A Sketch of All Saints Church

The sketch of All Saints Church was drawn by Josephine Anderson, the younger daughter of Lt Col Joseph D’Arcy of Milford House and later of Priestlands in Pennington.

Mrs Anderson was born in Milford in 1834 and baptised at All Saints. Although the family moved just a little further away, to Holme Mead in Lymington, in 1846, it is clear that there remained a deep attachment to Milford.

One suggestion is that she made the drawing about the time of the death of her brother Frank Hyde D’Arcy in 1868; a window, no longer in existence, was dedicated to him in that year. Another possibility is on the death of her mother, Catherine Lucy Eliza D’Arcy, in 1863.

Was there a clock so early?. Certainly, there was one in 1876 when a weight fell onto the by then dilapidated ‘sentry box’ – the old shelter for the sexton – stored under the tower. The sketch itself shows two clocks on the tower, and photographic evidence from c1902 confirms that they were still there at that date. Mrs Anderson’s sketch therefore could have been made at any time from 1876 onwards and yet very possibly earlier.

She died on 5th November 1903 at Netley. A brass plaque was erected in the church by her daughter.

References

The image of the sketch is reproduced courtesy of Tim Anderson.

Rev. S. G. Hooper: credited in error to Rev. Canon R. T. Cole, ‘ “The Sentry Box” and the Church Clock’ MoSHRS Occasional Magazine Vol 5 no 6 1955.

Records

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