St Stephen's church is on a site that dominates the village and one that has almost certainly been a centre of worship from Saxon times. The flint and stone building took its present form in the latter part of the nineteenth century when the medieval church was comprehensively repaired and extended. There is some documentary evidence for an early wooden structure succeeded by a simple stone and chalk building of nave and chancel in the twelfth century.

This was enlarged in the early thirteenth century by the addition of the south aisle. The chancel was rebuilt to equal the width of the nave in the fourteenth century and it was at that time the tower was constructed. When William Masters died in 1842, after an incumbency lasting forty eight years, the church was in a very poor state and emergency repairs had to be funded at a cost of some £270.

By 1875. when the Revd. Evelyn Heathcote became vicar, the church was again in bad condition. A report in the Hampshire Chronicle comments on its 'ruinous state...the walls hung with slate in their exposed parts to keep out the wet.

The tower finishing in a miserable attempt at a belfry... .Its cracked and insecure eastern arch was built up so as to make the tower serve as a mere coal cellar and sexton's room...-and it was entered by a porch of a modem and poor character.' His friend, the architect William Butterfield, was called in and estimated the cost of repairs at £2,782. In 1882, the work was put in hand A mass of soil had accumulated round the west and north walls of the tower to the height of what is now the sill of the west window. This was rotting the fabric and, when removed, showed that the south-west corner of the church had no foundations and was resting on an open grave, causing considerable subsidence.

The tower was left as it is today, strengthened and with the addition of the wooden belfry and shingled spire. Butterfield proposed an extension of the chancel and designed the north aisle which was added at this time, to accommodate a new organ chamber. This enabled the addition of a new vestry to the east. Inside the church, portions of several medieval wall paintings came to light, some of which were gilded and coloured a rich red and included carvings. A fine though mutilated fresco of St Stephen brightly coloured in red, blue-ish green and primrose yellow with a carved stone canopy was revealed in the east wall. Unfortunately the colours faded on exposure to the light and the fresco could not be preserved when the east wall was demolished to allow the lengthening of the chancel. The canopy is now above the south doorway.

Another interesting discovery was the grave of a 12th or 13th century priest found during the erection of scaffolding inside the church. Below the floor close to the present pulpit, it contained the body of a priest in a chalk coffin, the burial wrappings still intact about the feet. Buried with him, and evidence of his priestly orders, were a chalice and paten, now preserved in the treasury of Winchester Cathedral. The chalk coffin can be seen outside the blocked priest's door in the south wall.

The South Porch

The oak door in the porch dates from 1631 and the names of the churchwardens are carved above it. First located about halfway along the south wall, it was moved to its present position during the alterations in 1882. The ornamental lantern was refurbished in 1992 in memory of Susanna Brown, who was born and brought up in the village although she spent most of her life in the USA.

The South Aisle

Inside the door immediately to the left is the west window, which is a memorial to a distinguished young major general killed during the attempt to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum in 1885 and buried in the Sudan.

To the right of the entrance door is the font, which is a nineteenth century copy of a Norman font. Its painted cover was given inl965. Above it is a copy of a Murillo painting, presented by John Fawcett, sometime churchwarden, who came to the village and built a house in Home Lane in the 1920s. The original hangs in the Prado Madrid. Appropriately it represents the Christ Child with the young John the Baptist.

The simple Norman arcade of three arches with plain capitals to the chalk pillars dates from the early thirteenth century. Various graffiti may be observed on the second one from the east, including the date 1692, with the last two figures written backwards. At the east end of the aisle are three seventeenth century carved panels, probably Flemish. They are believed to have been some of several from the old church at Otterbourne and were given to Heathcote by his mother. Lady Heathcote of Hursley Park.

The gilding is modern. They now form the reredos for the altar of St Catherine's chapel dedicated in 1967 on the site of a chantry similarly dedicated, for which John Fromond of Sparsholt, who died in 1420, bequeathed money in the hope that masses would be said for the souls of his wife Isabella and himself for evermore. The endowment was confiscated by Act of Parliament in 1547 when all such chantries were suppressed. The window above has some stone tracery dating from the time of Fromond, although the stained glass is a memorial to the infant son of Samuel Bostock of Lainston House. It is based on a design by Bume-Jones and is the work of John Henry Dearie, who became the chief designer in Morris & Co after the deaths of William Morris and Burne-Jones.

The Tower

The entrance to the tower is through a linen-fold panelled screen in dark oak, given in memory of Edward Cyril Raban. vicar from 1918-1941. Above it is a fine engraved glass memorial to a local resident Brian Downward, of Deane House. The Royal Coat of Arms in the recess over the western arch was given in memory of Robert Bostock, who was born at Lainston House, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. The square topped arch above the entrance to the tower is believed to have been found during the alterations of 1882. It appears to be sixteenth century work but its original purpose and location are unknown. The crucifix to the right of the screen was given by Mrs Chanter in memory of her husband. Dr Chanter had, apparently, found it outside a shelled church in Salonika in 1915. This donation was recorded in the Parish magazine of 1962, which drew attention to the marked Eastern features noticeable in the length of the limbs and in the separate nailing of the feet.

The Organ

The organ which had been installed in 1887 in the north aisle, was moved to its present position in 1957. It was built by a London firm. Walker & Sons, under the direction of the organist of Winchester College, who played the new instrument at the dedication service. Three plaques record its history.

