St. Michael and All Angels Church, Bassett
Encyclopedia
St. Michael and All Angels Church, Bassett, Southampton
is an Anglican
parish church
which dates from the late 19th century.
, described by Pevsner & Lloyd as "part of the splendid tree-lined route into Southampton from Winchester, London and the north".
The church is in the parish of North Stoneham
and Bassett and has the largest congregation of the three churches in the parish.
can be traced back to the early ninth century when it was known as "Stonam Abbatis" or "Abbots Stoneham" and was attached to Hyde Abbey
at Winchester
. At this time, the parish extended from the River Itchen
in the east towards Chilworth
and Bassett Green
in the west with its neighbouring parish, South Stoneham, to the south and east. After the dissolution of the monasteries
in the 1540s, the manor was acquired by Thomas Wriothesley
, Earl of Southampton
. In 1599, the Wriothesley family sold the estate to Sir Thomas Fleming
, whose descendants held the advowson
until 1997.
Until the late nineteenth century, Bassett was part of the parish of North Stoneham, with the rector of St. Nicolas' Church
serving the needs of the entire parish. Revd. Elliott Kenworthy-Browne, the rector of North Stoneham from 1886 to 1912, would often walk over 10 miles a day to meet the needs of his parishioners.
By the mid 1880s, Bassett had grown with many substantial villas occupied by the middle classes; despite having the appearance of a well-to-do suburb of Southampton, Revd. Kenworthy-Browne observed that three-quarters of the population of 800 were poor, chiefly mechanics and labourers.
The parish has since been renamed North Stoneham and Bassett, and encompasses North Stoneham, the whole of Bassett, the portion of Bassett Green north of Bassett Green Road, and the portion of Chilworth within the M3/M27 triangle. The parish also covers Southampton Airport
.
A legacy in the will of John Brown Willis Fleming of Stoneham Park, left the plot of land on Bassett Avenue on which the new church was to be built. The new church was designed by Edward Prioleau Warren
, with the foundation stone being laid by Violet Fleming on 29 September 1897. The church was built in two stages as the money ran out. Construction was completed in May 1910 by the contractors Messrs. Holloway Bros. of London, the total cost being £4,139. When completed, it was regarded as a quite outstanding example of its kind, and attracted visitors from as far away as America.
By 1934, the church needed to be extended to include an assembly room (currently used as the choir vestry). In 1937 a new altar with oak panelled reredos
was added.
In 1962, the church was classified as Grade B status, but in December 1969 this was revised to "Grade II listed".
In 1980, work began on a £13,000 programme of re-roofing and protection of the brickwork from penetration by damp.
In 2011 the victorian church pews were removed and replaced by a more flexible and comfortable system of chairs.
dressings for the doors and windows, slated roof and small bell-turret on its western gable, is not particularly impressive; but with its concrete vaulted roof supported on stone ribs, Pevsner
and Lloyd, in their Buildings of England
: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, considered that it has "an intriguing and distinguished design internally".
with four broad rib-vaulted bays separated from the chancel
by a rood-screen surmounted by a carving depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus
.
The east window, depicting Christ, flanked by the archangels Michael
and Gabriel
, was the first stained-glass window by Frank O. Salisbury
.
The west window was given in 1962, by Hector Young an ex-Mayor of Southampton, in memory of his wife Ethel who was killed in the Blitz
in September 1940. The window, showing the Archangel Michael defeating Satan
, was designed by Francis Skeat
.
and All Saints' Church, Bassett. The Reverend Stephen Holmes was invested as the Priest-in-Charge of the Parish by The Right Reverend The Lord Bishop of Winchester
, Michael Scott-Joynt
, on 16 January 2010. A new Motet
, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon thee", was composed by Roger Steptoe
specially for this occasion. Revd. Holmes was previously Vicar of St. Luke's, Bournemouth.
twice a month. The choir regularly sings at both Winchester Cathedral
and Chichester Cathedral
to cover whilst the respective cathedral choirs are on holiday. It also travels further afield each August for a longer residence at a cathedral.
The church also has a junior choir known as Treble Rebels, for 7 to 16-year-olds, which sings at the All-age Eucharist on the first Sunday of the month. The choir uses the RSCM Voice for Life training scheme to aid the development of the singers. In addition to singing, the choir also has regular half-termly trips.
in 1937, and is a fine example of a four rank extension instrument. It is totally enclosed in two expression chambers on the north side of the choir. The organ's four ranks consist of an Open Diapaison (A), Lieblich Gedact (B), Salicional (C) & Trumpet (D), which are used to create 25 speaking stops over two manuals and pedals. Ranks A&B (largely used on the Great) are within one of the enclosed boxes, and ranks C&D (largely used by the Swell) are within the second box. The specification can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register. The organ was refurbished in 2011 by Griffiths & Co (Organ Builders) Ltd.
Bassett, Southampton
Bassett is a suburb and electoral ward of the City of Southampton, England. The suburb lies to the north of the city centre and is largely residential, including the University of Southampton's Glen Eyre Halls of residence complex, which houses around 2,100 students...
is an Anglican
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....
which dates from the late 19th century.
