A modest example of J. A. Hansom’s work, built under the patronage of the Weld family. It retains much of its original character, both externally and internally, and is part of a historic group in a conservation area.

The church has strong historical associations with the Weld family of Lulworth; the first chapel in the district was in their house at Pylewell. In the 1850s Mr Joseph Weld began looking for a site in Lymington and in 1858 purchased what is now the presbytery and the land behind it, on which was built a church and a school. The foundation stone of the church was laid in the spring of 1858 and the building was opened in May 1859.

Description

A simple Gothic Revival church, consisting of an aisleless nave and lower chancel, both of red brick with Portland stone dressings and roof coverings of Welsh slate. Tall gable at the ritual west end with two lancets and a quatrefoil in plate tracery with a spherical triangular window over; projecting gabled porch; nave has three two-light windows in plate tracery on each side; the chancel has two similar windows.

Inside the church has bare brick walls with a plastered dado and parquet floor, a west gallery with a boarded front on iron supports and a gambrel roof with exposed rafters and with the principal trusses brought down onto timber wall-posts with stone corbels. The chancel has a roof of similar shape but panelled and painted. Fittings include nineteenth century pine benches and stained glass by Mayer of Munich in the (liturgical) north side windows. The three-light east window is by Barnett of Leith, 1859.

The church is not listed, but the early eighteenth-century presbytery and some iron gates and an overthrow at the entrance to the church and school are Grade II.

Entry amended by AHP 12.02.2024

Heritage Details