Church of St Lawrence, Alton
Encyclopedia
The Church of St Lawrence, Alton is an Anglican
parish church
in Alton
, Hampshire
, England. A Grade 1 listed building, it is notable for the range of its architecture and for being the site of the concluding action of the Battle of Alton
during the English Civil War
.
settlement in Alton began in around AD 500 and there was certain to have been a church in the township. There are no remnants of this structure left, except for the baptismal font
that is now situated in St Lawrence's. The font is fashioned from one massive block of stone and crude axemarks may be seen on it, showing its primitive workmanship. When the church was restored
in 1868 the font was discarded in favour of one of a more contemporary design; it ended up in Cirencester
, but was purchased for £10 in 1934 and brought back to St Lawrence's, where it stands at the west end of the south nave on a mill wheel, symbolising Alton's status as a centre of the paper industry. It has been in use as a font since 1950.
period, with building probably starting at some time not long after 1066. The conventional date for the founding of the church is 1070, and the church celebrated its 900th anniversary in 1970. This early church took the shape of a cross, the four Norman arches that formed the tower being described in Pevsner as "emphatically Early Norman, say around 1100". These arches, built of stone probably from Selborne
or Binsted
, are situated midway down what is now the southern nave, and some remnants of the original door may be seen in the wall behind the 19th-century font located in the centre of the arches. At the top of the pillars supporting the arches are designs fashioned by French craftsmen with axes, including a wolf eating a bone (pictured, left), a pelican, several winged cherubs, a demon and a pair of donkeys.
This Norman church passed to the ownership of William the Conqueror through Edith
, the wife of Edward the Confessor
, following the Norman Conquest. In the first mention of the church, in a charter of 1087 marked at its foot by William's trademark cross, we read that William exchanged it with the monks of Hyde Abbey
in Winchester
for their burial ground, upon which he wished to build his new palace.
Alton grew in prosperity during the 12th century as it was on the main route to London from the west country, so it was found necessary to extend the church; it was during this period that what is now the southern nave was extended to the west and building work was also made to the north part of the church. The old west door, which was walled up in the redevelopment of 1868, was built in 1140 and Pevsner notes that a southern arcade was added in c. 1140 ("there are faint traces of this arcade inside, i.e. remains of the pier imposts with a band of ornaments"). The first known vicar of Alton, also vicar of Colmer and sheriff of Alton, comes from this period, one Richard Turstin, who held the office of Parson from 1161 to 1170.
, but today containing painted wooden statues of St George
and St Michael
by Mr Southwick.
The well-know Alton Fair started in 1307, following a grant from Edward I
; the church grounds were for a while used as a site for commerce and festivities, but on 19 August 1317 the Bishop of Winchester, accompanied by an abbot, two priors and a deacon, hurried to Alton and forbade the holding of fairs "in the churches or cemeteries of the diocese of Winchester, and especially in the church or cemetery of Aulton [sic]". The parishioners of the church were also told
This is the first documentary evidence that St Lawrence was the church's patron saint.
The 15th century saw a great number of extension and additions to St Lawrence's, including: the new northern nave – this was of roughly the same proportions as the existing southern nave, and made the church, in Pevsner's words, "essentially a parallelipiped"; what was previously the north wall to the old church was demolished and seven arcades were installed in its place, with three paintings of saints (pictured, left) remaining on the northern side of the second pillar from the west; new roofs over both naves; windows recast in the Perpendicular style; carved screens to choir and altar, and rood screen; a spire on top of the old tower. The exterior of the church (apart from the Victorian broach-spire) also dates from the 15th century, and is fashioned from local flint
and stone covered with plaster. A chapel was also constructed in the southern nave, which is the current choir vestry, as well as a chapel to the north of the choir called the Champflour Chantry Chapel (of which only a stone fragment remains). The royal licence for the building of this chapel was issued on 20 October 1463:
, St Lawrence's passed to the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester on 1 May 1541. It appears that in this period the church was also a seat of learning; with the exception of Winchester College
, the oldest record of any educational establishment in Hampshire comes from a report of 1548 to Edward VI
's Chantry Commissioners, which states that there was in Alton:
Couper writes that the church "must have been gravely despoiled at this time", but gives scant evidence for this claim. Further building work occurred in the 16th century – the south door and porch, a priest's entrance to the Lady Chapel (made by the vicar Ralph Herriott; his initials may be seen on it) – but it is only in the 17th century, again in Couper's words, that the church "steps into the full light of day", with an instruction of Elizabeth I to the local JP
s that the Poor Law
provisions are being implemented, the beginning of the parish registers in 1615 and the churchwarden's accounts in 1625. These continue unbroken to the present day, except for some minor gaps during the upheaval of the English Civil War
. The churchwarden accounts of 1625 mention that the church possesses a peal of bells, and these were rung when Charles I
came to the town in 1625. The church's pulpit
– described as "an outstanding mid c17 piece" in Pevsner – dates from this period.