Location
The church is situated on the eastern side of Bassett Avenue, SouthamptonSouthampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, described by Pevsner & Lloyd as "part of the splendid tree-lined route into Southampton from Winchester, London and the north".
The church is in the parish of North Stoneham
North Stoneham
North Stoneham is a settlement and ecclesiastical parish in south Hampshire, England. It was formerly an ancient estate and manor. Until the nineteenth century, it was a rural community comprising a number of scattered hamlets, including Middle Stoneham, North End, and Bassett Green, and...
and Bassett and has the largest congregation of the three churches in the parish.
Parish
The original parish of North StonehamNorth Stoneham
North Stoneham is a settlement and ecclesiastical parish in south Hampshire, England. It was formerly an ancient estate and manor. Until the nineteenth century, it was a rural community comprising a number of scattered hamlets, including Middle Stoneham, North End, and Bassett Green, and...
can be traced back to the early ninth century when it was known as "Stonam Abbatis" or "Abbots Stoneham" and was attached to 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....
at 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...
. At this time, the parish extended from the River Itchen
River Itchen, Hampshire
The River Itchen is a river in Hampshire, England. It flows from mid-Hampshire to join with Southampton Water below the Itchen Bridge in the city of Southampton. The river has a total length of , and is noted as one of England's - if not one of the World's - premier chalk streams for fly fishing,...
in the east towards Chilworth
Chilworth
Chilworth is a village in Hampshire, UK, very close to the city of Southampton. Good travel connections and restricted development have led to the village becoming particularly affluent...
and Bassett Green
Bassett Green
Bassett Green is a suburb of Southampton, which has grown from the original small village of Basset. It remains part of the electoral ward of Bassett. The area is mainly residential, with a mixture of Herbert Collins-designed houses and recent council built estates known as the Flowers Estate and...
in the west with its neighbouring parish, South Stoneham, to the south and east. After the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution 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...
in the 1540s, the manor was acquired by Thomas Wriothesley
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, KG , known as The Lord Wriothesley between 1544 and 1547, was a politician of the Tudor period born in London to William Wrythe and Agnes Drayton....
, Earl of Southampton
Earl of Southampton
Earl of Southampton was a title that was created three times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1537 in favour of the courtier William Fitzwilliam. He was childless and the title became extinct on his death in 1542. The second creation came in 1547 in favour of the politician...
. In 1599, the Wriothesley family sold the estate to Sir Thomas Fleming
Thomas Fleming (judge)
Sir Thomas Fleming was an English member of Parliament and judge, whose most famous case was the trial of Guy Fawkes in relation to the Gunpowder Plot...
, whose descendants held the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
until 1997.
Until the late nineteenth century, Bassett was part of the parish of North Stoneham, with the rector of St. Nicolas' Church
St. Nicolas' Church, North Stoneham
St. Nicolas' Church is an Anglican parish church at North Stoneham, Hampshire which originated before the 15th century and is known for its "One Hand Clock" which dates from the early 17th century, and also for various memorials to the famous.-Location:...
serving the needs of the entire parish. Revd. Elliott Kenworthy-Browne, the rector of North Stoneham from 1886 to 1912, would often walk over 10 miles a day to meet the needs of his parishioners.
By the mid 1880s, Bassett had grown with many substantial villas occupied by the middle classes; despite having the appearance of a well-to-do suburb of Southampton, Revd. Kenworthy-Browne observed that three-quarters of the population of 800 were poor, chiefly mechanics and labourers.
The parish has since been renamed North Stoneham and Bassett, and encompasses North Stoneham, the whole of Bassett, the portion of Bassett Green north of Bassett Green Road, and the portion of Chilworth within the M3/M27 triangle. The parish also covers Southampton Airport
Southampton Airport
Southampton Airport is the 20th largest airport in the UK, located north north-east of Southampton, in the Borough of Eastleigh within Hampshire, England....
.
Church
When Mr. Kenworthy-Browne came to North Stoneham in 1886, mission services were held in a small coach-house close to the Redhill brickyards. Later, in 1888, a mission room in Winchester Road was opened.A legacy in the will of John Brown Willis Fleming of Stoneham Park, left the plot of land on Bassett Avenue on which the new church was to be built. The new church was designed by Edward Prioleau Warren
Edward Prioleau Warren
Edward Prioleau Warren was a British architect and archaeologist.-Life:He was born at Cotham in Bristol, England on 30 October 1856, as the fifth son of A. W. Warren, JP. He was educated at Clifton College in Bristol, and subsequently articled to G.F. Bodley, whose biography he later wrote...
, with the foundation stone being laid by Violet Fleming on 29 September 1897. The church was built in two stages as the money ran out. Construction was completed in May 1910 by the contractors Messrs. Holloway Bros. of London, the total cost being £4,139. When completed, it was regarded as a quite outstanding example of its kind, and attracted visitors from as far away as America.
