Gatcombe church nestles in the park at the foot of 539 feet high New Barn Down. The church has some precious memories of the centuries and is regarded as a treasure of our own time.

It holds the last monument fashioned by Sir Thomas Brock who was regarded as one of our greatest sculptures, and is in memory of one of our young heroes, Charles Grant Seely who died in 1917 after being wounded three times but still continued to lead his men on the Turkish  stronghold of Gasa. He was a brave man and was greatly loved and he lies at Gaza with the brave men of his regiment who fell with him on that fateful day. The panels of the tomb show low relief's of his battlefield grave and also an eastern city, there are shields that bear coloured badges set in laurel wreaths.

Inside this 13th century church can be found one of only 100 wooden figures of a knight in the country. Sword at the ready he has an angel at his head and a lion at his feet, he is unknown but lies within a recess which with the chancel arch and a lancet windows are all that remains of a 700 year old church that was built by the Estur family of Gatcombe Manor, he could even be an Estur and this could be a Jacobean copy of a much older figure which has disappeared. The font is 700 years old and is arcaded and the tower is 500 years old. It was constructed in three stages the top being decorate with a garland of angels and gargoyles, one of the latter being a winged devil that is grinning. On the gable of the stone porch is a cross that is held by another of these demonic heads. The altar table is Jacobean and so are the carved altar rails that now form part of a screen.

There are some pieces of glass that depict four angels all in pale yellow and are all that remains of these beautiful windows.

Text courtesy of: Southern Life (UK)