WICKHAM always seems to me to be an ideal country town. With its market square round which the houses cluster, many of them fine examples of the Elizabethan period, it strikes one immediately on entry as a relic of the more romantic and, sad to relate, more prosperous times through which Hampshire has passed.
In the old days it used to be of much greater importance than it is now. Its name was known throughout the land for at least one staple industry - that of the making of edged tools. I think the old foundry where this business was carried on is still extant. I know it was not so very many years ago.
Restorations of the Church
The town takes its name from that great man William of Wykeham who was born there in 1324. Gradually the name spelling became corrupted until in 1607 we find it spelt for the first time with an “i”. This was the time when Sir William Uvedale settled it upon Mary, the daughter of Sir Richard Norton.
Although the town has much to offer in the way of antiquarian interest, the church of St. Nicholas has been somewhat marred from an architectural viewpoint by severe restorations, mainly during 1862~3. Some ancient features of course are retained.
Various examples of stonework are doubtful as to their date, as in the case of the vertical stone rib over the east window. The north-east angle of the nave and the northern doorway of the chancel show 13th Century masonry, and in the west doorway of the small tower there is some re-used 12th Century work.
Two Fine Monuments
When the extensive restorations in 1862 were carried out, two fine monuments to the Uvedale family were moved to the south chapel and these are well worth studying. The older is part of a large memorial to William Uvedale, erected in 1569, and was much mutilated during its short journey. The other, in a much better state of preservation, is to Sir William Uvedale, and is forty or fifty years younger than the former. On the base of the tomb are the kneeling figures of four sons and five daughters.
The chancel floor has two marble slabs let into it, dated 1692 and. 1696, the latter being in memory of Elizabeth, Countess of Carlisle, the heiress of the Uvedales.
Peal of Six Bells
Before 1862 the church had an ordinary wooden bell-turret, but this was replaced by the present masonry tower with its wooden belfry stage and spire. A clock and six bells are houses there, and in this latter possession St Nicholas has a distinct advantage over many other of our county churches which have to be content with a simple toll instead of an adept peal.
Twelve years after the western-tower was added; the Uvedale-Garnier chapel was re-built as a vestry and organ chamber. Throughout the church there are various reminders of the latter family which is amongst the best known in Hampshire.
There are several stained glass windows commemorating members of the Garnier family, including one to the Misses Gamier, sisters of the Very Rev. Thomas Garnier, who was Dean of Winchester in 1840.
Romance and History Lacking
The pulpit is worthy of notice as it is of Bath stone with curiously twisted marble pillars, but I think this exhausts the points of interest. After my visit I searched in vain for some record or even a faint hint of what the church had been like before restoration. Failing that, I wanted some romantic happening that I could re-tell. But I was unsuccessful in both quests. It is doubly unfortunate as, besides having that feeling of being slightly “let-down” I feel that Wickham in worthy of a more historical church, connected as it is with some of the most important county families.
L.P.K.
Reproduced from the Hampshire Telegraph and Post, Friday, December 16, 1932.
