St Lawrence - Harrod 1865 - Civic, Commercial and Private entries- Page 1

Fowler Esq., the College

Pelham Hon. Mrs.

Quickfall John, farmer

ST. LAWRENCE is a parish and village in the East Medina liberty, distant 9 miles S.S.E. of Newport, and 2 miles W. from Ventnor, on the sea coast.

The church (St. Lawrence) was built in the reign of Richard I., and is, with one exception, the smallest in England, being only 20 feet long by 12 wide, and only about 6 feet to the eaves, In the interior are the arms of Charles ll., bearing date 1663 ; in the east window is a transparency of the Resurrection, in a stained glass frame, given by a Mrs. Carter in 1798. The slope of the hill on which the church stands is very steep, and a road has been cut like a groove ; on the opposite side a cliff, some hundred feet high and nearly perpendicular, towers over head ; yet from the richness of the soil that clings to the rocks they are clothed with clusters of flowers and shrubs, flourishing in the crevices.

Below the church a dizzy footpath winds down to the sea, where the scene grows wilder, the vegetation is withered and disappears, huge sea stained rocks are now seen on every side, with the sea beating against them.

By the roadside is St. Lawrence's Well, a piece of Gothic architecture enclosing a fountain of ever-running crystal water.

The population in 1861 was 85, and the acreage 332.

POSTAL REGULATIONS. - Letters received through Ventnor, which is also the nearest money-order office and post town.