St Mary's Church, Shalford - A View from Above

An early winters morning at St Mary's Church Shalford.
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The church of ST. MARY is the third that has stood on the present site since 1789, in which year the mediaeval building, possibly retaining parts of that mentioned in Domesday, was rebuilt. A view of the church from the south-east, as it appeared in 1780, shows a picturesque irregular building of cruciform plan, having a short and rather high nave with a south porch, a central tower, and shingled spire, apparently of 12th or 13th-century date, beneath which is a transept, or rather two transeptal chapels, conjoined, and having a double-gabled roof, with 15th-century windows, and a longish chancel with a priest's door and a three-light east window of 15th-century date.

In 1789 the church was rebuilt in local stone rubble with brick dressings—a very ugly, heavy structure—having a squat tower with domed roof of copper, surmounted by a cupola. There was no chancel, only an alcove or shallow apse, projecting from the east end of the nave. Cracklow's view of 1824 preserves the memory of this building, which, in 1847, was in its turn entirely demolished to make way for the present structure, an ambitious but unsatisfactory example of the 13th-century style. This consists of nave, aisles, transepts, and chancel, with south porch and tower with shingled spire at the north-west angle. The whole building is excessively high in proportion to its length, and the detail is starved and bad.

There are no monuments of any interest except some tablets to the Austens and to the local family of the Eliots, of 17th and 18th-century dates.

The old font is at present turned upside down, and placed as a mounting block outside the vicarage. It may shortly be restored to the church. There are two pieces of old glass, preserved from the original church, showing the arms of Canterbury and Winchester.

The church plate is of the 18th century, and of no great interest.

There are five bells of 1789, and one of 1866, all by the firm of Warner. When the six were complete they each bore a part of the verse:—
'Thy glory Lord we will resound | to all the listening nations round | and with our tongues | our voices raise | to Thee O God | in songs of praise.'

Before 1789, four, dated 1613, by Robert Eldridge, bore the verse:—
'Lord plead my cause against my foes | Confound their force and might | Fight on my part against my foes | That seek with me to fight.'

In the Edwardian inventory eight bells and a 'sawnce' bell are mentioned.

The registers begin in 1564, but there are no marriages till 1581. There is a gap between 1651 and 1653, and the marriages are lost from 1754 to 1782.