St Catherine's Church

There has been a church at Littleton for about a thousand years and it was described as a small 11th century building that consisted of a Nave, Chancel, North Aisle and a South porch, and it is believed that the present church resembles the old building though there has been a lot of restoration work and no Saxon work remains.

The South Porch		The Pubeck Marble Font

Entering the church is  from the South Door which is built of brick and flint in 1870. Nearby can be seen the fine Norman font which is made of Purbeck marble and has faces cared on the bowl. It stands on its original base and centre column and has four detached corner shafts that is similar to the Tournai font which stands in nearby Winchester Cathedral. The cover to the font was made during the 19th century from quatrefoil panelling of the medieval rood screen at Longparish which was demolished in 1860.

The interior of the charch showing the chancel arch and the squint either side

One of the first things that is noticed is the non alignment of the chancel to the nave, it is inclined north as was usual in many of the early churches and it is thought that the nave represents the body and the chancel the head of Christ that is leaning to one side of the cross.

A deeply splayed south wall window points to Norman origins but the lancet window was put in during the 13th century. Covered by carpet and west of the chancel arch are two small brasses set in a slab of limestone covering a grave which commemorates John Smythe who died in 1505. He was a tenant farmer of the Priory estate and his wife Alicia, who died in 1493

The original chancel arch was tall and narrow and had a circular head and on each side of the old arch is a squint cut to allow more of the congregation to see the altar. Only the base of the Norman arch to the south that has a small roll worked on the angle is all that is visible of the original church.

During the latter part of the 19th century the church fell into a bad state of disrepair and work was done to reconstruct the chancel arch. To the south west of the chancel arch there is a quatrefoil which was excavated from the school yard along with another piece of carved stonework, in 1974. The south windows in the chancel are probably of Norman origin with a  later Early English wide splayed single lancet window  and narrow trefoiled single light window to the west.

To the south of the altar is a piscina set in a niche which probably replaced the original 13th century one and this is still used today.

The east window was replaced during the 15th century by a squareheaded one that has five trefoiled lights and in 1885 the window was restored and altered by the addition of a pointed arch that has modern tracery.

To the west of the organ there are not one but two Archbishops of Rangoons signatures carved on stone, the first carved in 1986 with the other in 1988 by his successor.

It is thought that the first alterations to the Norman church was the construction of a north aisle during the 12th century and the arcade along with two bays inserted at the same time. During restoration work in 1885-86 signs were found of an original Norman arch and during the laying of the foundations for the new aisle others were found.

It is believed also that the present columns, constructed of Bath stone are reproductions of the original Norman columns and that the stones are original.

The roof of the north aisle contains old oak timbers and parts of the 18th century roof trusses are believed to be still there.

Sculpture inside the church

In 1974 a fire caused considerable damage to the vestry and part of the north aisle that leads to the vestry. These have now been repaired to their original state.

Between the north aisle and vestry is a board which records "a donation of Ten Pounds left to the inhabitants of Littleton by persons unknown which was deposited in the Winchester Savings Bank by Sir  T. F. Heathcote Bart, on the 2nd. Day of August 1824 - the church wardens and overseers to be trustees the Interest to be expended (sic) and distributed in Bread".

The donation is recorded in returns to Parliament in 1786 and it was claimed that the donor was a William Fitter, who owned a strip of land near to the churchyard and who was buried in Littleton.

The window in the west end of the church has a rounded head and is a copy of the original one. The arched recesses for the bells dated 1897 is also a replacement for a similar pair that once stood there. The bells have a peal of 6, and were hung in 1937 in memory of Arthur Elliot Deane.