town, and on 1 December 1643, a large force, commanded by the Earl of Crawford
, occupied the town. Parliamentary
forces, led by Sir William Waller
, marched against Alton on 13 December and Crawford fled the town for Winchester, leaving behind a small force commanded by Colonel Richard Boles (Godwin gives his name as "Bolle"). This defensive force was beaten back through Amery Farm and the churchyard of St Lawrence's, and eventually barricaded themselves in the church itself, where, "having made scaffolds in the Church to fire out of the windows [they] fired very thick from every place."
According to Tony MacLachlan:
After a concerted assault, during which, according to the Parliamentarian Lieutenant Archer, "the churchyard was full of our men, laying about them stoutly with halberts, swords, and musket-stocks, while some threw hand-granadoes in at the church windows," the Parliamentarians eventually broke through the west door of the church, and Colonel Boles, who had threatened to kill any of his soldiers who asked for quarter, was killed – the traditional place given for his death was on the steps of the pulpit. (The brass to Boles states that his force in the church was "neare four score strong".) Bullet holes can be seen in the church's south door, as well as in both external and internal walls and pillars. When the church was restored in the 1860s many bullets were removed from the church ceiling, and a number of soldiers who died in the fighting were dug up in the churchyard; various relics of the battle – a key, a uniform button, bullets and a pipe – are displayed in a cabinet in the church. A brass memorial to Boles is on one of the arcade pillars in the church. A facsimile of a tablet at his tomb in Winchester Cathedral
(and containing the same mistakes – the date of the battle, for instance, is given as 1641), it states in part:
When Charles I
heard of Boles's death he is said to have exclaimed, "Bring me my mourning scarf; I have lost one of my best commanders in this Kingdom."
All of the church's windows were broken, the roof and steeple were badly damaged after being set on fire, the tower had a hole blasted through it and the weathercock
, according to the same eye-witness, "was carried quite away, and the hand and Boards belonging to the Clock fell among the Congregation." No one was hurt, but the vicar's eyebrows were singed. The churchwarden's accounts for 1687 list many repairs having taken place in the preceding months, but the church bells rang both in 1687 when James II
passed through Alton and in 1688 upon the proclamation of William and Mary
.
were built in the church. Couper comments:
Amongst the galleries were: a singing gallery at the west end; two or three at the east end (one of these was over the high altar (pictured, right)); various galleries filling the southern nave, with staircases leading up to them, "some of which were for paying customers and some free."
In 1724 work began to change the church roof from tiles to lead
, work that was completed in 1758; until this point the church had a three-span roof but this work saw the roof assuming the one-span structure that is maintained to the current day. In 1742 the plain window on the northern wall behind the pulpit was replaced "with a Square Crown Glass in order to give it better light, and also to alter the Sounding Board in such a manner as shall be thought most proper upon the opinion of the Revd. Mr. Smith, Vicar, and the workman." According to Couper, the housekeeping records during this century became "more meticulous than ever"; records were kept of the monies received for each member of the congregation ("1/- for each person 'seated' in the Church or Churchyard, and 3/4 for a child's") as well as for items such as "a pound of soft soap" (7d), "oyle" (3d) and "a chamber pott" (9d).
The charitable works undertaken by the church are also meticulously detailed; this was the era in which charitable trusts were set up, and we find that John Fisher made a gift of £8 in 1741, which was "as an annual allowance for three sermons to be preached in Alton Church on the Anniversary of his death, and for a distribution of bread and money to the Poor of Alton." The Poor House was established in 1740 in the Malt House on Mount Pleasant, and the church was also responsible for housing and maintaining the town fire engine; the churchwardens' records contain details of the costs involved in its "oyling".
