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St Mary, South StonehamSt Mary’s, South Stoneham, is tucked away amongst the University of Southampton’s halls of residence in Swaythling. It has medieval origins with a fine 12th century chancel arch, and a low tower of the late 15th/early 16th century. It contains a range of interesting monuments, including the tomb of Francis Dawtrey, son of John Dawtrey, the builder of Tudor House, and a large baroque monument to Edward Dummer, d.1724, the builder of neighbouring South Stoneham House. A small amount of early graffiti was found, with a noticeable grouping of concentric circles and crosses carved into the south side of the chancel arch. The earliest initials were found on the tomb of Francis Dawtrey in the chancel: IE, with the date 1632. In the lead lining of the Purbeck font basin, are the clearly chiselled initials RH. This distinctive method of carving, with individual cuts made by a chisel or similar sharp tool, is known as “wriggle work” and is found on pewter and silver vessels of the late 17th/early 18th century, suggesting this is when RH made his (or her) mark. A large amount of modern graffiti was found in the organ loft, on the organ casing itself and the surrounding pews. This was recorded, and a list of the names, initials and dates was given to the church wardens as a source of information for people researching family history and connections with the church. Photographs, taken by members of the Medieval Graffiti Survey, are shown below. Each image is linked to a larger version; to see the larger version it may be necessary to allow 'pop-ups'.
Survey visit: Jan- March 2018 Surveyors: members of Southampton Archaeology Society. | ||||||||||||||||||||||