All Saints' Church

All Saints’ Church stands in the quiet village of Thorney Hill, Hampshire, beside the Avon Tyrrell estate. Built in 1905–06 of Caen stone and rendered brick, it is a Grade I listed example of Edwardian Baroque architecture. The aluminium roof rises to a cupola on the western side, and the church was designed to seat about a hundred people. Lord and Lady Manners paid for its construction as a memorial to their daughter, Mary Christine, who died of cholera in India in 1904. Detmar Blow, a noted architect of the period, drew the plans and laid the foundation stone on 9 October 1905. Messrs Newton of Hitchin carried out the building work. The church contains several notable works of art and craftsmanship. Inside, a bronze effigy commemorates the Manners’ son, John, who was killed in action in 1914. A mural painted in 1922 by Phoebe Anna Traquair remembers Lady Manners, who died in 1920. Eric Gill contributed further interior decoration. Outside, a World War I memorial in the churchyard is itself Grade II listed. The Bishop of Winchester dedicated the church on 17 October 1906, and a centenary service was held in 2006. Visitors find a calm interior of warm Caen stone, a bronze effigy on the floor, and Traquair’s mural on the wall. The aluminium roof catches the light through the cupola, and the pews still seat the hundred for whom the church was built. The surrounding churchyard holds the war memorial, a quiet place for reflection beside the Avon Tyrrell estate.