St. Mary's Church, Amport

St Mary's Church is in the benefice of Amport, Grateley, Monxton and Quarley. There are no remains of the original church, which was probably built of timber and thatch. The present church was built of knapped flint in the Decorated style during the years 1320 to 1330. It was luckily completed before the Black Death reached the south of England. Amport's priest was one of many who died of the disease during the outbreak of 1348/9.

The advowson of this church was given in 1217 to the Canons of Chichester cathedral by William de St John, son of Adam de Port after whom the village was named, and still remains with Chichester Cathedral. The first record of an incumbent at St Mary's is in the register of Bishop John de Pontoise of Winchester which, as its very first entry in 1282, notes the institution of Thomas de Anne to the vicarage of Anne, as the village was known at that time. The church was extended and considerably restored in 1866 and re-roofed in 1988.

There are more pictures and architectural notes by Astoft (www.astoft.co.uk/amport.htm).

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Improvements (February 2009)

In 2005 the PCC initiated a programme to make various improvements to Amport church.  Much of the renovation work that was included in the package has now been completed, but the main work, the re-development of the porch to make extra space and adding a kitchenette and a disabled WC, has not.  This brief article is intended to bring you up to date on the progress of the project.

A year or so ago it was realised that we were not going to be able to raise enough money to rebuild the porch as we had planned.  Great efforts have been made by local people and organisations to raise money, but we had always known that funds raised locally would have to be supplemented by outside grants to raise the £175,000 required.  Unfortunately, although some grants were obtained, they were sufficient only to raise about £100,000.  Of this, about £50,000 has already been spent on re-ordering the nave and some major renovation work on the tower.

We therefore explored other options to provide the kitchenette and toilet within the available funds.  The kitchenette was comparatively easy and there was general agreement that a kitchen unit in an oak cabinet, located at the back of the church in the corner opposite the door, would be a satisfactory solution.  However the WC was a more difficult problem and three options were considered.  The first two were inside, either at the back of the church behind a screen, or in the choir vestry.  The first of these would require moving the font and losing some space at the back of the church. The second would take up considerable space in the vestry, which was not popular with the choir.  The third option was to place the WC outside the church, possibly in the corner behind the porch.  There was some doubt that this option would receive approval from the church authorities, but our architect came up with a plan to hide it behind a wall, with an arch giving access to the WC entrance.  Although this was the more expensive option it is generally acceptable and has been approved by the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) which has to approve all work on the church.  The next stage is to obtain planning approval from Test Valley, and they will be making their decision in the next month.  After that we can apply to the Diocese for a Faculty to give us final authority to start work. The plans can be seen on the church notice board or at my house.

The cost of this work is estimated at about £60,000 and we have sufficient money to pay for this now.  However, there is still some outstanding work on the structure of the church, including rework of the drains to prevent damp, and repairs to the stained glass and the stone crosses on the roof.  If we are to retain some reserve funds, we still need to raise about £30,000 to complete all our objectives, and although we intend to approach grant-giving bodies over the next year for help with this, we will have to raise part of it ourselves, so we are not quite out of the woods yet!
Richard Unwin

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