THE HISTORY - The parish church of St. Mary came into
existence when the parish of South Baddesley was formed
out of Boldre parish in 1858. At that time a small chapel
that had stood on this site for about forty years was
enlarged to form the present church. This smaller chapel
was itself the successor to an earlier building very near
to Pylewell House that was demolished in 1819; and that
chapel, built in or about 1731, replaced an ancient
chapel dating back to the 14th Century. Our story starts
then with the origin of this medieval building.
Tradition has it that the Knights Templar,
and later the Knights of St. John, owned a preceptory at
South Baddesley; but there appears to be no evidence for
this. On the contrary, it seems clear that the story
arises from a confusion between South and North
Baddesley, where a preceptory certainly did exist.
Moreover, our knowledge of the history of South Baddesley
chapel, which can reliably be traced back to the early
years of the 14th Century, does not seem compatible with
the presence here of military knights. For it is known
that in 1316 Henry de Welles, Lord of the Manor, applied
for permission to build a chapel at South Baddesley on
the grounds that it was so difficult for the parishioners
to make the three mile journey to church at Boldre over
bad roads. This chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was
built by 1329, and included a chantry where Mass was said
for the soul of the founder.
A century later, in 1429, the
advowson, which implies the right to appoint the priest,
was said to belong to John Lisle, Lord of the Manor of
South Baddesley; but by the reign of Edward Vl (1547-1553)
this right seems to have been lost, for in 1546 a survey
reported that Nicholas Barnard, Vicar of Boldre, was
acting as Chantry Priest at South Baddesley. At this time
the endowment was valued at £4. 2s. 9d., of which the
inhabitants were paying £2. 2s. 8d. 'of their only good
will to have ministration there'.
It has been suggested that, at the
time of the Reformation in the 16th Century, the role of
South Baddesley chapel as a chantry gave the excuse for
its endowment to be seized by the Crown; but for whatever
reason the building then fell into decay, and it was not
until the 18th Century that the chapel was rebuilt. By
this time the Pylewell estate and the Lordship of the
Manor of South Baddesley were in the hands of the Worsley
family, who had also held the Baronetcy of Appeldurcombe
in the Isle of Wight since 1611. A conveyance of 1741 by
James Worsley, later to be the 5th Baronet, states,
whereas the said James Worsley at his own costs and
charges have lately erected and built at South Baddesley
within the parish of Boldre a chapel - and has also set
up and erected convenient pews and seats within the same
for the more commodious attending of divine service and
to the end that the said chapel may be supplied by
persons of learning and good life'.
This chapel was built on a slight
mound about 130 yards north west of Pylewell House,
probably very near the site of the ancient chapel. The
Worsley chapel may well have been erected in 1731, for
that is the date of our church bell, perhaps the only
surviving relic from the old chapel. We know that in 1741
the chapel was endowed with an annuity, 'charged on
certain lands at Baddesley, of £12 to keep the chapel
and pews or seats in repair, to find books for the
minister and clerk, a surplice for the minister, and the
residue to the minister for the time being.
Occupiers of seats had to raise a
total of £10 yearly, and those who paid most had the
best seats. If the £10 was not raised, the minister was
not required to perform any services. Service was only
once a day on Sundays.
The Pylewell estate remained in the
hands of the Worsley family until 1781, when it was sold
by the 7th Baronet to Ascanius William Senior. He in turn
sold it in 1787 to Thomas Robbins, whose name appears as
the owner on Milne's map of 1791 (q.v.). In 1801 it was
acquired by a celebrated Roman Catholic family, when
Thomas Weld bought the estate for his son, Joseph.
Joseph Weld achieved national fame
as a yachtsman, and was a founder member of the Royal
Yacht Squadron. A distinguished designer of yachts,
including the Arrow, the Alarm and the Lulworth, he has
been described as 'the father of yachting' and was one of
the founders of the sport at Lymington. It was no doubt
this strong interest that brought him to Pylewell, and
some of the boats that he made famous were partly built
at Pylewell Hard on the Solent shore of the estate. He
maintained a Roman Catholic priest for his private chapel
within the house, and his son, also called Joseph, was
later responsible for building the Roman Catholic church
in Lymington, the architect being Joseph Hansom, the
designer of the Hansom cab.
