Parish Church of St Magdalene

Details

LYMINGTON

693/13/144 CHURCH LANE 22-DEC-1953 NEW MILTON (East side) PARISH CHURCH OF ST MAGDALENE (Formerly listed as: OLD MILTON ROAD NEW MILTON PARISH CHURCH OF ST MAGDALENE)

GV II

Church. Sited off the Christchurch Road in a large churchyard. The tower is thought to be early C17; the nave is of 1831-2 in a simple Gothick style by William Hiscock; the chancel was added in 1928 and the Lady Chapel in 1958, both by Sir Howard Robertson, in a modernised Georgian style.

MATERIALS: Grey limestone ashlar tower; English bond brick nave with some burnt headers; English bond brick chancel and Lady chapel; pantile roof to Lady Chapel, other roofs slate.

PLAN: W tower/porch flanked by later stair cell (S) and boiler room (N). Aisleless nave with 4-bay Lady Chapel on N side; S transept containing chapel and organ chamber, chancel; NE vestry.

EXTERIOR: Long and low externally with a shallow-pitched nave roof with large ventilators along the ridge. Squat 2-stage W tower with embattled parapet with classical corner pinnacles and low octagonal lead-covered structure on the roof. The tower has diagonal brick buttresses, presumably of 1831-2, and a triangular arched W doorway with a deep chamfer and carved spandrels. Above the C19 plank- and-cover-strip door is a 4-light overlight with an arched head and hoodmould. Small round-headed belfry windows in shallow rectangular recesses. To N and S of the door are brick blocks with lean-to roofs against the tower walls; these have Y-tracery 2-light W windows and tall brick parapets. The N block may be earlier than the S, judging from a c1832 watercolour in the church, and the upper parts of the S block appears to have been rebuilt. The nave is buttressed and has deep eaves and 2-light windows with Y-tracery. The 1928 S transept has 2 gables with patterned brick panels below the windows. The chancel has a simplified Diocletian S window and a blind E wall with a round-headed recess. NE vestry with a plain brick parapet and E and N doors. The chancel S windows rise above the vestry and are semi-circular. The 1958 Lady Chapel has large arched windows with two transoms and intersecting tracery in the heads. Round-headed brick doorway in W end.

INTERIOR: Plain interior with whitened walls. The nave has a shallow segmental arched ceiling with a moulded cornice. The 1928 E end is architecturally successful. It has a triple round-headed arcade across the chancel with plain arches carried on plain piers. Open timber chancel screen with turned balusters defining the bays and an upper frieze of turned balusters. Canted ceiling to choir. The sanctuary has a low transverse tunnel vault. The E wall has a round-headed moulded frame containing a cross and is panelled below the cross. Tiled sanctuary steps; simple timber and wrought iron sanctuary rails. Large cornice below high-set N windows. 3-bay white-painted brick arcade into Lady Chapel, with chamfered piers and double-chamfered round-headed arches. The Lady Chapel has a barrel vault with transverse ribs and paved floor. W end gallery on timber posts, the frontal with fielded panels. Polygonal timber pulpit, dated 1886, with blind traceried sides and a wineglass stem stem. 1887 font with octagonal stone bowl with carved sides on a cylindrical stem encircled with arcading on shafts. 1920s choir stalls with fielded panelled ends and frontals with a cornice. Nave benches with rounded, shouldered ends. 1880s brass lectern with angel pinnacles to the standards. Monument in tower to Thomas White, d 1720, a large white marble kneeling figure in a niche.

The stained glass borders and painted glass in the head tracery of the N wall of the nave are probably 1831-2. Hardman stained glass was recycled from the C19 E window into 1928 S window of the chancel. Framed relief in chancel, probably 1920s, signed by Evelyn Beale. A plaque in the gallery on the E wall of the tower has the numbers 9 and 5 and reference to churchwardens. A watercolour of the church in 1832 kept in the church shows the stair block to S of the tower not built. There is a photograph showing the E end in 1910.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The church is of special interest for its C17 tower, late Georgian nave and good quality E end additions of 1928 and 1958 by Sir Howard Robertson.

SOURCES: Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1967, p 337

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

410233

Legacy System:

LBS

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