Parish Church Of St Magdalene

Parish Church of St Magdalene, New Milton

This church stands off Christchurch Road in a large churchyard. The building represents several distinct phases of construction and development spanning from the early 17th century to the mid-20th century.

The tower is thought to date from the early 17th century. The nave was built in 1831–32 in a simple Gothick style, designed by William Hiscock. The chancel was added in 1928 and the Lady Chapel in 1958, both designed by Sir Howard Robertson in a modernised Georgian style.

Materials and Structure

The tower is constructed of grey limestone ashlar. The nave is English bond brick with some burnt headers. The chancel and Lady Chapel are English bond brick. The Lady Chapel has a pantile roof, while other roofs are slate.

The building follows a west tower and porch arrangement, flanked on the south by a later stair cell and on the north by a boiler room. The plan comprises an aisleless nave with a 4-bay Lady Chapel on the north side, a south transept containing a chapel and organ chamber, a chancel, and a northeast vestry.

Exterior

The church presents a long, low external appearance with a shallow-pitched nave roof featuring large ventilators along the ridge. The squat two-stage west tower has an embattled parapet with classical corner pinnacles and a low octagonal lead-covered structure on the roof. Diagonal brick buttresses, presumably of 1831–32, support the tower. A triangular arched west doorway with deep chamfer and carved spandrels is topped by a 19th-century plank-and-cover-strip door and a 4-light overlight with arched head and hoodmould. Small round-headed belfry windows sit in shallow rectangular recesses. Brick blocks with lean-to roofs flank the door to north and south, featuring Y-tracery 2-light west windows and tall brick parapets. A watercolour of the church dated around 1832 in the church indicates the north block may be earlier than the south, and the upper parts of the south block appear to have been rebuilt.

The nave is buttressed with deep eaves and 2-light windows with Y-tracery. The 1928 south transept has two gables with patterned brick panels below the windows. The chancel features a simplified Diocletian south window and a blind east wall with a round-headed recess. The northeast vestry has a plain brick parapet with east and north doors. Chancel south windows rise above the vestry and are semi-circular. The 1958 Lady Chapel has large arched windows with two transoms and intersecting tracery in the heads, with a round-headed brick doorway in the west end.

Interior

The interior has whitened walls throughout. The nave features a shallow segmental arched ceiling with moulded cornice.

The 1928 east end is architecturally accomplished. A triple round-headed arcade spans the chancel with plain arches carried on plain piers. An open timber chancel screen with turned balusters defines the bays, with an upper frieze of turned balusters. The choir has a canted ceiling. The sanctuary features a low transverse tunnel vault. The east wall has a round-headed moulded frame containing a cross, with panelling below. Tiled sanctuary steps and simple timber and wrought iron sanctuary rails complete this area. A large cornice runs below high-set north windows.

A 3-bay white-painted brick arcade leads into the Lady Chapel, with chamfered piers and double-chamfered round-headed arches. The Lady Chapel has a barrel vault with transverse ribs and a paved floor. A west end gallery on timber posts has a frontal with fielded panels.

Fittings include a polygonal timber pulpit dated 1886 with blind traceried sides and a wineglass stem. A font of 1887 comprises an octagonal stone bowl with carved sides on a cylindrical stem encircled with arcading on shafts. 1920s choir stalls have fielded panelled ends and frontals with a cornice. Nave benches have rounded, shouldered ends. An 1880s brass lectern features angel pinnacles to the standards.

A monument in the tower to Thomas White, died 1720, comprises a large white marble kneeling figure in a niche.

Stained Glass and Decoration

Stained glass borders and painted glass in the tracery heads of the north wall of the nave are probably 1831–32. Hardman stained glass, recycled from a 19th-century east window, was incorporated into the 1928 south window of the chancel. A framed relief in the chancel, probably from the 1920s, is signed by Evelyn Beale. A plaque in the gallery on the east wall of the tower bears the numbers 9 and 5 with reference to churchwardens. A photograph in the church shows the east end in 1910.

The church is of special interest for its early 17th-century tower, late Georgian nave, and high-quality east end additions of 1928 and 1958 by Sir Howard Robertson.