In about 1818 there began at
PylewelI a major programme of improvements to the house
and grounds. It was the fashion of the time that every
country house worthy of note must enjoy the privacy of
its own parkland. To create such a park it was necessary
to move the village of South Baddesley from the site it
then occupied 400 yards north of Pylewell House, to
demolish Baddesley Manor, the old manor house that stood
near the centre of the village alongside Dodd's Pond, and
to move the Lymington to East End road from the front of
Pylewell House to its present route at the northern
boundary of the park.
The villagers were rehoused, a new
chapel was built for them on the site of our present
church, and the Worsleys' chapel was demolished. For this
purpose a faculty was required from the Bishop of
Winchester. This faculty refers to a 'chapel of ease in
the parish of Boldre built for the convenience of the
Parishioners, a plain rectangular brick building 44 feet
by 20 feet in the clear, exclusive of the belfry'. The
Bishop seems to have had doubts whether the new building
would be of greater convenience to the parishioners, but
the observers whom he sent to South Baddesley,
discovering no doubt that the village had already been
moved, reported back that it would indeed be so.
The new building was still at this
stage only a chapel, the minister being prohibited from
performing any of the sacraments there. The chapel was
assigned by deed of gift in 1819 by Joseph Weld to the
Revd. Henry Adams of Beaulieu, son of the Master Builder
at Buckler's Hard. There is at certain irony in the fact
that this appointment was made by a Roman Cathoilc even
before the main Act of Catholic Emancipation passed
through Parliament in 1829; indeed it is doubtful whether
to this day a Catholic may lawfully present or nominate
to a benefice in the Church of England.
Forty years later, in 1858, the new
chapel was to become a parish church for the first time.
By then Pylewell was the property of William Peere
Williams-Freeman, who enlarged the chapel by adding a
chancel and transepts to make the present cruciform
shape, and endowed it as the parish church of South
Baddesley, East End and Norley Wood - an ecclesiastical
parish formed from the civil parish of Boldre. The first
incumbent was Josiah Norton, the parish register dates
from 1858, and the first burial took place in the same
year. For almost a century South Baddesley had a vicar
with no other parish in his charge, until, in 1954, the
benefice was united with East Boldre. More recently, in
1982, a restructuring of neighbouring parishes led to the
joining of South Baddesley with Boldre, also as a 'united
benefice', i.e. as two independent parishes in the charge
of a single vicar.
Meanwhile, the Pylewell estate
together with the lordship of the manor had passed after
the death of Williams-Freeman in 1874 to the Whitaker
family. The first William Ingham Whitaker came here in
1875. He built the village hall opposite the school which
had been built earlier by Williams-Freeman, and provided
generously in his will for the maintenance of the church.
His son, the second William Ingham Whitaker, also took a
strong interest in South Baddesley church, and his
grandson, the third William Ingham Whitaker, was
churchwarden here for fifty years. He died a bachelor in
1988, and was succeeded by his nephew, the twentieth
Baron Teynham.
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The brass lectern |
THE FABRIC AND INTERIOR - The influence of Pylewell is, of course,
apparent in a great many features of the building and its
contents. The bricks used in building it and the
hexagonal tiles on the floor of the nave were made at
Pitts Deep in the brickyard of the PylewelI estate. The
lectern and the altar cross were given in memory of the
first William Whitaker; and the pulpit and panelling of
the chancel, both made by estate employees from homegrown
oak, and the sanctuary lamp are memorials to his son. So,
too, is the reredos behind the altar which consists of
'material used in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of
King George Vl and presented to St. Mary's Church by Her
Highness Princess Marie Louise as a memorial to William
Ingham Whitaker who died on July 10th, 1936`. The
cushions and kneelers in the front pews were worked by
his widow, Hilda, and the kneelers at the altar rail,
with the views of Pylewell House in petit point, by his
daughter, Elspeth. There are reminders, too, of the
Whitaker family on the brass memorial tablets, while in
1990 donations given in memory of the third William
Whitaker made a large, timely and extremely welcome
contribution to the renewal of the roof of the nave.
