St Mary the Virgin, Fordingbridge - geograph

Externally the Church has changed little since the 16th century although originally the exterior flint work would have been plastered like one of its neighbours, St Mary,

Breamore Breamore ( ) is a village and civil parish near Fordingbridge in Hampshire, England. The parish includes a notable Elizabethan country house, Breamore House, built with an E-shaped ground plan. The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary h ...

. Internally the Church looks much as it did after the 1840 renovation except for the addition of the organ in 1887 and the reredos in 1920. The church was restored between 1901 and 1903 under the direction of

Charles Ponting Charles Edwin Ponting, F.S.A., (1850–1932) was a Gothic Revival architect who practised in Marlborough, Wiltshire. Career Ponting began his architectural career in 1864 in the office of the architect Samuel Overton. He was agent for Meux br ...

The Church once had a "three-decker" pulpit but this has been removed. In very recent years the Victorian pews were replaced by chairs to facilitate using the space much more flexibly. In 2000 a new window was commissioned in the south aisle to commemorate the millennium. Also two of the bells were sent to the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

to be recast and re-tuned.

Vicarages

There are two surviving

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically ow ...

s in

, the imposing residence opposite the West Front built in 1817 and now converted to apartments and the current, more modern building opposite the South side.

Churchyard

The churchyard has a monument to the safe building family "Chubb", and also a memorial to the last British man killed in a duel in England, James Alexander Seton. Along with all the town burial sites (except the new Catholic burial ground) St Mary's Churchyard was closed in 1896 and replaced by the new cemetery at Stuckton Road. In modern times the Churchyard has been cleared to allow easier maintenance and many of the gravestones now form the path from the lichgate to the North Porch. The original locations of some of the stones and the owners of some of worn stones can be deduced from the Fordingbridge Sexton's register which covers the period from 1730.

Services

The church choir can usually be heard every Sunday supporting services such as the Family Communion, with traditional

Evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became ...

on the third and fourth Sunday evenings each month There is an annual Patronal Festival on the 1st weekend in July.

References

External links

Avon Valley Partnership
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fordingbridge, St Mary's Church Church of England church buildings in Hampshire Grade I listed churches in Hampshire St Mary's Church