Brownsea's 'time warp' church

Visiting St Mary's Church on Brownsea Island is like stepping back in time.

Although it was built in 1853 it still has no water supply or heating, the only light comes from candles and its organ is pumped by hand.

The church's construction was part of ambitious plans by the island's then owner, Colonel Waugh, to develop new industry on the island.

Although those plans came to nothing, St Mary's has remained at the centre of the island's changes through the years.

St Mary's was left unused for several years after 1927.

Part of a new community

Colonel Waugh wanted to build a community on Brownsea, believing he'd unearthed a rich supply of clay on the island but the business failed to prosper.

Later, in 1927, Mrs Bonham-Christie was the island's reclusive owner.

Having bought the island for £125,000 at auction, she gave everyone living on the island a year's notice to leave, an act which reduced the island's community from 70 to around six people.

The island was left to nature and became overgrown and so St. Mary's was unused for several decades.

Nature takes over

Janet Mellors is the church's unofficial historian, and her views on Mrs Bonham-Christie's actions are mixed.

She says: "Mrs Bonham-Christie destroyed the island's community but in doing so it also preserved the island.

"She let nature take over but that's why we can all enjoy the island today."

But in 1962 after Mrs Bonham-Christie's death, the island was handed over to the state in lieu of her death duties, before later passing into the care of the National Trust - and the church services were resumed.

Today, from May to September, it remains a working church.

'You never know who's going to turn up'

Both the church and the island have strong connections with the scouting movement.

Charles Van Raalte, the island's owner from 1901 to 1907, let Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell hold his first Scout camp on the island.

It ensures the church's congregation can often be boosted by hundreds of Scouts or Brownies at a moment's notice.

The Reverend Canon Nigel Lloyd is the church's vicar and says he never knows who is going to turn up to a service.

He says: "One week you might get two people turning up, the next it's 300. You can have something prepared and then a hundred Brownies come through the door at one minute to three and you have to change it. It keeps you on your toes!"

Canon Nigel, who is part of the Parish of St Peter and St Osmund, Parkstone, says: "I often tell people we have a Parish of 24 people, with a few more thousand people on the mainland!

"I'm very proud to be vicar of Brownsea Island. I always think how lucky I am when I go over on the boat in the summer. I also like it in a gale force wind as well, with waves going over the boat!"

The church's building belongs to the Church of England, and is the only part of the island to not be owned by the National Trust.

Hermit monk

Historian Janet's mother was the church warden until 1996, and after her death in 2001 her ashes were buried in the churchyard.

Services such as christenings, weddings and ashes burials are carried out in the church for people who have had a strong connection with the island.

But Janet says the island has had a place of worship for much longer than the church has been there.

"We think there was a hermit monk on the island, originally from Cerne Abbas, possibly as early as 800 AD.

"His job was to look after shipwrecked mariners. When the island's farm cottages were renovated in the 1970s evidence was found of church burials, and bones were discovered dating from 1,000 to 1,300 AD."

Close-knit

Janet's role involves spending time in the church and talking to its visitors during the year's warmer months.

She thinks the church is an important part of the island, not only because it's a glimpse into how life was when the church was first built, but as a place for the island's community today, which is around 30 people.

She says: "An island community is a close-knit community, it has to be. It's not a self sufficient community as it once might have been with jobs and a farm, but the residents all have to be careful when they go shopping [on the mainland] to not forget anything."

Services at St Mary's Church on Brownsea Island run every Sunday from May until September at 3pm.