Others also have their memorials.
The candlesticks on the altar were given by Robert Dell,
vicar from 1893 to 1907, and his wife, the tablet on the
south wall of the nave pays tribute to three generations
of the House family who were vergers. The altar and
panelling in the south transept were carved by Mr. S. C.
Wooldridge, a parishioner and a Lymington shipwright, to
commemorate his son who was killed in a road accident;
and the display case on the west wall is a memorial to
David Goddard, vicar from 1963 to 1978, who is remembered
with special affection by the people of South Baddesley.
The organ, built by Bryceson Brothers about 1883, was
renovated in 1947 in memory of Frederick Canterbury, for
48 years organist and choirmaster here; the wrought iron
lamp brackets on either side of the chancel arch are also
a memorial to him.
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The Font |
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The Organ |
The stained glass window in the
north transept was installed in 1948 as a memorial to
Dorothy Banks, wife of Sir Donald Banks, KCB, DSO, TD,
who served with distinction in the first world war, was
Defence Commander for Hampshire in the second, and among
other varied appointments became the first Director
General of the Post Office in 1934. The window shows a
Madonna and Child with adoring animals, and the designer,
Arthur Buss, now in his eighties, was later responsible
for the design of the massive west window at Lancing
College, said to be the largest rose window in the
country. A second stained glass window, to be found in
the sanctuary, is less conspicuous but very attractive in
its own way, with its miniature Last Supper depicting
only five disciples; while a third window, that in the
west wall of the nave, is curiously placed, since the
belfry beyond allows very little light to enter through
it. This might suggest that the belfry was a later
addition, were it not for the fact that there is mention
of the belfry in the faculty of 1818 giving the Bishop's
approval for the building of the new chapel.
An interesting and unusual feature
of the church is the pierced chancel arch, 'fretwork
tracery rustic and jolly', as Pevsner described it, with
its decorated inscription.
At one time there were other
similar inscriptions round the window arches of the nave,
but these were removed about 1960. Another unusual
feature is the construction of the domed ceiling at the
crossing, which is suspended from a large metal wheel
mounted above. This part of the church sustained serious
damage in February, 1974, when an elm tree crashed on the
roof during a storm. The building became unsafe for
worship, and for more than two years the services were
held in the village hall. Repair on this scale was a
major undertaking for a parish of this size, with only
about eighty people on the electoral roll; but in
January, 1976 a roof appeal was launched and raised £4,000
in three months. The work was done, an heroic effort by
Mr. F. C. Keeping, and the church reopened with a service
attended by the Bishop of Winchester in October of that
year - a remarkable achievement by all concerned.
It will be noticed that there are
two entrances to the church: that in the south transept
was intended for the use of the Lord of the Manor and his
family, while the other at the west end gives access to
the nave through the porch. Above the porch is the belfry
which now contains a single bell bearing the inscription,
"WM TOSHER CAST ME IN 1731". This bell was
presumably transferred from the earlier Worsley chapel
when that was demolished in 1818; and, as was mentioned
earlier, may well give us a date for the building of it.
The bell was cast by William Tosier (spelling does not
seem to have been among his accomplishments) and was one
of the last bells to be made at the Salisbury foundry
where bells had been cast throughout the years from 1580
to 1733, the last bell of all being made in that year for
St. Michael's Church, Southampton. The South Baddesley
bell is older than any bell at Boldre or Lymington. In
1990 it was renovated and remounted by David Wooldridge
in memory of his grandfather, Sydney Charles Wooldridge,
who carved the altar in the south transept.
