Architecture and Artefacts

Hampshire Church Treasures: St Michael’s Church Chalton

Hampshire church treasures. Just one in a series of posts about interesting and intriguing objects that can be found in the churches of the beautiful county of Hampshire.

St Hubert’s Church Idsworth

Church set off road in field possibly site of a plague village

The Medieval wall paintings in the church of St Hubert, formerly St Peter, in Idsworth Hampshire are some of the most poignant Christian wall paintings to be seen. The chapel stands alone in a field, all that is left of an Anglo Saxon settlement, one of a number of lost Hampshire villages, after the spread of the black death throughout the county.

Early Anglo Saxon Hampshire

Early Anglo Saxon settlement in Hampshire is an elusive creature, traces found on the chalk ridges and river valleys allow us the merest peek of a time of important change. Are current day settlement patterns a result of settlement 1500 years ago or are they a consequence of later Anglo Saxon settlement?

Virgin Crowns of Abbotts Ann

The virgin crowns of Abbots Ann are a unique part of Hampshire History and provide a very emotive link to our past.

Mystery of King Alfred’s Final Resting Place

The mystery of King Alfred’s final resting place may be closer to being resolved as St Bartholemew’s church at Hyde prepares to ask for permission to exhume and identify the bones in an unmarked grave at the church.

St Francis Window Selborne

The beautiful window of St Francis, in St Mary’s church Selborne commemorates the life of Gilbert White.

Massey’s Folly Farringdon

Massey’s Folly in Farringdon Hampshire, is an extraordinary labour of love. Built by the Rev Thomas Massey over a period of thirty years, the folly is a monument to the pursuit of art in architecture, its purpose uncertain.

Knights Templars at Selborne

The Knights Templar tombstones in St Mary’s church Selborne are the sole surviving artefacts of the Knights Templar preceptory established at Sotherington close to Selborne in Hampshire

Southampton Castle

When Winchester was the royal capital of England, Southampton, close by on the southern coast of England, was its chief port and trading centre. It was an obvious magnet for Danish and French raiding party’s and its defense became an issue. The castle was constructed first out of timber and then stone and its great city walls threw up a considerable obstacle to attack

Wherwell Abbey

The quintessentially English village of Wherwell has played an important part in the history of the county of Hampshire, hidden beneath its meadows is the Abbey of Wherwell, established in the C10th century as a form of penance by Queen Elfrida

Jane Austen in Chawton

The village of Chawton sweeps you back to the early years of the C19th, when Jane Austen and her family lived in the heart of the village

Norman Chancel Arch St Peter’s Petersfield

The Norman chancel arch in St Peter’s church in Petersfield is one of the most magnificent in Hampshire, its proportions seeming to signal the architects desire to elevate this chapel in a field to something more. It is possible that the design was influenced by the architecture of Winchester Cathedral. Bishop Walkelyn may well have…

Intriguing Odiham Castle

Odiham Castle in Hampshire is one of those ruins where you wish the walls could talk, with connections to King John and Simon de Montfort, decisions about England were made here

Winchester Bible

It is thought Henry de Blois commissioned the stunning Winchester Illuminated Bible. From the text to the illuminations, it is quite possibly the most beautiful piece of C12th artwork in Europe