History of St Mary's
Built of Isle of Wight stone, it is cruciform in shape, with the nave, some 85ft (26m) long slightly wider at the West door. It culminates in the chancel through some beautiful arches, a mark of the Norman masons, each with several stone decorations. They give a wonderful sense of space and openness. These arches are mirrored into the North and South transepts; the last was ruined by the wind and weather and collapsed by the late 16th century. The rebuild shows some of the original dressed (cut) stone, some rough infill and a new, Tudor dated window.
The earliest date we have was when the church was listed in the holdings of the Bishop of Winchester in 1128. The windows, tall, arched, and with stepped footings like several in the contemporary Norman Castle number four in the North wall and originally five in the South facing wall. The one nearest the West door was blocked off to allow the construction of monastic buildings for the Augustinian or Austin canons (or monks) that stretched to the Roman wall. Inside and outside the church is a string course of stone which marked the height of the cloister, built against the outside South wall to create a classical quadrangle of space. Round this, as the monastic plan suggests below, were traditional buildings like the dormitory and study areas.
St Mary’s Parish Church was built within a Roman fort and a trading station and a medieval, Norman Castle.
When Portchester first appeared in local written evidence in 904, the Bishop of Winchester owned the Saxon village and he exchanged land held here for some in Bishops Waltham.
We know that the church was founded by William de Pont de l’Arche by 1128. William was a leading member of the Royal Exchequer to Henry l (1100 -1135) who himself confirmed the foundation in a charter of 1133. It was then that he set up the Priory attached to the church. The church took some three to four years to build in its Norman or Romanesque style.
The West Door entrance includes several Norman styles in stone and some fine, scrolled pillars, reflecting the skills of the Norman masons. Note how the scrolled pillars on the outside fit together, a remarkable achievement. One may also see the semi – circle of rounded signs of the Zodiac, one of which shows a fish on the left-hand side, and Sagittarius with his bow and arrow on the lower right side.
The Middle Ages - From Birth to the Grave
St Mary’s font, carved in stone from Caen, is a wonderful example of complex figures at the top with motifs of humans, animals and nature that were both Jewish and classical in origin. The base is modern and has the design hall-marks of John Colson, a mid-Victorian local church architect.
In medieval times baptism was often on the baby’s birth day and Orme reminds us that the service was in English and that godparents would have been already chosen. The ceremony started at the church door when, by prayer, the baby was rid of earthly sin and then at the font when the naked child was immersed three times into water that had been blessed. The baby was anointed with oil and then dressed, in a white, chrism cloth. The mother returned this when she came to be welcomed back into the church after some 40 days. No fees were paid for baptisms.
Marriage was often between 17 and 25 years as girls reached ‘maidenhood’ at 15 or 16 years. The marriage ceremony was then in three parts. First at the closed church door the couple arrived and faced the door, the man on the right. The priest asked witnesses if there were any reason they should not marry. Precisely the same question is asked when banns are read in church these days. The congregation is asked to voice any opposition there and then. Witnesses confirmed that the couple was not too closely related and were within church laws. They were then led into the decorated church to the altar where vows were exchanged in front of witnesses. In medieval times this was important in cases of a disputed inheritance. A wedding ring was usually given. Finally, about a month later, the couple when in bed were blessed by the cleric.
Most people were buried in ‘cere-cloth’ (a waxed cloth) and laid in the earth; the wealthy paid for a coffin. On the north side of the church are the graves of the canons. There was no standard funeral and burial practice at this time. Orme shows that there was usually a funeral mass and the service was held in the mornings, that candles for the service were donated. Those who died away from the village were returned by the family to the ‘home’ church.
In 1821 church fees were recorded for the first time ever. Burial fees were usually two shillings and six pence (12.5p,) a christening was one shilling (5p) and a marriage was four shillings (20p).
