Old Church Of St Lawrence

Old Church of St Lawrence

This very small two-cell church dates to the very end of the 12th century, when it probably functioned as a manorial chapel before becoming the parish church. It remained in use as such until 1878, when a new parish church of St Lawrence designed by Sir Gilbert Scott was built. From the late 19th century onwards, the Old Church served as a chapel-of-ease.

The building is constructed of stone with slate roofs and consists of a nave with a western bellcote, a chancel to the east, and a southern porch. The southern elevation of the nave features two-light leaded windows with pointed or round-head arches and chamfered reveals, mostly of Victorian date, except for one window to the east of the porch which is earlier. The slate roofs pitch over the nave, chancel, and southern porch. The gabled porch dates to 1805 and is finished with a stone parapet and a pointed arched doorway with a drip stone. To the west of the porch stands a bell mounted in a stone wall cupboard, which originated from Appledurcombe Priory and bears an inscription recording its gift from Sir Richard Worsley in 1777. A chest tomb, presumably Georgian with diamond decoration, supports the south-east corner. The chancel was added in 1842 as a set-back addition and includes a further two-light window.

The eastern elevation displays a round-headed window within a moulded rectangular frame, with two further chest tombs supporting the chancel east wall and the north-east corner. The northern elevation has scattered fenestration of similar form to the south, including some single-light windows. One window, positioned to the east of a blocked north door and set low in the wall, has a substantial stone head and may be the earliest surviving window. The blocked north door features a pointed arch. Another window to its west is round-headed and has been foreshortened. The western elevation has a very shallow plinth and a simple gabled bellcote with a pointed arched opening, with a string course dividing the bellcote from the gable. The bellcote dates to the early 19th century.

In the interior, the south door has chamfered splays and a plain round head on its south elevation, while the north elevation displays a moulded Carnarvon arch, suggesting it is probably an original doorway which has been modified internally. The opposing blocked north door is later, probably mid to late 13th century, with a pointed arch and segmental outer moulding. Windows are set in deep reveals. A barrel-vaulted plastered roof runs the length of the building. At the west end, closely spaced exposed tie beams are visible with a mix of raking struts, braces, and Queen posts, presumably supporting the bellcote. A 13th-century aumbry or piscina with a pointed arch survives in the south wall. Stone flooring covers the nave and chancel, with shallow steps leading up to the chancel.

The church retains a carved simple Victorian reredos. The eastern window is the only one with stained glass, depicting Christ standing in memory of Edith Holmes, and dates to the Victorian period. A row of wooden coat pegs runs along the north and south walls of the nave, of unknown date. A stone holy water stoop, possibly 15th century and recovered from the churchyard before the late 19th century, stands in the north-east corner of the nave. A simple stone font sits in the nave's south-west corner. A wall-mounted decalogue on arched painted boards is displayed at the nave's west end, along with Royal Arms of 1674. Three chest tombs abut the chancel at its eastern end.

The church was illustrated in Worsley's History of the Isle of Wight of 1781, when it was shown without a chancel or porch but with a short stone bellcote with a pitched roof. The only windows visible in this illustration are a two-light window east of the south door and a larger round-headed eastern window. The latter was presumably moved to its current position in 1842 when the chancel was erected. A painting by John Nixon (1755-1818), presumed to be post-1781, held in Carisbrooke Castle Museum, shows the church largely unchanged but with an added square window to the south-east and a louvered bellcote with a spire clad in wooden shingles. An article on display in the church, post-1878 and of unknown authorship, references an illustration in Tomkin's Tour to the Isle of Wight (1795) showing a similar spire and indicates that the porch was added in 1805 by the Hon Charles Anderson Pelham. A view by Brannon of 1827 shows the stone belfry in its current form. A mid-19th-century poem by John Green, churchwarden, entitled "On St Lawrence Church: Being the smallest in the British Dominions" records a claim the church continued to make until it was lengthened by fifteen feet in 1842. An illustration in Barber's Isle of Wight (1845) shows the added chancel with the fenestration of the south and east elevations as they appear today. The chancel is attributed in the aforementioned article to the "late Lord Yarnborough", presumably Charles Anderson-Pelham, subsequently the 3rd Earl of Yarnborough (1835-1875).

Early and mid-20th-century photographs in the National Monuments Record show the church has changed little in the last century beyond the electrification of lighting, which replaced candles visible in 1943 photographs. The 1777 bell was mounted on the south wall sometime in the first half of the 20th century. The roof was repaired in the late 20th century, when slates were re-laid and stonework repaired.

The church was restored in 1926-1927 by Percy Stone.