Charlewood Press - publishing imprint for local history books by Anthony Light and Gerald Ponting
St Mary’s Parish Church in the village of Breamore (Hampshire, southern England) is recognised as one of the most important Saxon buildings surviving in the south of England. It retains many features from its construction, around 1000 A.D., in the reign of King Ethelred the Unready.
Set on the edge of parkland surrounding the fine Elizabethan mansion of Breamore House, and with Breamore Countryside Museum nearby, the church welcomes many visitors.
The church has many fascinating features, including the unique Saxon inscription (top centre) over one of the archways below the tower. There is also a Saxon rood (one of only four in Hampshire) and medieval paintings in the south porch.
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High on the inside of the tower, eight stone corbels support the woodwork. Six of them are plain, but two bear carved faces. The style suggests a 12th-century date and the more northerly of the two (right) is believed to be a ‘Green Man’. These corbels were not mentioned in Pevsner’s account and indeed do not seem to have not been recorded in any previous writing about the church
At the invitation of the church authorities, local historians Anthony Light and Gerald Ponting prepared a new guide book to the church in 2004. It consists of a history of the
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Latest revision of this page March 2009
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