St Mary the Virgin, Lytchett Matravers
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St Mary the Virgin is the Church of England parish church of
Lytchett Matravers Lytchett Matravers is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. The 2011 census recorded the parish as having 1,439 households and a population of 3,424. History The name comes from the Brittonic ''litchet'' meaning "grey wood" and the ...
in
Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
. Its parish is part of the Diocese of Salisbury. The building is Grade I listed.


History


Foundation

There is no known record of the date of the foundation of the church at Lytchett Matravers. 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 ...
records that by 1086 Sir John Maltravers held the manor of Lytchett Matravers. The John Matravers who was buried in the church was Edward II's gaoler and possibly his murderer. In the churchyard, just outside the north door, is a yew tree that in the 1980s was dated to be at least 1,700 years old. Its location here next to the church suggests the spot has been a holy place since before the current church was built. A Sir Walter Maltravers went on a Crusade to the Holy Land and it is possible that he ordered the church to be built beside the manor house in his absence about the year 1200. The west tower, the nave and the chancel were built then, followed by the north aisle in the 14th century. Sir John Maltravers’ heir, his granddaughter
Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...
, carried the manor and title to her husband
John FitzAlan, 1st Baron Arundel John Fitzalan, 1st Baron Arundel (c. 1348 – 1379), also known as Sir John Arundel, was an English soldier. Lineage He was born in Etchingham, Sussex, England to Richard Fitzalan, 3rd Earl of Arundel (c. 1313 – 1376), and his second wi ...
. Their descendants have been
Earls of Arundel Earl of Arundel is a title of nobility in England, and one of the oldest extant in the English peerage. It is currently held by the Duke of Norfolk, and is used (along with the Earl of Surrey) by his heir apparent as a courtesy title. The ...
since 1415 and later
Dukes of Norfolk Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the title refers to the county of Norfolk. The current duke is Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk. The dukes ...
, but are still Barons Maltravers. The tower is the oldest part of the building. The arch dates from 1200 but the pinnacles, which are carved within the Maltravers fret, are from about 1500. The arcade on the north side of the nave was built about 1350, when the north aisle was added. There is also an unusually large hagioscope or squint giving a view from the north aisle to the chancel and altar.


Plague

Local tradition has it that the village moved away from the site of the church during the Black Death. The church slowly fell into disuse and was used solely by the Rector for morning prayer and
vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic (both Latin and Eastern), Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer time comes from the Latin , meanin ...
, with regular worship moving to a chapel in the village. The church has a late-15th-century monumental brass in memory of Thomas Pethyn or Talpathyn, who was rector 1430–70. It is a cadaver monument, showing his corpse in its burial shroud, which is a style unusual for monumental brasses in England. Elsewhere there is an example from the early 16th century, also in memory of a parish priest, in the parish church at
Oddington, Oxfordshire Oddington is a village and civil parish about south of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. The village is close to the River Ray on the northern edge of Otmoor. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 129. History The toponym is d ...
. A great deal of restoration was carried out at the beginning of the 16th century at the behest of Dame Margarita Clements. In the 17th century the Arundel family, heirs by marriage to the Maltravers estate, funded the restoration of St Mary's and rebuilding of the north aisle. The chapel in the village was closed and parish worship returned to St Mary's.


Civil war

In the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, Parliamentarian infantry defaced a tomb in the north aisle, removing and destroying its inscribed plaque. The tomb is believed to be that of a member of the Arundel or Maltravers family.


19th century

Pews were added to St Mary's in the 19th century. In 1891 the barrel organ was replaced by a pipe organ with two manuals and pedals. Over the next century it was rebuilt several times and improved. About this time a vestry extension was built behind the new organ, creating a room accessible from the chancel and hidden from the rest of the church by the organ pipes. This instrument was replaced in 1992 by a Wyvern electronic organ.


20th century

The present pulpit was installed in the 1950s. In the 1960 and 70s an offer to build a secondary church building in the centre of the village during the planning and development of the village hall was declined by the parish leadership of the time. A new Wyvern electronic organ was installed in 1992 and the vestry area opened up to form an administrative area and vestry. More modern pews were added to the north aisle about this time, originally from Sherborne Abbey. These pews are clearly distinguishable from the Edwardian pews. The north
transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...
was extended in 1993 to give added facilities including a new vestry and small upper room which was used for Sunday school and some meetings. In 1962 the footballer
Fred Pentland Frederick Beaconsfield Pentland (29 July 1883 – 16 March 1962) was an English football player and coach. Pentland played club football in the Football League for Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough, in the Southern Football League f ...
was buried in the churchyard.


21st century

By the early 2000s the building had a number of cosmetic problems that needed addressing and some suspected structural problems. In 2011, late-20th-century render on the southern walls was found to have been incorrectly applied and the non-porous wash used was causing problems with the integrity of the nave walls and floor. The joists that support the floor under the chancel step were found to be rotten due to moisture created by the problem with the walls. Emergency repairs were made on the joists and a temporary floor installed to allow use of the building to continue. The pulpit was removed as the floor could no longer support it. In 2012 a group of volunteers redecorated the church in less than two weeks. The non-porous render was removed and an approved lime wash applied to the walls. There was then a wait for the walls to dry completely and the rebuilding of the chancel step to be approved. Other structural and maintenance problems were addressed in the years 2012–13, including re-digging of soak-aways to help the drainage and drying of the church and a significant number of minor and medium-priority issues that were highlighted in the 2010 quinquennial report.


Bells

The tower has a
ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
of six bells. The third bell is
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, cast by the Salisbury
foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
about AD 1400. John Wallis of Salisbury cast the fifth bell in 1616 and John I Tosier, also of Salisbury, cast the tenor bell in 1684. Mears and Stainblank of 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 ...
cast the treble, second and third bells in 1931. Also in 1931 the other bells were cleaned and refurbished and the ring was rededicated.


Deanery and parish

The parish was in Poole Deanery until the mid-1990s, when it was made part of Milton and Blanford Deanery. On 1 January 2010 the parish reverted to Poole Deanery. In October the parish together with the Lytchett Minster and Upton Team Ministry formed the Benefice of the Lytchetts and Upton. This is largely a resource-sharing benefice. St Mary's retains its own vicar but as part of a wider team of clergy.


Clergy


Rectors of the Parish 1313–1977

Rectors of St Mary's 1313–1977, as transcribed by local historian Shirley Percivel in 1982:


Clergy since 1977


References


Further reading

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External links


St Mary's Lytchett Matravers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary the Virgin, Lytchett Matravers Church of England church buildings in Dorset Grade I listed churches in Dorset