The one thing that is significant is the construction of a gallery at the western end of the church, this was built in 1994 and replaced a gallery that was built in 1817, that was demolished in 1885

In the churchyard to the south west there standing against the wall is a tombstone  for "Temperrences, the wife of Richard Fiffild of Head Borin Worthy who dyed Octo 13th 1689 aged 85 yeares".  This was found in the old stoke hole of the church and the name Temperrences seems to be unusual but maybe reflects the times of the Puritans

The dedication of the church is to St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr,and in 1886 there was another refence to St Mary, meaning St Mary Magdalen, and in 1379 there is a poll tax roll indicating that the church was once dedicated to St Katherine. The Benedictine monks of St Swithuns Priory celebrated St Catherine's Day on 25th November and the Sacristan's roll of 1492 shows that the monks celebrated a banquet of Moile, which was hot bread and dripping, 144 eggs, delicate nombles of venison, beef, mutton and iced cakes. The ministrants had calves' feet and the hostiller had 8d, allowed for wine.


The legend surrounding St Catherine who is the patron saint of spinsters, is  well known and unsubstantiated. She is reputed  to have
defied the emperor Maxentius efforts to break down her faith; and an attempt was made to destroy her on a spiked wheel (the Catherine wheel). This is thought to have happened in 307 A.D., and a corpse discovered on Mount Sinai early in the 9th. century was regarded as hers after it had been carried there by angels following her death. Hence the link with churches on prominent sites.

Although there is evidence that a church once stood on the existing site for over a millennium the village name is of Saxon origins, "ton" coming from a farmstead and later a village. There is an entry in the Domesday Book that implies that there was a church at Littleton in Saxon times, and that it was one of the nine churches in the Manor of Chilcombe, itself a gift to the Minster at Winchester in 635 from the Saxon King of Wessex, Cynegils.

In 1171 Henri de Blois,the Bishop of Winchester, ordered under charter that
"the appropriations of churches to the sacrist and the Hospitallers of Jerusalem shall continue as they have been assigned; .... the church of Littletone for the reception of guests ..."

This meant that all monies from the church were payable to the Guestmaster at St Swithun's Priory who used them for the entertainment of his guests that included pilgrims to the shrine at St Swithuns. There were also supplies of dairy products as well as grain, stock and poultry delivered on a regular basis to the Priory and these were recorded in the manorial reeve. This was confirmed by Pope Innocent lll in 1205 and then again by Pope Innocent lV in 1243.

When Walter Raynold who was Archbishop of Canterbury visited Winchester Catheral in 1323 it was reported that " he has examined the documents of the prior and chapter which they produced to him concerning the appropriation of the churches of Wottone and Littletone, and their receipt of pensions, portions and particular tithes ..... which they claim they have a right to receive in the aforesaid diocese and finds them satisfactory."

It was not long afterwards that the Plague (Black Death) came to England in 1348. The Black Death struck the village of Littleton in 1364 and this brought great hardship and also left smaller numbers of survivors to till and cultivate the land and resulted in the parishioners being unable to pay their manorial dues. In March 1373 Bishop William of Wykeham licensed John Hyde, the Monk-Guestmaster of St. Swithun's Priory "to hear confessions and administer the Eucharist at Littleton during Lent and Easter because, owing to the depression of the times, the parishioners could not afford a chaplain". This licence was
renewed annually until 1379.

Following the upheaval of the Reformation, the Manor ofLittleton was granted by Letters Patent of Henry VIII in 1541 to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester Cathedral.

Chaplains, and later perpetual curates, were nominated by the Prior before the dissolution of the monasteries and afterwards by the Dean and Chapter, and licensed by the Bishop. Nominations to the perpetual curacy appear regularly in the Chapter-books of the Cathedral from 1726 onwards, usually of minor canons, who held it along with their minor canonry. The last was F. T. Madge in December 1890. The first vicar, the Rev. A.G. Garland, was appointed in 1871. On 6 July 1909 the London Gazette recorded the exchange of the patronage of the benefice of Hunton for that of Littleton , and subsequently Littleton was joined to Crawley with the first Recotor of the united parishes being appointed in 1918. By the late 1980s the Rector had also been appointed Vicar of
St. Stephen's at Sparsholt with Lainston, reflecting the shortage of clergy, yet opening the way for greater community of worship among the three parishes.

(Text based on "St Catherine's Church Littleton: A Guide and History" prepared by the Littleton Local History Group, written by Graham Davies)