Country Churches

No. 112. All Saints Crondall

photo copyright: Couresy Alan Soedring. www.astoft.co.uk

This large and impressive church north west of Farnham was once described as ‘the cathedral of North Hampshire’. It is dominated by its massive red brick tower, containing four bells, built in 1659 at a cost of £428. The rest of the church with its Romanesque nave dates from the 12th century though heavily restored by the Victorians in 1847 and 1871. Today an attractive avenue of lime trees leads from the lych gate to the north porch where three Crusader crosses can be seen.

The oldest feature of the church is the tub shaped Saxon font possibly part of the original 9th century church. On the floor of the chancel is a fine brass with a swastika motif commemorating Nicholas de Kaerwent, Rector 1361-81. On either side of the chancel can be seen the Elizabethan tombs of the Giffard and Paulet families. Sir George Paulet was a Commissioner for the Dissolution of the Monasteries whilst the last of the Giffards became Archbishop of Rheims. A beautifully illustrated Heraldic table of the two families hangs on the south wall of the chancel. Nearby stands the old church chest purchased secondhand in 1546 for two shillings. A fine modern feature is a stained glass window depicting Jacob’s Ladder donated by the family of Brigadier George Anderson in 1991.

Among the memorials on the north wall is one of John Francis Birch, a general in the Royal Engineers who served in the Napoleonic Wars. He served in Flanders, Egypt, Copenhagen, Flushing, Cadiz and the Battle of Borussa 1811. Alongside is a memorial to Captain Arthur Brandon of the Hampshire Regiment killed at Felabie in Mesopotamia on 21 January 1916 during the ill-fated attempt to relieve the garrison besieged in Kut-el-Amara.

The south transept Lady Chapel contains the brass of John Eggar (d.1641) who founded Alton Grammar School in 1638. He is shown macabrely as a skeleton in a shroud. On the south wall nearby is a memorial to Charles James Maxwell Lefroy of Itchel Manor who died in 1908 ‘ideal landlord and squire for 47 years. Head of the Huguenot family of Loffrey of Cambray who preferring to give up their country and possessions rather than religion left France for Canterbury in 1587 eventually settling in Hampshire’. Above, a nephew Patrick Egerton (Lefroy) is commemorated. He was a naval lieutenant serving aboard HMS Mosquito killed at the Dardenelles on April 25 1915. Further along the south aisle is the village War Memorial as well as a stained glass window showing St George in memory of the Hon Archibald Rodney Hewitt DSO killed at Ypres in 1915.

The north transept contains a rubbing of the Kaerwent Brass as well as a rare marble presented by the Rev Weaver in 1647. On the north wall is an embroidered copy of the mosaic floor of a Roman villa uncovered near Barley in 1817. Above is a charming window showing the Three Kings presenting their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus.

Near the entrance door is a board listing the will of Henry Maxwell who died in 1818. He left money to found a school for ‘72 boys of labourers in husbandry and journeyman mechanics and 12 boys of small farmers and master tradesmen’. Close by is a more poignant memorial to Midshipman Fraser Sumner Stokes, son of the curate. Aged only 16 he ‘went down with the vessel off Tripoli on June 22 1893’. This relates to one of the greatest Victorian naval disasters when HMS Victoria was rammed by HMS Camperdown in broad daylight as a result of an idiotic manoeuvre ordered by Admiral Tryon. Over 100 seamen were drowned.

John Symonds