Church Of St Matthew

Church of St Matthew, Stockbridge Road, Winchester

A very small aisleless village church positioned end-on to Stockbridge Road. The building retains 12th-century fabric in its south doorway and chancel arch, with a 16th or 17th-century roof, 17th-century windows, and 19th-century chancel restoration.

The exterior walls are rendered with exposed freestone quoins, except for the 19th-century vestry which is of stone rubble. The roof is tiled, with a weatherboarded bell turret at the west end. The plan comprises a nave and chancel only, with a west-end bell turret projecting through the west end of the nave, a west gallery containing the organ, a south porch, and a northeast vestry.

The south wall west of the porch is blind. The porch itself is gabled and contains a narrow inner doorway with a plain round-headed arch; the responds have hollow-chamfered capitals and a 17th-century door with cover strips and studs. The south wall of the nave has one 19th or early 20th-century two-light square-headed window with depressed ogee heads to the lights, and one two-light mullioned window, probably 17th-century, with two similar examples in the chancel south wall. The east window has three cusped lights in a square-headed frame. The north side has two square-headed high-set windows (one possibly medieval) and a roof dormer lighting the gallery. The west end has a three-light mullioned square-headed window with hoodmould and a small rectangular window above. The belfry has a pyramidal tiled roof with weathervane.

Inside, the chancel arch is double-chamfered on chamfered responds. The nave roof is rustic collar rafter, probably 16th-century or later, with moulded wallplates, tall ashlar pieces, one tier of trenched purlins and windbraces; evidence suggests it was formerly plastered over. The timber-framed bell turret is supported only by posts descending to the floor of an early 19th-century gallery, which is supported on a single cast iron post and features sunk panels and a narrow stick baluster staircase in the southwest corner. The chancel roof is 19th-century scissor-braced and ceiled with diagonal boards. A probably early 20th-century reredos displays panels of flamboyant blind tracery. The east window is recessed behind a moulded internal segmental-headed arch and contains fragments of 15th-century stained glass. The chancel floor retains some medieval floor tiles, including lettered examples. The font has a plain octagonal stone bowl on a cylindrical stem, probably 19th-century. The nave has 19th-century square-headed bench ends with sunk panels and roll-moulded tops. The church also contains 1940s choir stalls and a balustraded timber pulpit dated 1943. Several wall monuments are present, including a small 15th-century brass figure of St Christopher.

The church is of special interest as a very small aisleless village church retaining 12th-century fabric alongside a 16th or early 17th-century nave ceiling and 17th-century windows and door. The fragments of medieval glass and tiles, together with the 15th-century brass of St Christopher, add to its significance. The simple design of the early 19th-century gallery and 19th-century pews complement the medieval fabric.