The Ministry Between 1805 - 1884
Revd Thomas Longlands was vicar at St Mary’s 1805-1856 while managing to be also vicar in Clanfield, Essex from 1810-1822 for which he had the bishop’s permission for only some of this time, and at Damerham, Wiltshire from 1822-1850; travel must have been a burden. He had a farm up The Hill and glebe land too. His memorial is on the North side of the Church. In his will, as the longest serving vicar in the church’s history, he wanted all his papers destroyed. One legacy was the silver communion set given to the church after some 40 years’ service.
Revd Charles Robert Butler’s father was a colonel and magistrate in Hambledon and Charles was the fourth child, born in 1804. After his BA at Oxford in 1827 raised to MA in 1831 he later served at Catherington from 1831, arriving here unmarried as vicar at St Mary’s after Longlands. He served from 1857 to 1870. (His elder brother Stephen was a vicar.)
Revd Edward William Milner, a Londoner, married the daughter of a vicar, one of his sons became a vicar and Edward himself was the brother of a vicar! He saw service as a chaplain to the forces from 1842 until 1867and served as vicar at St Mary’s from 1870 to 1876. He died in 1886 and left £19,705 – a substantial legacy. Much of his income – perhaps £180 a year – came from tithes rather than his stipend.
Revd Thomas Knight followed from 1876 to 1884, the tail end of the Tractarian Movement. He was the son of a vicar, graduated as BA in 1843 from Cambridge and served as a teacher in Portsmouth. He married, had six children and in the 1881 Census was alone in the Portchester vicarage while his wife and younger children lodged in Lennox Road, Southsea. Thomas retired to Festing Road, Southsea and died in 1898 leaving an estate of nearly £23,000.
These profiles show how some Victorian sons followed their fathers’ calling, how local several were, and how very wealthy at least two of them were.
Maintenance of the Church Fabric
Most pews were boxed with six people to a pew, eight feet long (2.5m). The presence of the King’s German Regiment is likely to have precipitated an increase in church attendance and the need for the gallery.
In 1843 the belfry roof needed repair, the bells were re-hung and a new weather vane was fitted for some £16. Windows were broken frequently between 1842 and 1859; on ten occasions in fact.
The screen between the nave and the chancel through which those taking communion, walked, was oiled and grained, and church walls were cleaned in mid – century. When in 1864 a new vestry was built to Mr John Colson’s design this allowed many new pews to be put in the North transept in a reorganisation that created 60 extra seats for Sunday School children, by moving the old pulpit to the south side. The harmonium was replaced in the 1860s when a new pipe organ was bought. Musicians in a new gallery built in the west end of the nave allowed 64 worshippers and musicians to accompany hymns. The steps up were on the South side of the church. This gallery was removed in 1888.
Church Life In The Late Victorian Times
From 1541 to 1865 the right to nominate a clergyman to St Mary’s was held by the crown and this right was then bought by the Thistlethwayte family. Thomas Thistlethwaite proved a friend of the church in the 1840s. A Sunday School, set up in 1838 by the Church and staffed by members, proved popular. By 1864 children were expected to attend church and George Hatcher, a local blacksmith, was paid to supervise them (1865 – 1871) from the Sunday School that met in the Guard’s hut outside the Land Gate. The churchwardens re-arranged pews for 60 children in Church.
Castle Street School began in 1873, cost £970 and was for 174 scholars and soon became free and compulsory by 1901. A school house was provided and numbers in 1885 were 107, 130 by 1895, and 156 in 1899.
The first head-master was Richard Bennetts, aged 22 years, well known for his use of the cane, was a very active churchman, served on the new Parish Council in the village and was the choirmaster at St Mary’s for many years. His considerable contributions to Church life were recognised when Richard died in 1983. A memorial reading desk dedicated to him is still used in the Church.
The Ministry 1898-1998
The first vicar in the twentieth century was Revd John Henderson, vicar from 1898 to 1904, the son of a distinguished academic, William George. His second son was John who matriculated at Oxford in 1877 and attended Leeds Clergy School. John was a curate in Portsea 1882 to 1883 and vicar at St Mary’s from 1898 to 1904. The Census of 1901 records him unmarried aged 44 years in Churchill Cottage, Portchester.
