Church Of St Olave

GATCOMBE

SZ48NE GATCOMBE 1353-0/1/94 CHURCH OF ST OLAVE 18/01/67 I

Parish church. Nave and south porch C13, Tower added C15, Chancel rebuilt in 1864 and belfry added in early C20. Nave and south porch built of greensand rubble, chancel of coursed greensand rubble, tower of greensand ashlar. Tiled roof, except for South porch which is of stone slabs. Nave, chancel, south porch, west tower and south west vestry. West Tower of 3 stages with offset buttresses and bands between stages. Bell stage has bell openings of double lancets with pierced screens. Crenellated parapet with water spouts. West window is traceried having 3 triple arches with lancets above. South porch is gabled with stone coping, kneelers and grotesque mask saddlestone with cross above. Pointed arched doorway. Roof of reused timbers from H.M.S. Thunderer, a warship which fought at Trafalgar, reused in 1910. Nave has buttresses and 2 C15 windows with double cinquefoil-headed lights below and four trefoil-headed lights above. Lancet window in centre of buttresses. Coping at gable end. C19 decorative ridge tiles. North side has triangular buttresses, one elaborate C15 window and 2 cinquefoil headed lights. Chancel is of 2 bays with 2 trefoil-headed windows, plinth and band. C19 cross-shaped saddlestone. East window of 3 arches with 3 circles above and drip moulding. Vestry is early C20 of greensand coursed rubble with hipped tiled roof and mullioned windows. Interior: West tower has tierceron star roof with centre opening for bell ropes. Font of Purbeck marble, an octagonal bowl with 2 flat blank arches to each side and 1 late C18 and 1 early C19 marble wall plaque. Nave of 4 bays. C19 roof boarded with double row of through purlins and arched braces. Chest tomb to C. Grant Seely d.1917 with recumbant effigy of young soldier by Sir Thomas Brock. Nave south window has original fragments of medieval stained glass (angels). Chancel arch C13 with pointed arch on octagonal piers, flanked by C20 pointed arches. Roof of c.1865, an arch-braced boarded roof with through purlins. Piscina and triple C19 sedillia. Credence table and Jacobean altar. South wall has very fine early C14 oak effigy of a knight, cross legged with a lion at his feet and angel at his head, the face and angel recut by village craftsmen. Very fine C19 glass, the east window the Last Supper and the two Marys at the Sepulchre and the Ascension in the north wall by William Morris, the Crucifixion in the East. window by Rossetti and the Entombment in the East window by Ford Madox Brown and the Lamb and Angels in the East window and the Baptism in the South wall by Burne Jones. (B.O.E. Hampshire and the Isle of Wight: 745).

Listing NGR: SZ4924085094