St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's | |
---|---|
49°54′39″N06°18′13″W / 49.91083°N 6.30361°W | |
OS grid reference | SV911101 |
Denomination | Church of England |
Churchmanship | Broad Church |
Website | https://www.ioschurches.co.uk/ |
History | |
Dedication | Blessed Virgin Mary |
Administration | |
Province | Canterbury |
Diocese | Truro |
Deanery | Powder |
Parish | St Mary's, Isles of Scilly |
Clergy | |
Vicar(s) | Revd Guy C Scott |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | The Old Church of St Mary |
Designated | 6 April 1959 |
Reference no. | 1141210 |
St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's is a parish church in the Church of England located in Old Town on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
The Anglican church of St Mary was built at Old Town, Isles of Scilly during the 12th century, perhaps around 1130. Re-building was carried out between 1660 and 1667 including the addition of the south aisle, and a west end gallery for soldiers from the Garrison. Further improvements were made in 1743 when the east end was rebuilt.
By the nineteenth century, it was derelict and under the orders of Augustus Smith, Lord Proprietor of the Islands, it was restored.
The churchyard of Old Town church serves as the principal cemetery for the island of St Mary's. Over the centuries countless members of the old Scilly families have been buried here, as have been the crews of numerous ships lost near the Isles. Among them are Sir John Narborough and his brother James, the sons of Rear Admiral Sir John Narborough, who both died in the sinking of HMS Association in 1707. Also buried here is Ann Cargill (1760–1784), an 18th-century opera diva and celebrated beauty of her time. She died when her ship sank off the Western Rocks and was first buried on Rosevear, before eventually being interred at Old Town Church.
Harold Wilson, Lord Wilson of Rievaulx KG OBE FRS PC, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976, is buried in the churchyard. Wilson had begun holidaying in the Scillies in the 1950s, building Lowenva a holiday home for his family, and spent much of his retirement on the island. [1] The ashes of his wife, Mary, were interred in the grave in 2018.
The churchyard has been enlarged and redesigned several times. Today it is divided into several sections with the oldest surrounding the church itself. This part of the cemetery features a monument to Augustus Smith (1804–1872) as well as mass graves of passengers drowned in the sinking of SS Schiller (1875). During the 19th century, terraces were cut into the hillside to make room for more burials.
The churchyard contains the grave of MP Ray Gunter (1909–1977), Minister of Labour under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The grave of Lieutenant Roy Graham (1924–2007), who led the 1967 naval diving expedition that discovered the wreck of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's flagship HMS Association, can be found in one of the newer sections of the cemetery.
St Mary's Old Church is within the United Benefice of the Isles of Scilly parishes, comprising
St Mary's is the largest and most populous island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwest coast of Cornwall in England, United Kingdom.
Hugh Town is the largest settlement on the Isles of Scilly and its administrative centre. The town is situated on the island of St Mary's, the largest and most populous island in the archipelago, and is located on a narrow isthmus which joins the peninsula known as the Garrison with the rest of the island.
HMS Colossus was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Gravesend on 4 April 1787 and lost on 10 December 1798. During her years of service she participated in the Battle of Groix, the Battle of Cape St Vincent, and the Battle of the Nile. While carrying wounded from the latter, she was wrecked at the Isles of Scilly. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and then at the Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As a captain he fought at the Battle of Bantry Bay during the Williamite War in Ireland.
Admiral Sir John Narborough was an English naval commander. He served with distinction in the Anglo-Dutch Wars and against the pirates of the Barbary Coast. He is also known for leading a poorly understood expedition to Valdivia and Patagonia in 1670–1671. In the 1680s he was involved in the scavenging of wrecked Spanish treasure ships.
St Agnes is the southernmost populated island of the Isles of Scilly. Thus the island's Troy Town Farm is the southernmost settlement in the United Kingdom.
Bryher is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, with a population of 84 in 2011, spread across 134 hectares (1.34 km2). Bryher exhibits a procession of prominent hills connected by low-lying necks and sandy bars. Landmarks include Hell Bay, famous for shipwrecks in the 18th and 19th centuries, Shipman Head, which was fortified in the Iron Age and where the tumbled ramparts of an Iron Age castle remain, and All Saints' Church, originally constructed in 1742. The island has two quays, Church Quay and Bar Quay.
Association was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1697. She served with distinction at the capture of Gibraltar, and was lost in 1707 by grounding on the Isles of Scilly in the greatest maritime disaster of the age. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
Augustus John Smith was a British politician and philanthropist who served as Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly for over thirty years from 1834 until his death in 1872, as well as serving as Member of Parliament for Truro from 1857 to 1865. As Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly, he introduced numerous reforms to the islands, including improvements to education, tenancy structures and employment. He built his home on the island of Tresco, and started the Tresco Abbey Gardens. He was succeeded as Lord Proprietor by his nephew, Thomas Smith-Dorrien, after his death in 1872.
Firebrand was a Royal Navy fireship built at Limehouse in 1694, the first Royal Naval vessel to bear the name.
The Isles of Scilly are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. One of the islands, St Agnes, is over four miles further south than the most southerly point of the British mainland at Lizard Point.
St Nicholas's Church, Tresco, is a parish church in the Church of England located in Tresco, Isles of Scilly, UK.
St Martin's Church, St Martin's is a Grade II listed parish church in the Church of England located in St Martin's, Isles of Scilly, UK.
St Mary's Church, St Mary's is a parish church in the Church of England located in Hugh Town, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, UK. The Church was consecrated on 7 September 1838 and replaced the church at Old Town which was inconvenient for the Hugh Town population and in need of repair.
The Scilly naval disaster of 1707 was the loss of four warships of a Royal Navy fleet off the Isles of Scilly in severe weather on 22 October 1707. Between 1,400 and 2,000 sailors lost their lives aboard the wrecked vessels, making the incident one of the worst maritime disasters in British naval history. The disaster has been attributed to a combination of factors, including the navigators' inability to accurately calculate their positions, errors in the available charts and pilot books, and inadequate compasses.
The Western Rocks are a group of uninhabited skerries and rocks in the south–western part of the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom, and are renowned for the numerous shipwrecks in the area and the nearby Bishop Rock lighthouse. In 1971, the rocks and islands were designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for their breeding sea birds. Landing on the islands is both difficult and discouraged and there are few published records of visits by naturalists.
Old Town is a village on St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly located southeast of Hugh Town. It is thought to be the oldest settlement on the island.
The Narborough Baronetcy, of Knowlton in the County of Kent, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 15 November 1688 in honour of Admiral Sir John Narborough for his four-year-old son John, and with remainder to his younger brother, James.
St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church, Mortlake, is a Roman Catholic church in North Worple Way, Mortlake, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The church is dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene. It is located just south of Mortlake High Street and the Anglican St Mary the Virgin Church. St Mary Magdalen's Catholic Primary School is just north of the churchyard.