Next we meet Revd Francis Sibree who was born and grew up in Painswick in Gloucestershire where he excelled with academic and sporting achievements. Ordained aged 36 as Deacon in 1896, he served in Gloucester Cathedral in 1898, later in Southsea, and was appointed by Alexander Thistlethwayte as vicar of St Mary’s from 1904 to 1912. Sibree married twice, had no children, was a motoring enthusiast (the law in 1904 allowed cars to travel up to 20 mph!) and died in 1936.
Revd Henry Fry’s son, Eric K Fry, who served in the Great War, was vicar from 1915 to 1923 and it was during his time that the Convocations of the Church at York and Canterbury passed Rules for the Representation of the Laity – ordinary church members – that gave legal status to PCCs in all parish churches, including of course St Mary’s. A PCC was seen – and still is – as an executive committee of the church to maintain its buildings, to superintend its financial affairs and to promote the mission or message of the church. Membership included the vicar, churchwardens, and notably the laity – church members.
Revd William F Cowley Turland, the next vicar from 1923 – 1932 had an unusual background. He was the son of a Unitarian minister and worked as a draper he was a draper in Cheltenham when aged 19 years. He became a Unitarian minister himself from 1895 to 1914. From about 1917, when he trained for the Anglican Church he had posts in four churches before he came to Portchester. At this time electric lighting was installed, 1932 -1933, the Sunday School met in the parish hall, women’s meetings in the church flourished from the 1920s including a Mothers’ Union.
Revd Cyril Spinney, vicar from 1932 to 1955, was born in Dorset in 1892 to the village postmaster and he became a pupil teacher in 1911 and then a qualified schoolmaster. In 1920 he began training in Sarum (Salisbury) Theological College and was ordained in Portsea at St Mary’s in 1923. He was a very popular curate at St Faith’s in Havant and some many supporters came to his induction here at St Mary’s. His popularity continued in the village as he became integrated into many aspects of public life.
Revd Christopher Cardale, served in such a national society when Portchester’s population was then about 14,000 in number. Born to Revd Roger Cardale in Hambledon he attended Oxford and gained his BA in 1931 and his Cambridge MA in 1938 following his ordination in 1933. He gained a Rugby Blue at Oxford and turned out for Blackheath Rugby Club. He played cricket for Leeds Cricket Club and Portchester Cricket Club; when in a home game team in the Castle grounds on a Saturday his gear was worn ready under his hassock after taking a marriage service. Susan Hubbard recalls that he once forgot a booked wedding and had to be recalled from the pitch! The ‘Vic’ became very popular. His induction was witnessed by over 300 parishioners.
The son of a Midlands doctor Revd Michael Thomas studied medicine at Cambridge for several years when his Christian life was changed by a remarkable fellow student, David Sheppard at Trinity Hall – an active Christian, who became the Bishop of Woolwich and Bishop of Liverpool.
The Vicarage at 164A and 164B was in a poor condition with cockroaches and damp when he and his wife Anahid arrived. (Some 35 households had no bath and 158 no inside toilet in the 1971 Portchester Census.) Soon a new vicarage was built by the Diocese on the north side of 164A, a rather plain and disappointing design in a road of many distinctive buildings.
Closing the church? Expansion in fact!
The Diocese suggested that the future of the Church building would best be served by handing it over to the Ministry of Public Works and Buildings to look after in 1971. This horrified Revd Michael and the members; steps were taken to improve the appearance of the building, to make it more welcoming.
In 1974 a new room was built as a robing area and space for some Sunday School work with toilet facilities on the South side of the Church with access through a medieval doorway. This has proved an excellent asset. Planning for this may have been helped by a St Mary’s churchwarden, Capt. John Grindle JP who was chairman of Fareham Borough Council at the time.