John Murray
, the founder of the Universalist
denomination in the United States
, was born in 1741 in Alton and baptised in St Lawrence's. Murray's Life gives an account of the customs surrounding baptism at St Lawrence's:
, the brother of Jane Austen
who lived a few miles south-west of Alton in Chawton
, was appointed to a committee to "superintend and investigate the affairs of the parish", possibly on account of the problems being caused at the time by the collection of tithes, which had led to the breaking of all of the windows of the vicarage. In 1829 the church, apparently with "some reluctance", bought a "barrel organ", which "shall have finger keys as well as barrels".
of the church. The appeal read:
A ceremony marking the completion of the renovations was held on 16 April 1868, when the Bishop of Winchester reopened the church. Amongst the items that had been given to the church were a new font, a lectern (carved by Revd A. W. Deey), several new windows, and new seating for the chancel. The most notable addition was an organ
, paid for by public subscription (at a cost of £850), and built by Messrs Speechly and Ingram. It was used until its rebuilding in 1966, and in 1898 a gas engine to power it was bought from Winchester Cathedral for £25. A permanent choir was also created, under the direction of Mr H. D. Newman, the organist. A number of other modifications to the church were made – a window was added to the tower and a staircase to the belfry, the west door was filled in with stone, and new pews installed – but, in Couper's words, "on the whole the restoration was carried out with restraint, and the interior of the Parish Church returned in essence very nearly to what it had been in the 15th century." The church now seated 816 people, compared with the 899 it seated before the restoration. To cater for the enlarged population of Alton, a new church was built (the Church of All Saints) and the parish divided.
to replace the lead that previously covered it, and a weather vane was placed atop it; this is the steeple that we see today. Over the years a number of turret clock
s have been positioned on the tower; Couper states that there had been one since "at least the 17th century", based on the references in the church accounts to "the diall", and it has a clock (not on display) with the date 1700 on it. The clock in use today was installed in 1890 by Messrs J. W. Benson; a Mrs Gerald Hall started its mechanism at 12 noon on Saturday 7 June 1890. Sundials have also long been used in the church; one on a buttress on the church's east face is either from the 14th century or earlier. The one currently in the churchyard dates from the 18th century.
of Brussels; the Mary window beside the pulpit (1873) is dedicated to Martha Hutchins; the window in the Lady Chapel (1884), like the Mary window, was filled by Messrs Heaton, Butler and Bayne of London. The window to the north of the high altar (1899) depicts the archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael; it was dedicated to Henry Hall (the brewer). When Hall's wife died, the mosaic to Faith
and Charity
, which surrounds the archangel window, was put up in 1906.
in 1918. During the war the vicar had kept the names of soldiers who were killed on a roll of vellum parchment; at the end of the war this was transcribed onto a mural tablet with the words: To the glory of God/In memory of the men of this town/Who gave their lives in the Great War 1914–18/And in thankfulness for many who have been spared/This chapel is restored A.D. 1919.
The chapel was dedicated by the Bishop of Winchester on 28 November 1920, and in 1927 the two figures of St Michael and St George, which occupy the niches at the east end of the southern nave once filled by the statues of St Lawrence and the Virgin and Child, were donated by Miss E. H. Davenport. Other additions to the chapel include: various new tablets, oak moveable pews and a grand piano.
was cast for the church in 1926 by Gillett & Johnston
; the bells were hung for change ringing
and the old oak frame was replaced by one made of steel. In 1932 it was discovered that the tower was cracking in many places, partly as a result of the bells' vibrations, so the bell cage was reinforced with steel and the walls around it were strengthened with reinforced concrete. In 1939 the church was converted from gas to electric lighting, in memory of Dr E. J. L. Leslie, the vicar's warden from 1906 to 1936.
Further work was carried out on the organ in 1993.
The parish centre is St Lawrence Hall, which was built 100 m south of the church in 1970.
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in Alton
Alton, Hampshire
Alton is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of the English county of Hampshire. It had a population of 16,584 at the 1991 census and is administered by East Hampshire district council. It is located on the source of the River Wey and is the highest town in...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England. A Grade 1 listed building, it is notable for the range of its architecture and for being the site of the concluding action of the Battle of Alton
Battle of Alton
The Battle of Alton , of the First English Civil War, took place on 13 December 1643 in the town of Alton, Hampshire, England. There, Parliamentary forces serving under Sir William Waller lead a successful surprise attack on a winter garrison of Royalist infantry and cavalry serving under the Earl...
during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
.
