Old Church Of St Lawrence

Opposing blocked N door is later, probably mid-late C13 with a pointed arched and segmental outer moulding.

C13 aumbry or piscina with pointed arch in S wall.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Carved simple Victorian reredos.

E window is the only one with stained glass: a depiction of Christ standing, in memory of Edith Holmes, again Victorian.

Stone holy water stoop in NE corner of nave, possibly C15 and recovered from the churchyard pre-late C19 on historical evidence.

Simple stone font in nave SW corner.

Also Royal Arms of 1674.

HISTORY: Although the first recorded rector of the parish was in 1201, the church dates to the very end of the C12.

The chancel is attributed in the aforementioned article to the `late Lord Yarnborough' presumably Charles Anderson-Pelham, subsequently the 3rd Earl of Yarnborough Photographs from the early and mid C20 in the National Monuments Record show that it has changed little in the last century other than the electrification of the lighting The 1777 bell was mounted on the south wall sometime in the first half of the C20.

SOURCES Lloyd, D and Pevsner, N., Buildings of England: Isle of Wight , 767 Victoria County History, Hampshire

the Isle of Wight Vol. 5 , 193-195 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION St Lawrence Old Church, of very late C12 origins, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Date and form: a very small two-cell church of considerable charm and simple architectural form with much of its Norman nave surviving.

Its sole enlargement makes it unusual as a little-altered medieval chapel. * Fixtures: it retains an early font decalogue board and other items.