Sts Thomas Minster, Newport Minster or The Minster Church of Sts Thomas, until 2008 Sts Thomas Church, is civically recognised as the main Anglican church on the Isle of Wight. Unusually, it is dedicated to both Thomas Becket and Thomas the Apostle.
The original late 12th-century church was dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas Becket) (1118–1170). Later, under the rule of King Henry VIII of England (1509–1547), when Becket was declared to have been a traitor, the Canterbury part of the name was dropped. Its name and the ambiguous dedication to St Thomas was thereafter, over time, assumed by many to refer to Thomas the Apostle.[2]
From the 18th century its deterioration made any renovation futile, and funds were raised for a new church on its site. The new church was built over the years 1854 and 1855 to a design by the architect Samuel Daukes of Cheltenham.[3] Reflecting the building's history, but arguably unusual, the new church was dedicated on the feast of Thomas the Apostle to both him and St Thomas of Canterbury. The tower contains a ring of 12 bells.
Burials from the late 16th century until 1858 took place in the detached grave yard situated between Orchard Street and Church Litten Lane. After local cemeteries opened in 1858, this grave yard became redundant. In the 1950's most of the memorials were removed and the old grave yard was repurposed as Litten Park.[5]
The organ is an architectural pipe organ positioned in the west gallery.
The original organ was built in 1870 by Forster and Andrews, and replaced by in 1925 by Conacher Sheffield & Co Ltd which was rebuilt itself in 1957 by J.W. Walker incorporating some pipework retained from the original Forster & Andrews organ.[7]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