History
The Church of St Lawrence, like many older English churches, is an amalgam of styles resulting from repeated additions and extensions being made down the centuries. In the words of William Curtis:Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
settlement in Alton began in around AD 500 and there was certain to have been a church in the township. There are no remnants of this structure left, except for the baptismal font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
that is now situated in St Lawrence's. The font is fashioned from one massive block of stone and crude axemarks may be seen on it, showing its primitive workmanship. When the church was restored
Victorian restoration
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...
in 1868 the font was discarded in favour of one of a more contemporary design; it ended up in Cirencester
Cirencester
Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
, but was purchased for £10 in 1934 and brought back to St Lawrence's, where it stands at the west end of the south nave on a mill wheel, symbolising Alton's status as a centre of the paper industry. It has been in use as a font since 1950.
Norman
The present-day church had its origins in the NormanNorman dynasty
Norman dynasty is the usual designation for the family that were the Dukes of Normandy and the English monarchs which immediately followed the Norman conquest and lasted until the Plantagenet dynasty came to power in 1154. It included Rollo and his descendants, and from William the Conqueror and...
period, with building probably starting at some time not long after 1066. The conventional date for the founding of the church is 1070, and the church celebrated its 900th anniversary in 1970. This early church took the shape of a cross, the four Norman arches that formed the tower being described in Pevsner as "emphatically Early Norman, say around 1100". These arches, built of stone probably from Selborne
Selborne
Selborne is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is south of Alton. It will be just within the extreme northern boundary of the proposed South Downs National Park, which is due to take effect in mid-2010....
or Binsted
Binsted
Binsted is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. The village is about four miles east of Alton. The nearest railway station is 1.8 miles northeast of the village, at Bentley....
, are situated midway down what is now the southern nave, and some remnants of the original door may be seen in the wall behind the 19th-century font located in the centre of the arches. At the top of the pillars supporting the arches are designs fashioned by French craftsmen with axes, including a wolf eating a bone (pictured, left), a pelican, several winged cherubs, a demon and a pair of donkeys.
This Norman church passed to the ownership of William the Conqueror through Edith
Edith of Wessex
Edith of Wessex married King Edward the Confessor of England on 23 January 1045. Unlike most wives of kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, she was crowned queen, but the marriage produced no children...
, the wife of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
, following the Norman Conquest. In the first mention of the church, in a charter of 1087 marked at its foot by William's trademark cross, we read that William exchanged it with the monks of Hyde Abbey
Hyde Abbey
Hyde Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538....
in Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
for their burial ground, upon which he wished to build his new palace.
Alton grew in prosperity during the 12th century as it was on the main route to London from the west country, so it was found necessary to extend the church; it was during this period that what is now the southern nave was extended to the west and building work was also made to the north part of the church. The old west door, which was walled up in the redevelopment of 1868, was built in 1140 and Pevsner notes that a southern arcade was added in c. 1140 ("there are faint traces of this arcade inside, i.e. remains of the pier imposts with a band of ornaments"). The first known vicar of Alton, also vicar of Colmer and sheriff of Alton, comes from this period, one Richard Turstin, who held the office of Parson from 1161 to 1170.
13th–15th century
Despite the 12th-century extensions, by the 13th century the church was yet again found to be too small, and so the Lady Chapel was built as an extension to the east of the Norman tower. At the eastern end of this chapel niches in the wall were built, at the time containing statues of St Lawrence and the Virgin and ChildMadonna (art)
Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...
, but today containing painted wooden statues of St George
Saint George
Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...
and St Michael
Michael (archangel)
Michael , Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; , Mikhaḗl; or Míchaël; , Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael...
by Mr Southwick.
The well-know Alton Fair started in 1307, following a grant from Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
; the church grounds were for a while used as a site for commerce and festivities, but on 19 August 1317 the Bishop of Winchester, accompanied by an abbot, two priors and a deacon, hurried to Alton and forbade the holding of fairs "in the churches or cemeteries of the diocese of Winchester, and especially in the church or cemetery of Aulton [sic]". The parishioners of the church were also told
This is the first documentary evidence that St Lawrence was the church's patron saint.
