St Edward the Confessor, Netley

St Edward's sits close by the impressive ruins of Netley Abbey, the best preserved Cistercian House in the south of England. The village and its church, however, are creatures of the 19th century, and particularly the establishment of the Royal Victoria Military Hospital in 1856: the hospital, once the longest single building in the world, was demolished in 1966 (though its chapel still remains).

St Edward's was built in 1886 to the designs of J D Sedding, one of the most noted Victorian church architects, perhaps best known for Holy Trinity, Sloane Street. The exterior is handsome, with the offset square tower providing a pleasing focal point, as one crosses the spacious lawned churchyard. The nave and tower both have long lancet windows; the round west window is an interesting composition, with a single large quatrefoil containing four trefoils.

The interior is a little disappointing: the long, whitewashed nave delivers something of a tunnel effect from the west end; things improve moving eastwards towards the chancel, as the two-bay aisles (set where one would expect the transepts) provide more visual interest and the careful detailing becomes apparent. It has a fine red marble pulpit, font and low chancel wall (in place of a rail). In the south aisle is a rather badly damaged monument rescued from Netley Abbey (originally placed in the castle) of a knight, c. 13th century.

St Edward the Confessor, Netley Abbey, Southampton SO31 5FE

St Peter & St Paul, Great Missenden

St Michael the Archangel, Southampton

Founded around 1070, shortly after the Norman Conquest, St Michael's is the oldest building in Southampton and the only church in the area of the original mediaeval town which is still in use.

Of the original Norman church, only the lower part of the central tower survives. Originally cruciform, later additions have resulted in its present rectangular floor-plan. The church was expanded in the 12th century with the addition of aisles, and the rebuilding of the chancel. North and south chapels were added in the 13th century. Both aisles and chapels were widened in the 14th-15th centuries. A major rebuilding of the nave and aisles in 1828-9 was undertaken to insert galleries: since removed, all that remains are the delicate arcades and plaster ceiling. The tower spire was erected in the 15th Century and rebuilt in 1732, then further heightened in 1887 to make it a better landmark for shipping.

The interior contains the impressive the tomb of Sir Richard Lyster, Lord Chief Justice to Henry VIII, and a font of Tournai marble from the late 12th Century decorated with three roundels on each side, one of which supposedly depicts St Michael the Archangel; the others depict creatures that might be Griffins or winged lions. The church also contains two rare mediaeval brass eagle lecterns from the 15th Century, the finer of which was rescued from the bombed ruins of Holy Rood church in the Second World War. The East window has depictions of the original five churches from the town.

The church has a busy parish life, with worship in a traditional style (some services with incense) with a sung Eucharist.

St Michael the Archangel, 55 Bugle Street, Southampton SO14 2AG

St George the Martyr, Southwark

St Mary Magdalene, Willen

St Michael, Stragglethorpe

St Michael sits in a delightfully rustic setting, next to a farmyard, on the edge of the small hamlet of Stragglethorpe. The simple, unmodernised interior is essentially unchanged since the early 19th Century.

The church dates from the late Saxon period, to which a north aisle was added in the late 12th Century, and a small Gothic porch, later in the mediaeval period. The church is entered through an ancient and rather weathered wooden door, the doorway arch surmounted by simple billet decoration.

The interior is simplicity itself. The nave and chancel form a single undivided space, plastered and whitewashed. The ceiling is remarkably low and flat - and clearly a late addition as it has a cut-away recess to accommodate the fine late 17th Century wall monument to Richard Earle (d.1697). The two bay north aisle arcade has broad, rounded arches and a single octagonal column. A triangular Saxon doorway (now blocked) survives in the west wall, with two simple Norman lancets in the east.

The furnishings are a delight. At the rear is a very solid Norman tub font, with simple blind arcading decoration, and the remains of a Romanesque pillar piscina. The nave and aisle are filled with fine, panelled box pews, still retaining their single candle-holders. Nail holes testify to long-forgotten upholstery - 18th century worship was not quite as spartan as it may first appear!

These face a well-preserved double-decker pulpit, overlooked by a hatchment with the Royal Coat of Arms of George I, with a startlingly well-endowed lion and unicorn rampant. Greater piety is demonstrated by the boards displaying the ten commandments either side of the altar, and the Lord's prayer at the rear.

Perhaps most poignant is the poem on Richard Earle's monument, for his grieving mother, on his  death aged 24:

Stay, Reader, and observe Deaths partial doom,
A spreading Virtue in a narrow Tomb,
A generous Mind mingled with common Dust,
Like Burnish'd Steel cover'd and left to Rust,
Darke in the Earth he lies in whom did Shine
All the Divided Merits of his Line,
The Lustre of his Name seems faded here,
No fairer Star in all that fruitfull Sphere,
in Piety and Parts extremely Bright,
Clear was his Youth, and fill'd with Growing light,
A morn that promis'd much yet saw no Noon,
None ever Rose so fast and set so soon,
All lines of Worth were Center'd here in One,
Yet see, he lies in Shades, whose Life had none,
Yet while the Mother this sad Structure Rears,
A double Dissolution there Appears,
He into Dust dissolves, She into Tears.

The church forms part of a benefice with Beckingham and Brant Broughton.

St Michael, Stragglethorpe LN5 0QZ

St Mary, Marston