Soon after, teas were regularly sold – re-starting an older tradition – from what is now the ‘Tea Room’ and profits went to pay the annual salary of a theatre sister at a Christian Health Centre in Nigeria. The Church had several links to Christian groups in Africa and this helped the Church to spread the Good News of the love of God to that continent.
Church Initiatives
Revd Michael Cooper, the son of an architect, read History at Lampeter in Wales and trained at Westcott House in Cambridge for the ministry. His first Curacy was at Farlington from 1965 to 1969 where he met his wife, Lesley. From 1970 to 1972 he served in West Pakistan as an assistant priest in Lahore Cathedral and then for nearly two years in Mauritius. His next calling was to North Hayling from 1974 to 1981 and then to Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight, 1981-1992. This was followed for six years at Hart Plain from 1992 when Revd Michael came to St Mary’s within an evangelical and charismatic tradition from 1998 to 2006.
He started a Men’s Breakfast at St Mary’s that has since flourished and, with his support in 2000 young mothers, set up St Mary’s Lambs, a successful, popular and free Toddler Group. The curate, Revd Sandy Matheson, who continued his training for two years at St Mary’s, suggested and started a Schools’ Assembly Team telling Bible stories to children; the RE curriculum was becoming more multi-faith. Their first school was in Northern Junior in 2003 where Sandy’s daughter taught music.
Revd Charlie Allen was the youngest and the first female vicar in St Mary’s history. Born in Yorkshire she read Theology at Durham and was trained at the University of Cambridge for the priesthood. Her first appointment was to a church in Brighton.
Revd Charlie laid some foundations that have lasted. First, she had a new church logo designed, featuring the sea; secondly her Church Mission Statement is still the weekly ‘motto’ of St Mary’s Church; third, she began a free Christmas Day dinner with ‘all the trimmings’ for those on their own at Christmas in the Church and open to local villagers in 2009. On her initiative the facilities in the Tea Room were improved to make it accessible on a daily basis with volunteers and cake/scone/sandwich and salad providers at this time.
Revd Ian Meredith began his career as a psychiatric nurse in the 1970s in Paisley and in Hertfordshire hospitals in the 1980s. He gained a BA Hons in Theology from Spurgeon’s College, London, an M.Th in Church History from King’s College, University of London and then an M.Th in Pastoral Theology from New College, University of Edinburgh. His PhD from the University of Durham makes him the most academic incumbent ever in St Mary’s!
He served as a Minister in the Presbyterian/URC Church (United Reformed Church) from 1987-2000 and in the Anglican ministry as an Associate Rector in Dumfries 2002-2006, as an assistant priest in the Annandale Group of Parishes 2006-2007 and Team Rector of South Ayrshire 2007-2013, when he came to Portchester in March, 2013.
Ian quickly learned the names and details of all church members and those attenders not on the Electoral Roll. He started a regular Keeping in Touch newsletter to keep members abreast of new developments, hopes and ambitions for the church that has proved a very worthwhile publication.
War Memorial In 2019
The 1914-1918 War Memorial on the North wall of the Church shows that 33 men, the vast majority local, lost their lives – another Portchester man was buried at Delhi, India. Five alone died on 31 May, 1916 at the Battle of Jutland. The horrors of the War were well-known to the congregation and village families at St Mary’s. There are some 33 Imperial (Commonwealth) Graves Commission headstones in the churchyard that relate to both World Wars. A list had been compiled of the 143 military lives from Portchester that were lost in World War 11, 1939-1945, and some 12 civilians who died. These military names were inscribed on brass panels surrounded by a wooden frame, matching the 1914-1918 memorial. Richard Andrews, a retired cabinet maker and churchwarden, matched the fine, new frame in style, timber and finish.
The following text have been published with the consent of Bryan Jerrard, the author of ‘900 years of service’ and most of the illustrations from Paul Woodman and the Portchester Civic Society’s Collection.