By 1934, the church needed to be extended to include an assembly room (currently used as the choir vestry). In 1937 a new altar with oak panelled reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
was added.
In 1962, the church was classified as Grade B status, but in December 1969 this was revised to "Grade II listed".
In 1980, work began on a £13,000 programme of re-roofing and protection of the brickwork from penetration by damp.
In 2011 the victorian church pews were removed and replaced by a more flexible and comfortable system of chairs.
The church exterior
The church exterior, in plain red stock brick with Monks Park stoneBath Stone
Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...
dressings for the doors and windows, slated roof and small bell-turret on its western gable, is not particularly impressive; but with its concrete vaulted roof supported on stone ribs, Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
and Lloyd, in their Buildings of England
Pevsner Architectural Guides
The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. Begun in the 1940s by art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the Buildings of England series were published between 1951 and 1975. The series was then extended to Scotland and...
: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, considered that it has "an intriguing and distinguished design internally".
The church interior
The church has a naveNave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
with four broad rib-vaulted bays separated from the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
by a rood-screen surmounted by a carving depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
.
The east window, depicting Christ, flanked by the archangels 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...
and Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
, was the first stained-glass window by Frank O. Salisbury
Frank O. Salisbury
Francis Owen Salisbury was an English Methodist artist from who specialised in portraits, large canvases of historical and ceremonial events, stained glass and book illustration. In his heyday he made a fortune on both sides of the Atlantic and was known as “Britain’s Painter Laureate”...
.
The west window was given in 1962, by Hector Young an ex-Mayor of Southampton, in memory of his wife Ethel who was killed in the Blitz
Southampton Blitz
The Southampton Blitz was the heavy bombing of Southampton by the Nazi German Luftwaffe during World War II. It was targeted mainly in the first phase of the Blitz....
in September 1940. The window, showing the Archangel Michael defeating Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, was designed by Francis Skeat
Francis Skeat
Francis Walter Skeat is an English glass painter who has created over 400 stained glass windows in churches and cathedrals, both in England and overseas. Skeat is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, and a member of the Art Workers...
.
Worship
St Michael & All Angels church has a middle-to-high, strongly Eucharistic style of worship. It has the largest congregation of the three churches in the parish.Clergy
The clergy are shared between the three churches of the Parish: St. Michael and All Angels, St. NicolasSt. Nicolas' Church, North Stoneham
St. Nicolas' Church is an Anglican parish church at North Stoneham, Hampshire which originated before the 15th century and is known for its "One Hand Clock" which dates from the early 17th century, and also for various memorials to the famous.-Location:...
and All Saints' Church, Bassett. The Reverend Stephen Holmes was invested as the Priest-in-Charge of the Parish by The Right Reverend The Lord Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
, Michael Scott-Joynt
Michael Scott-Joynt
Michael Charles Scott-Joynt is an English ecclesiastic and prelate of the Order of the Garter. He was appointed Bishop of Winchester, one of the five senior bishoprics in the Church of England, in 1995. He had previously served as Bishop of Stafford in the Diocese of Lichfield from 1987 and before...
, on 16 January 2010. A new Motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon thee", was composed by Roger Steptoe
Roger Steptoe
Roger Steptoe is an English composer and pianist born in 1953.Steptoe studied music at the University of Reading before becoming a post-graduate student at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1974 to 1977...
specially for this occasion. Revd. Holmes was previously Vicar of St. Luke's, Bournemouth.
Choir
St. Michael's has long enjoyed a strong choral tradition, which continues to the present day. The main choir is an all-age choir which sings the standard 'cathedral repertoire'. It supports the worship at the Sunday morning Eucharist and sings Choral EvensongEvening Prayer (Anglican)
Evening Prayer is a liturgy in use in the Anglican Communion and celebrated in the late afternoon or evening...
twice a month. The choir regularly sings at both 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 Chichester Cathedral
Chichester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called Chichester Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in Sussex, England...
to cover whilst the respective cathedral choirs are on holiday. It also travels further afield each August for a longer residence at a cathedral.
The church also has a junior choir known as Treble Rebels, for 7 to 16-year-olds, which sings at the All-age Eucharist on the first Sunday of the month. The choir uses the RSCM Voice for Life training scheme to aid the development of the singers. In addition to singing, the choir also has regular half-termly trips.
Organ
The organ was built by Rushworth and DreaperRushworth and Dreaper
Rushworth and Dreaper was a firm of organ builders based in Liverpool, England Upon its bankruptcy, its archives were mostly destroyed, and the Victorian clock in the works tower was removed...
in 1937, and is a fine example of a four rank extension instrument. It is totally enclosed in two expression chambers on the north side of the choir. The organ's four ranks consist of an Open Diapaison (A), Lieblich Gedact (B), Salicional (C) & Trumpet (D), which are used to create 25 speaking stops over two manuals and pedals. Ranks A&B (largely used on the Great) are within one of the enclosed boxes, and ranks C&D (largely used by the Swell) are within the second box. The specification can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register. The organ was refurbished in 2011 by Griffiths & Co (Organ Builders) Ltd.