The Nave

The small altar table to the left of the belfry entrance, was carved by a Belgian refugee in 1917. It originally stood in the south aisle and during the Great War the school children brought flowers and said prayers there for all who were serving in the war. The oak litany desk was given in memory of Alice May, head teacher of Sparsholt Church of England (Controlled) Primary School, who lived and worked in the village for forty years. The wrought-iron candelabra here and in the chancel, were presented to the church in the 1880s by the Heathcotes and made to their order in Venice. The oak pews were installed in 1930 replacing older deal ones, some of which are still being used in the north and south aisles. The hassocks throughout the church were designed by Mrs E. Blundell-Jones based on a mosaic discovered in the nearby Roman villa excavated in the 1960s. They were worked by a group under her instruction in the 1970s.

The pulpit was given in memory of James Pern Fitt, who farmed land at Westley now part of Sparsholt College. The lectern was given in about 1935 by the then vicar, Cyril Raban. He discovered the eagle in the West Country and also perhaps the pillar, as this is clearly the wooden screw of a cider press. The candelabra, which matches the hanging lights, was given by Mr and Mrs Montague Cloete when they married in 1888. She was the daughter of Philip Vanderbyl of Northwood Park.

The Screen

When the Revd. Clifford Dalhousie Ramsay was vicar (1904-1918), plans were drawn up to erect a chancel screen in memory of his two immediate predecessors, Evelyn Heathcote (1875-1893) and Francis Ainger (1893-1904). Designed by architect G.H. Kitchin, it was made by a local Winchester firm of craftsmen, Thomas & Co. It is of carved wood decorated in coloured plaster (gesso), which was the work of Mrs and Miss Heathcote, wife and sister of the late vicar. Approaching from the nave, the left hand side commemorates Ainger with his coat of arms and that of his college, St John's Cambridge on the cornice. On the right side are the arms of Heathcote and his college, Oriel, Oxford. The other shields on the cornice bear emblems of our Lord's Passion. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Winchester, at a service held on 1st May 1910. Originally it was surmounted by a crucifix, but this was removed during the incumbency of Edward Bannister.

The Screen

The North Aisle

When the organ was removed to the north-west end of the church, the Lady Chapel was consecrated and is now chiefly used for the celebration of weekday services of Holy Communion. In 1721 a gallery had been put up by John Merrill of Lainston House, at the west end of the church where, according to the Revd. Heathcote, 'it considerably darkened the church and provided about thirty uncomfortable sittings where boys and men used to go and frequently behave badly'. It was removed in 1882 and part of it was made into a screen between the chancel and the new organ chamber. Part of this dark oak screen with its cornice and three simple tapering pillars topped by plain capitals, still remains between the chancel and the Lady Chapel. The memorial window in this aisle commemorates a long-serving churchwarden, Reginald East. Helen Elizabeth, to whom the green marble plaque is dedicated, was the daughter of a farm worker, sent by the vicar to London to train as a nurse, where she met and married a young surgeon later Sir George Buckston-Browne FRCS. After her death, he bought the cottages where her family had lived for generations and presented them to the National Trust. Known as the Vaine cottages, they are now in the gift of the vicar and churchwardens for occupation by retired long term Sparsholt residents. The chair is one of two Glastonbury chairs in the church, the other being in the Lady Chapel. These were given by the Revd. Edward Stewart in November 1859 and August 1862.

The Chancel

As part of the restoration programme in 1882-3, the chancel was extended and furnished with oak stalls. Its present appearance, however, was determined in 1929 when major alterations were made, under the auspices of Cyril Raban, including the replacement of the window in the south wall The four gilded angels and fabric hangings were put in together with a new painted wooden cross and candlesticks. The ceiling was also painted, the original intention being to use white and a small amount of black, with only the panels in coloured distemper. The east window had been put up in memory of the brother and sister of the then tenant of Lainston House, James Scott Bames. It is reminiscent in style and subject matter of many other Victorian windows of the period. The l\vo lar^e brass and copper candlesticks in the sanctuary were given in 1948 in memory ot 'John and Eleanor Lewington, prominent residents of the village in the earlier part of this century. The oak panelling to either side of the communion table was put in at the same time as a memorial to Clifford Ramsay.

Outside the church

The Mass dial

The churchyard contains some interesting nineteenth century tombs on the bank at the west end and also an eighteenth century chest tomb to John Locke to the north-east of the chancel. An ancient mass dial can be seen in the south wall towards the chancel. Near it is the blocked up doorway that once led directly into the chancel. The two gates with the overhead lamps were the gift of Samuel Bostock, owner of Lainston House, in 1900, whilst the gate to the churchyard was the gift of the Sanders-Clarks as shown by its plaque. The churchyard itself is of interest as a site of ancient meadow, untouched by cultivation or fertilisers. It produces a wealth of flowers in the summer and a range of mosses and lichens.

The Bells

St Stephen's has a fine ring of six bells. These were rehung in a steel frame in 1995 by the Whitechapel Foundry, who also installed the new sixth bell given in memory of Gillian Paul. The history of the bells goes back to 1742 when three bells were hung in a very substantial oak frame of typically vernacular construction. There may have been an earlier bell which was simply chimed but, since 1742. the story has been one of regular addition. In 1829 a fourth bell was added, which became the second bell in the ring, and the frame was extended. This provided room for a fifth bell and in 1905 one was duly added. It became the treble or lightest bell, only to be replaced in that role by the 1995 addition.