The clock in the belfry is now
electric, but the mechanism that was removed in 1950 was
restored by an enthusiast for presentation to the museum
at Colchester. It is dated 1767, was made in Colchester
by Nathaniel Hedge for St. Nicholas' Church, Colchester
and probably came to South Baddesley about 1920.
St. Mary's Church is built of
bricks from the Pylewell brickyard at Pitts Deep. Made
from the green clay that is found there, the bricks - and
the tiles on the floor of the nave - have a
characteristic yellow colour to be seen in walls and
houses in the area. Unfortunately, the bricks used in
building the church do not appear to have been of high
quality; the layer of render with which they are faced
was presumably necessary to keep out the weather, but is
certainly not an attractive feature of the building.
THE CHURCHYARD - The graveyard came into use when the
ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1858. The earliest
grave, to be found near the centre of the plot on the
south side of the church, is that of Edmund Perkins, who
was buried on the 20th July, 1859 by the first vicar, the
Revd. Josiah Norton. Among other early graves of interest
is that of John Bond, a policeman from East End, who died
in 1861, marked unusually by an iron memorial, to be
found in the south east corner of the south plot, and
made, it seems likely, at Sowley ironworks. In this
earliest section of the graveyard are buried many
Pylewell Estate employees whose relatives were unable to
afford the cost of a memorial stone. Their graves are
marked anonymously by stones provided by the estate
bearing only the inscription ' R. I . P.'
The graves of the Lords of the
Manor and their families are situated in the south west
corner of the graveyard. Their memorials include two,
those of the first William Whitaker and of his mother,
Eliza Sophia, that are specially fine examples of carving
in marble by Italian craftsmen, reminding us of the
family connection with Palermo. In a separate plot lie
the ashes, together with those of her maid, of Margaret
Emily Georgina Whitaker, second wife of the first William
Whitaker. She was the daughter of Admiral Sir George Rose
Sartorius, GCB, whose tombstone with its anchor and chain
is a fine example of Victorian funerary art. The Admiral,
who fought at Trafalgar and was later in charge of the
Portuguese navy, had two sons who were both awarded the
Victoria Cross. One of these, Major General Reginald
William Sartorius, is buried near his father.
With the passage of time the
graveyard has twice been enlarged by gifts from the
Whitaker family of two further pieces of land to the east
of the church. These additions are marked by boundary
stones. At the north end of the nearer plot are the
graves of the Duplessis family, former owners of Newton
Park. In the further and later, plot is a modern
gravestone, designed by Michael Kenny ARA, in memory of
Robin Campbell, DSO, CBE, a former Director of Art with
the Arts Council. The headstone is a symbolic
representation of a chalice, while the horizontal section
includes a circle, the symbol of wholeness, and a shape
that recalls the gothic window and vault.
A humble church of modest
architectural pretensions, St. Mary's at South Baddesley
has a special place in the affections of those who know
it well and who worship here. Perhaps its most endearing
quality is its quiet woodland setting in a part of the
New Forest that remains as peaceful as it is unspoiled.
VICARS OF SOUTH BADDESLEY
1858-1865 JOSIAH NORTON
1865-1870 JOHN BENWELL SEAMAN
1870-1876 EARNEST PEERE WILLIAMS-FREEMAN
1877-1892 JOHN WILLIAM HALL
1893-1907 ROBERT DELL
1907-1913 CHARLES ABDY BRERETON
1914-1916 BERNARD McNAUGHTON HAWES
1917-1946 RANDOLPH LLEWELLYN
HODGSON
1946-1951 AUSTIN LOWELL BRYAN
1951-1953 FREDERICK CYRIL AUBREY
COMBER GRlFFITHS
1954-1959 FREDERICK HENRY COLLINS
1960-1963 RONALD BERNARD BLOUNT
1963-1978 DAVID IVAN GODDARD
1978-1982 ARNOLD JOHN LEE
1982-1994 JULIAN RICHARDS
1994-1996 GORDON WATTS
1997-
MALCOLM RICHES
