All Saints
Fleet, Hampshire
Following an arson attack in 2015, this beautiful church, designed by William Burgess, has been restored and is now open to visitors and for services.
Consecrated on 5th October 1843, the Norman transitional style parish church of All Saints’ in Dogmersfield was built by Benjamin Ferrey. It was the gift of the Rector, the Reverend Charles Dyson and his half-sister Mary Ann, on a site exchanged with Jane, Lady Mildmay for the old glebe lands in the Home Park of nearby Dogmersfield House. John Keble, founder of the Oxford Movement and life long friend of Dyson, chose the site with a view to the convenience of the parishioners: estate workers and tenants housed in the village of Dogmersfield, newly constructed around the old hamlet of Pilcot. The late date of this church, however, does not reflect the antiquity of the parish.
The first known church in Dogmersfield 'the field by the lake where the water lilies grow' is mentioned in the Doomsday Book, 1086, and was therefore most probably of Saxon origin. A later church with ‘narrow lancet windows’ of Norman construction survived until 1801. This church was situated close to Dogmersfield House, at that time a palace of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and was used as the Bishops chapel and later as a family church by the Lords of the Manor of Dogmersfield.
The first Rector of the parish was Walter de Henleie, around 1200. A board is displayed in the church listing the Rectors up to the time when the last permanent incumbent, Reverend KS Bradley, retired from office. Among the owners of Dogmersfield Park were the Bishops of Bath and Wells, who held the parish for over 400 years. Bishop Jocelyn died there in 1191. Ralph Flambard when Bishop of Durham, Henry I, Henry VIII, Edward VI and the three Wriothsleys, Earls of Southampton. The second Earl built a new mansion in 1728 to replace the original Bishops palace.
Notable visitors to the parish included Henry VI, who stayed here whilst hunting at Crondall, Henry VII and his son Prince Arthur who met the latter’s bride, Katharine of Aragon, on her arrival from Spain in November 1501, William IV when Prince of Wales and Prime Minister Canning. Gifts sent to Dogmersfield include wine from King John and deer from Edward I.