The 15th century saw a great number of extension and additions to St Lawrence's, including: the new northern nave – this was of roughly the same proportions as the existing southern nave, and made the church, in Pevsner's words, "essentially a parallelipiped"; what was previously the north wall to the old church was demolished and seven arcades were installed in its place, with three paintings of saints (pictured, left) remaining on the northern side of the second pillar from the west; new roofs over both naves; windows recast in the Perpendicular style; carved screens to choir and altar, and rood screen; a spire on top of the old tower. The exterior of the church (apart from the Victorian broach-spire) also dates from the 15th century, and is fashioned from local flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
and stone covered with plaster. A chapel was also constructed in the southern nave, which is the current choir vestry, as well as a chapel to the north of the choir called the Champflour Chantry Chapel (of which only a stone fragment remains). The royal licence for the building of this chapel was issued on 20 October 1463:
16th–17th century
Following the Dissolution of the MonasteriesDissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
, St Lawrence's passed to the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester on 1 May 1541. It appears that in this period the church was also a seat of learning; with the exception of Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, the oldest record of any educational establishment in Hampshire comes from a report of 1548 to Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
's Chantry Commissioners, which states that there was in Alton:
Couper writes that the church "must have been gravely despoiled at this time", but gives scant evidence for this claim. Further building work occurred in the 16th century – the south door and porch, a priest's entrance to the Lady Chapel (made by the vicar Ralph Herriott; his initials may be seen on it) – but it is only in the 17th century, again in Couper's words, that the church "steps into the full light of day", with an instruction of Elizabeth I to the local JP
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
s that the Poor Law
English Poor Laws
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
provisions are being implemented, the beginning of the parish registers in 1615 and the churchwarden's accounts in 1625. These continue unbroken to the present day, except for some minor gaps during the upheaval of the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
. The churchwarden accounts of 1625 mention that the church possesses a peal of bells, and these were rung when Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
came to the town in 1625. The church's pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
– described as "an outstanding mid c17 piece" in Pevsner – dates from this period.
Battle of Alton
St Lawrence's played a significant part in the Battle of Alton – part of the English Civil War – which took place on 13 December 1643. Alton was a RoyalistCavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
town, and on 1 December 1643, a large force, commanded by the Earl of Crawford
Ludovic Lindsay, 16th Earl of Crawford
Ludovic Lindsay, 16th Earl of Crawford took part in the strange plot of 1641 called The Incident. Having joined King Charles I at Nottingham in 1642, he fought at the Battle of Edgehill, at the Battle of Newbury and elsewhere during the English Civil War; in 1644, just after the Battle of Marston...
, occupied the town. Parliamentary
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
forces, led by Sir William Waller
William Waller
Sir William Waller was an English soldier during the English Civil War. He received his education at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and served in the Venetian army and in the Thirty Years' War...
, marched against Alton on 13 December and Crawford fled the town for Winchester, leaving behind a small force commanded by Colonel Richard Boles (Godwin gives his name as "Bolle"). This defensive force was beaten back through Amery Farm and the churchyard of St Lawrence's, and eventually barricaded themselves in the church itself, where, "having made scaffolds in the Church to fire out of the windows [they] fired very thick from every place."
According to Tony MacLachlan:
After a concerted assault, during which, according to the Parliamentarian Lieutenant Archer, "the churchyard was full of our men, laying about them stoutly with halberts, swords, and musket-stocks, while some threw hand-granadoes in at the church windows," the Parliamentarians eventually broke through the west door of the church, and Colonel Boles, who had threatened to kill any of his soldiers who asked for quarter, was killed – the traditional place given for his death was on the steps of the pulpit. (The brass to Boles states that his force in the church was "neare four score strong".) Bullet holes can be seen in the church's south door, as well as in both external and internal walls and pillars. When the church was restored in the 1860s many bullets were removed from the church ceiling, and a number of soldiers who died in the fighting were dug up in the churchyard; various relics of the battle – a key, a uniform button, bullets and a pipe – are displayed in a cabinet in the church. A brass memorial to Boles is on one of the arcade pillars in the church. A facsimile of a tablet at his tomb in Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
(and containing the same mistakes – the date of the battle, for instance, is given as 1641), it states in part:
-
-
-
- Alton will tell you of that famous Fight
- Which y man made & bade this world good night
- His verteous Life fear'd not Mortalyty
- His Body must, his Vertues cannot Die
- Because his Bloud was there so nobly spent
- This is his Tombe that Church his Monument.
-
-
When Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
heard of Boles's death he is said to have exclaimed, "Bring me my mourning scarf; I have lost one of my best commanders in this Kingdom."
