Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2013 | Page 42
INTERVIEW
St. Agnes CHURCH
In the latest of his series, Mark Fox travels to West Wight to
view the only thatched church on the Island, and one of only
about 100 throughout the country.
St Agnes Church sits in the far west
of the Island at Freshwater, on one
side looking out onto the fields of the
surrounding countryside and on the
other looking towards the community
it serves.
The arrival of the famous poet Lord
Tennyson at nearby Farringford had
attracted to this remote community
an illustrious stream of guests which
included Lewis Carroll, William
Makepeace Thackeray and Edward
Lear.
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There are two memorial plates
bearing the names of Tennyson and
Thackeray in the church, giving
witness to their connection to the
church. Indeed the porch was the
gift of Tennyson’s daughter Emily in
memory of her mother.
The thatched roof is the church’s
most visible and unique feature. Alone
among Island churches the roof is
its distinguishing characteristic. It
was the vision of the then Rector of
Freshwater, the Revd A.J. Robertson.
When plans for the church were first
being discussed he drew a picture of
the kind of church he wanted to see
built on land given for the purpose
by Hallam Tennyson, the poet’s eldest
son.
The architect, Isaac Jones, who was
born at Carisbrooke, based his plans
on that painting and local builders,
the C & W White Brothers, were
commissioned to erect the building.
Much of the stone was taken from a
nearby unoccupied farmhouse, which