New Forest churches – Boldre, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst, and Minstead
Summary
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Minstead All Saints
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) – the surgeon-turned-author famous for his series of Sherlock Holmes detective stories is buried in the churchyard
- Medieval church with 13th century doorway, chancel arch and many later additions – a church that escaped Victorian restoration
- Brick tower of 1774
- Many 18th century fittings. Interior dominated by galleries to accommodate as many people as possible
- Triple-decker pulpit, partly 17th century, with at a lower level, at least one piece of medieval woodwork
- Two large private pews on the north side with domestic fittings
- 12th century font with interesting carving
- 18th century box pews in south transept and 17th century pews in the nave.
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New Forest Churches
Boldre, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst, Minstead
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© Crown copyright. All rights reserved New Forest National Park Authority. Licence 1000114703, 2014.
New Forest churches 1 Church of St John, Boldre 2 Church of St Nicholas, Brockenhurst 3 Church of St Michael, Lyndhurst 4 All Saints Church, Minstead 1234
Cultural heritage services at the New Forest National Park Authority
The National Park Authority has specialist advisors including archaeologists, building conservation, building design and landscape staff.
We seek to conserve and enhance the special character of the New Forest by encouraging the sympathetic management and use of historic sites, buildings and areas and protecting them from decay or damaging change. We ensure that architecturally sensitive sites and areas are properly identified, treated and integrated into their environment to best effect.
Some of the work is required by law, but emphasis is also placed on offering guidance to communities so that the special places and features of the National Park are safeguarded for future generations.
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Not to scale
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Images left: Door detail, Lyndhurst
Right: headstone of Brusher Mills, snake-catcher, Brockenhurst.
Printed on FSC environmentally friendly paper. NPA 00279. September 2014.
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New Forest Churches
Boldre, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Minstead
There are seven medieval churches in the New Forest which often started as chapels attached to the local manor house.
Some have been replaced with later churches and many new ones were built to serve the increased population and different congregations, particularly in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Many of the churches have fascinating historical, artistic and literary associations. Find out more
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Cultural Heritage
The New Forest and its coastline have a rich cultural heritage thanks to a complex and unusual social history and environment.
We can see this in archaeological sites, domestic and agricultural buildings, historic houses and designed landscapes, settlement patterns and the character of the Forest landscape itself.
More difficult to see are the traditional craft skills, building techniques, dialect, artistic and literary achievements, and the people and events of the past which are remembered in fact and legend.
Come and discover the fascinating New Forest National Park.
Boldre St John
- Medieval church; the north chapel was built by Isabella de Fortibus, one of the wealthiest women in 13th century England
- Known by generations of children for the original Goldilocks and the Three Bears story published in 1834, the author and Poet Laureate Robert Southey married his second wife here
- The church contains a monument to the Rev. William Gilpin (1724-1804) and the churchyard contains his tomb. Gilpin was a prolific artist and publisher, often considered to be the originator of the notion of the ‘picturesque’, as well as being noted for his publications and illustrations of the New Forest and its scenery
- Various memorials to HMS Hood, a Royal Navy battlecruiser, sunk in May 1941 with the loss of 1,415 lives
- Impressive 14th century wagon roof with brightly painted bosses of shields and masks
- Millennium engraved window by Tracey Sheppard in the south aisle.
Lyndhurst St Michael and All Angels
- Fantastic example of 19th century gothic revival church in the Decorated Gothic style, and the third church built on the site
- Alice Liddell (1852-1934) – who inspired Lewis Carroll and his children’s classic story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – is buried in the churchyard
- Originally a manorial chapel for the neighbouring Queen’s House royal manor
- Wood and stone carvings of the highest quality, including life-sized angels, decorate the roof
- Contains a fresco painting by Sir Frederick Leyton of Jesus’ Parable of the Ten Virgins
- 19th century east window by Burne Jones and south window by William Morris.
Brockenhurst St Nicholas
- Medieval church, the only one within the New Forest boundary to be mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086
- Grave of ‘Brusher Mills’, the famous New Forest snake catcher (died 1905), is in the churchyard
- The churchyard contains one of the largest yew trees in the country
- Graves of 93 New Zealand men and three from India who died in the army hospital in the village during World War I (1914-1918) are in the churchyard
- The tower was built in 1761 to replace an earlier one, and is covered in specially made interlocking tiles known as ‘mathematical tiles’
- Window on the right hand side of the porch was probably inserted in the short reign of the Catholic Queen Mary between 1553 and 1558
- Church contains a gallery supported on iron columns
- Font dates from the 12th century.
Image on front cover- Boldre.