1686 thunderstorm
On 19 December 1686 a violent thunderstorm took place in Alton that damaged much of the church. According to an eye-witness account:All of the church's windows were broken, the roof and steeple were badly damaged after being set on fire, the tower had a hole blasted through it and the weathercock
Weather vane
A weather vane is an instrument for showing the direction of the wind. They are typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building....
, according to the same eye-witness, "was carried quite away, and the hand and Boards belonging to the Clock fell among the Congregation." No one was hurt, but the vicar's eyebrows were singed. The churchwarden's accounts for 1687 list many repairs having taken place in the preceding months, but the church bells rang both in 1687 when James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
passed through Alton and in 1688 upon the proclamation of William and Mary
William and Mary
The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II...
.
18th century
During the 18th century a large number of galleriesBalcony
Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...
were built in the church. Couper comments:
Amongst the galleries were: a singing gallery at the west end; two or three at the east end (one of these was over the high altar (pictured, right)); various galleries filling the southern nave, with staircases leading up to them, "some of which were for paying customers and some free."
In 1724 work began to change the church roof from tiles to lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, work that was completed in 1758; until this point the church had a three-span roof but this work saw the roof assuming the one-span structure that is maintained to the current day. In 1742 the plain window on the northern wall behind the pulpit was replaced "with a Square Crown Glass in order to give it better light, and also to alter the Sounding Board in such a manner as shall be thought most proper upon the opinion of the Revd. Mr. Smith, Vicar, and the workman." According to Couper, the housekeeping records during this century became "more meticulous than ever"; records were kept of the monies received for each member of the congregation ("1/- for each person 'seated' in the Church or Churchyard, and 3/4 for a child's") as well as for items such as "a pound of soft soap" (7d), "oyle" (3d) and "a chamber pott" (9d).
The charitable works undertaken by the church are also meticulously detailed; this was the era in which charitable trusts were set up, and we find that John Fisher made a gift of £8 in 1741, which was "as an annual allowance for three sermons to be preached in Alton Church on the Anniversary of his death, and for a distribution of bread and money to the Poor of Alton." The Poor House was established in 1740 in the Malt House on Mount Pleasant, and the church was also responsible for housing and maintaining the town fire engine; the churchwardens' records contain details of the costs involved in its "oyling".
John Murray
John Murray (minister)
John Murray though sometimes recalled as founder of the Universalist denomination in the United States, might more fairly be described as a pioneer minister and an inspirational figure, as his theological legacy to the later Universalist denomination was minimal.-Early life:He was born in Alton,...
, the founder of the Universalist
Universalist Church of America
The Universalist Church of America was a Christian Universalist religious denomination in the United States . Known from 1866 as the Universalist General Convention, the name was changed to the Universalist Church of America in 1942...
denomination in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, was born in 1741 in Alton and baptised in St Lawrence's. Murray's Life gives an account of the customs surrounding baptism at St Lawrence's:
19th century
Three further galleries were built in 1810 and 1824, at a cost of £200 and £150 respectively. In 1817 Francis AustenFrancis Austen
Sir Francis William Austen, GCB was a British officer who spent most of his long life on active duty in the Royal Navy, rising to the position of Admiral of the Fleet.-Background:...
, the brother of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
who lived a few miles south-west of Alton in Chawton
Chawton
Chawton is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 1.6 miles southwest of Alton, just south of the A31 which runs between Farnham and Winchester. The village is famous as the home of Jane Austen for the last eight years of her life...
, was appointed to a committee to "superintend and investigate the affairs of the parish", possibly on account of the problems being caused at the time by the collection of tithes, which had led to the breaking of all of the windows of the vicarage. In 1829 the church, apparently with "some reluctance", bought a "barrel organ", which "shall have finger keys as well as barrels".
Restoration
In 1862, in the most significant decision affecting the church in the modern era, an appeal was launched by Canon Woodrooffe for the restorationVictorian restoration
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...
of the church. The appeal read:
A ceremony marking the completion of the renovations was held on 16 April 1868, when the Bishop of Winchester reopened the church. Amongst the items that had been given to the church were a new font, a lectern (carved by Revd A. W. Deey), several new windows, and new seating for the chancel. The most notable addition was an organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
, paid for by public subscription (at a cost of £850), and built by Messrs Speechly and Ingram. It was used until its rebuilding in 1966, and in 1898 a gas engine to power it was bought from Winchester Cathedral for £25. A permanent choir was also created, under the direction of Mr H. D. Newman, the organist. A number of other modifications to the church were made – a window was added to the tower and a staircase to the belfry, the west door was filled in with stone, and new pews installed – but, in Couper's words, "on the whole the restoration was carried out with restraint, and the interior of the Parish Church returned in essence very nearly to what it had been in the 15th century." The church now seated 816 people, compared with the 899 it seated before the restoration. To cater for the enlarged population of Alton, a new church was built (the Church of All Saints) and the parish divided.
