The Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Brockenhurst 

The Roman conquest of Britain in A.D. 43 spread its influence to the Kingdom of Wessex of which this parish was a part. The fall of Rome in A.D. 410 left Britain defenceless against Saxon or Dane, but Roman influence was to return.

Urged by appeals from England, Gregory the Great directed Augustine to Kent where he pursued his mission in A.D. 597. Forty years later the West Saxons (from which the name of Wessex derives) were converted by Birinus who came from Rome. 

There followed a company of secular Canons, later Augustinians, who built a Church and dwelling for themselves at Twinham (Christchurch). As priests, physicians, school-teachers, assistance officers and husbandmen they won to the Faith the people of the area; all the Forest, and much more, became their Parish but it was at Brockenhurst that they probably founded their first mission. The Forest was to become the King’s New Forest after the Norman Conquest.

Our next record is the Charter of Baldwin de Redvers c. 1160 preserved in Christchurch Priory. Brockenhurst had become part of the great de Redvers fief, for we read that its “chapelry” was confirmed by Baldwin to the Canons of Holy Trinity, Twinham,  -  “for the service of God and my soul’s salvation.”

The Lord of the Manor was obliged to accommodate the King when he came hunting -  “Litter for the King’s bed and fodder for his horse”. The Manor, being adjacent to the Church, it is certain that the Norman and Angevin Kings, and their entourages, must have worshipped in St. Nicholas.  Brockenhurst was the centre of the Kings’ hunting and its chief importance in those times.

Next we have the “Speculum Prioris” (Cotton M.S. Brit.: Mus: A.D. 1362) a stocktaking of all the Christchurch possessions. It affirms that this Church “To the Church of Christ belongs as to a mother”  (tanguam ad mater).