Country Churches

110. St Mary’s Buriton

Buriton lies just south of Petersfield in the lee of the Downs near Butser Hill. This 12th century church with its sturdy tower was, until 1886, the mother church of the district, including Petersfield and Sheet. It stands in a picturesque setting overlooking the village pond. Entrance is via the west door under the 48 foot high tower built in 1715 at a total cost of £320.15s.2d to replace the original steeple destroyed by fire in 1712.

The interior is gloomy. Six rounded pillars separate the nave from the two aisles. The attractive roof of trussed rafters and crossbeams dates from a restoration of 1877-8. The 12th century Norman font of Purbeck marble stands in the south aisle close to the new Millennium Window depicting Mary and the boy Jesus standing near a river. Another stained glass window, predominately red, at the north end of the north aisle, commemorates John Goodyear (1592-1664) a former botanist who lies buried in the churchyard.

The chancel has a fine oak rood screen, erected in 1878, a copy of the former 16th century screen. The Victorian glass of the east window commemorates John Bonham-Carter, Lord of the Manor, who died in 1884. On the south side close to the Jacobean altar table, is a fine piscina and a threefold sedilia.

The chancel is full of memorials relating to the Bonham-Carter family. Three were killed in the First World War. Guy served in the 19th Hussars and fell at Ypres in May 1915, whilst Arthur, serving as a judge in East Africa in 1914, returned home to volunteer and was killed at Beaumont Hamel on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1 1916. Finally Norman, of the Indian Civil Service, was killed at Arras in May 1917. More recent Bonham-Carter memorials relate to Charles who was Governor of Malta from 1936-40 and Stuart, an Admiral, who died in 1972.

On the north wall is an interesting 17th century black marble memorial to Thomas Hanbury (d.1617), his wife Elizabeth and his six sons and two daughters. Higher up on the same wall is a memorial to a former Rector, William Lowth, who died on 17 May 1732 ‘and being dead desires to speak to his beloved parishioners and sweetly exhort them constantly to attend the Word of God, frequently to receive the Holy Communion, diligently observe the good instruction given in this place, and breed their children in the fear of God and to follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see God’. An unusual epitaph but so typical of the eighteenth century.

Other memorials commemorate William Warner (d.1677) a scrivener and citizen of London and Leonard Bilson of West Mapledurham who died in 1695. Also high on the wall beneath the tower hang two funeral hatchments relating to the Lec family of Shropshire (1714).

John Symonds