Tower, steeple and clocks
In 1874, on the initiative of the Alton Church Tower and Steeple Repairing Fund, the steeple was faced with oakOak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
to replace the lead that previously covered it, and a weather vane was placed atop it; this is the steeple that we see today. Over the years a number of turret clock
Turret clock
A Turret clock is a clock mounted in a tower or turret, usually to show the current time on a dial with hand or to announce the time by strike, or both. It can also have more than one dial to show days, moon phases, and other astronomical data.-Sundials:...
s have been positioned on the tower; Couper states that there had been one since "at least the 17th century", based on the references in the church accounts to "the diall", and it has a clock (not on display) with the date 1700 on it. The clock in use today was installed in 1890 by Messrs J. W. Benson; a Mrs Gerald Hall started its mechanism at 12 noon on Saturday 7 June 1890. Sundials have also long been used in the church; one on a buttress on the church's east face is either from the 14th century or earlier. The one currently in the churchyard dates from the 18th century.
Stained glass
All of the stained glass in the church comes from the Victorian period; the east window (1870) was filled by Jean-Baptiste CapronnierJean-Baptiste Capronnier
Jean-Baptiste Capronnier was a Belgian stained glass painter. Born in Brussels in 1814, he had much to do with the modern revival of glass-painting, and first made his reputation by his study of the old methods of workmanship, and his clever restorations of old examples, and copies made for the...
of Brussels; the Mary window beside the pulpit (1873) is dedicated to Martha Hutchins; the window in the Lady Chapel (1884), like the Mary window, was filled by Messrs Heaton, Butler and Bayne of London. The window to the north of the high altar (1899) depicts the archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael; it was dedicated to Henry Hall (the brewer). When Hall's wife died, the mosaic to Faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
and Charity
Charity (virtue)
In Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving.- Caritas: altruistic love :...
, which surrounds the archangel window, was put up in 1906.
Chapel of St Michael and St George
The Lady Chapel was converted into a war memorial following an initiative that began immediately after the end of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1918. During the war the vicar had kept the names of soldiers who were killed on a roll of vellum parchment; at the end of the war this was transcribed onto a mural tablet with the words: To the glory of God/In memory of the men of this town/Who gave their lives in the Great War 1914–18/And in thankfulness for many who have been spared/This chapel is restored A.D. 1919.
The chapel was dedicated by the Bishop of Winchester on 28 November 1920, and in 1927 the two figures of St Michael and St George, which occupy the niches at the east end of the southern nave once filled by the statues of St Lawrence and the Virgin and Child, were donated by Miss E. H. Davenport. Other additions to the chapel include: various new tablets, oak moveable pews and a grand piano.
Further changes
An appeal of 1920 raised £2,743 16. 7 for the church, the main work being done on the tower and the roof. The western gallery that was part of the 1868 renovations was taken down. A new ring of eight bellsRing of bells
"Ring of bells" is a term most often applied to a set of bells hung in the English style, typically for change ringing...
was cast for the church in 1926 by Gillett & Johnston
Gillett & Johnston
Gillett and Johnston is a clock and formerly bell manufacturing business in Croydon, England.-History:William Gillett started a clock making business on Union Road in Croydon, England in 1844. Charles Bland became a partner in 1854 and the company became known as Gillet and Bland. In 1877, Arthur...
; the bells were hung for change ringing
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
and the old oak frame was replaced by one made of steel. In 1932 it was discovered that the tower was cracking in many places, partly as a result of the bells' vibrations, so the bell cage was reinforced with steel and the walls around it were strengthened with reinforced concrete. In 1939 the church was converted from gas to electric lighting, in memory of Dr E. J. L. Leslie, the vicar's warden from 1906 to 1936.
Further work was carried out on the organ in 1993.
The parish centre is St Lawrence Hall, which was built 100 m south of the church in 1970.