St Saviours

The Church of St. Saviour's is a chapel-of-ease to the Parish Church of St. Nicholas. The latter, mentioned briefly in the Domesday Book, lies S.E. of the railway level crossing on the Lyndhurst - Lymington road and is of great historic interest.

The Story of St. Saviour's

The Lord of the Manor and Patron of the Living, Mr. John Morant of Brockenhurst Park, suggested a new Church, with School, for the Parish in 1876. Nothing came of this however but some twenty years later the Walker-Munro family of Rhincfield House started to build St. Saviour's.

They first thought of building a private chapel at Rhinefield but then the Vicar, the Rev Rupert Pain, suggested building it in the village, perhaps fore-seeing its use for the Parish. It was built between 1895 and 1903. The Rev: Arthur Chambers, well-known for his writings on the spiritual life, was then Vicar.

The Walker-Munro family would issue forth from Rhinefield House on Sunday mornings in a carriage, followed by a wagonette seating their senior staff. Local ladies formed an unrobed Choir for the Services at Christmas, Easter and during the holidays; the rest of the year the Church was shut.

The 'private chapel character' began to fade alter World War 1. A minute of the P.C.C. (Jail: 1920) stated that, while Mrs. Walker-Munro paid the fees of assistant clergy, their rail and hotel expenses were paid from a fund set up by the Vicar, the Rev: Cecil Hope-Gill.

A deed conveying St. Saviour's Church to the Ecclesiastical (now Church) Commissioners was deposited in Winchester Diocesan Registry in February 1922. St. Saviour's then became part and parcel of the Parish of Brockcnhurst though it was only licensed for the services of Holy Communion and the Solemnisation of Holy Matrimony. It was felt desirable that the Church, if it was to be used by the Parish, should be properly consecrated. This ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev: Theodore Woods, D.D., when the Rev: W.A. Haslam M.A. was instituted as Vicar on March 1st. 1928.

 The west end of the nave was short of its fifth bay, shown on the original plans with a tower, and had been given a temporary wall. It remained like this until, by the generosity of the donors' four grandsons, particularly Mr. Michael Walker-Munro, work was begun in 1960 on the west end and the fifth bay was completed the following year. The bodies of the donors were removed from the unconsecrated ground in which they had been buried near Obcr Farm and placed in the Church.

The extension was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev: Faulkner Allison D.D., on June 4th. 1961. Finally, the Churchyard was extended to Rhinefield Road in 1979 by a generous gift of land by the executors of the late Mrs. Mabel Walker-Munro. A Garden of Remembrance had been created under the East window in 1964 for the burial of ashes for regular worshippers at St. Saviour's and a book of Remembrance is kept in the Church.

The Walker-Munro Family.

 

The tombs of Lieut.-Commander Edward Lionel Walker-Munro and his wife, Mabel Zoe, arc at the north-west comer of the Church, screened by an iron grille. Edward Lionel Munro was the second son of Sir Campbell, Munro, 3rd. Baronet. Lt. Comdr. Munro served in the Khartoum Expedition 1895 and was wounded and mentioned in dispatches. He also served in World War I.

He married the only child and heiress of Thomas Walker Esq. of Eastwood Hall near Nottingham and assumed, by royal licence, the additional name of Walker. The crests on the wall tablet are those of Munro of Lindertis and of Walker of Eastwood (top right). In the Munro crest a medal hangs by a ribbon from the neck of the eagle. This is a representation of the medal presented to the First Baronet for his services at the capture of Seringapatam in 1799.

The Building

St. Saviour's is a remarkable example of late Victorian Gothlic architecture. During the nineteenth century there was, for a variety of reasons, such a fervent admiration of the Gothic style that it was not only studied but
reproduced. St. Saviour's has nearly all the characteristics of the ecclesiastical buildings of the mid-fourteenth century when European architecture had reached the height of development in the Decorated style. The architects of St. Saviour's were Messrs: Romaine-Walker and Bessant of Old Bond St:. London. A lengthy report of the opening service in 1905, conducted by the Rural Dean, The Rev: F.H. Bowden-Smith (of the family connected with Careys) appeared in the Hampshire Advertiser. It slated that the Church was built "externally of Swanage stone with Bath stone dressings" and that the roof was "covered with Purbeck stone tiling". The interior was of "Sussex sandstone" and much of the building was "executed by Mr. Munro's own staff".

Externally, the East end is dominated by the window of five lights with reticulated tracery. This is flanked by pairs of comer buttresses set at right angles and pinnacled by crocheted spires. Above the south aisle may be seen a romantic turret with an ornamented pinnacle over a doorway giving access to the roof.

The porch entrance arch

The porch entrance arch (S.W.) is a particularly graceful expression of the Decorated style.Internally, the Church is of noble proportions lighted by the large traceried windows in the aisles.

The lofty arches of the nave arcade arc supported by banded clusters of pillars on octagonal bases. It is to be regretted that the capitals were left unfinished without sculptured ornamentation. The cast ends of the aisles are used as side chapels; that on the north side being a children's corner and that on the south being a memorial to those whose names arc recorded on the Roll of Honour. Behind the south chapel is the double arch of the lobby to the clergy vestry.

The Interior of St Saviours Church

 On the north side is the choir vestry with circular window. On each side of the chancel arch is a small archway with pillared sides and four plain cusps at the heads. Over each arch is a bold corbel beneath an ornately canopied niche.

The long panel forming the chancel arch is filled with an arabesque. The two corbels projecting from the side would have been the supports for a rood beam in a medieval church. In a recess on the south side of the Sancturary are three sedilia on different levels - seats for celebrant, deacon and sub-deacon in the traditional liturgy. The two archways mentioned before give access to stone spiral staircases leading to the galleries and also to the roofs over the aisles. These "striking galleries", divided into three bays with polished columns, are mentioned by Dr. (afterwards Sir) Nikolaus Pevsner in the Hampshire Volume (1967) of the 'Buildings ot England' series. He calls them "the one distinguishing motif of the Church"!

Painting inside the church

With regard to fittings and furniture, most has been provided by generous gifts, or in memory of loved ones and former parishioners. In the east window is the only stained glass in the Church, a beautifully coloured representation of the Transfiguration of Christ, with the arms of the see of Canterbury on one side and those of Winchester on the other. It was designed by A.F. Erridge and executed by J. Wippell and Co. This window is a memorial window. Other memorials include the Portland stone floor of the Sanctuary; the communion rails; the clergy and choir stalls; the two hymn boards in the north aisle; the font cover, the pews at the west end; the picture on the west wall (a copy of Gerard von Honthorst's "Adoration of the Shepherds"); the processional crosses; the standard candlesticks; the crucifix on the memorial altar; chairs; tables and other accoutrements.

The Church Hall, adjoining the west end of the Church, was built in 1987 and dedicated by the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev: Colin James. on December 10th. 1987. It replaced a wooden hut which had been erected there in 1956 with a stated life of 10 years' The firm proposal to build a new hall was passed in 1984 and the money raised, in various ways, by the Parish. The architect was Roger Bradley, A.R.I.B.A., of the Sawyer Partnership, Winchester, and the builders were W. Hayward and Sons of Shirley, Southampton.