Indeed the
rector of St Mary's was continually in controversy with the canons as
to his rights, and eventually, in the thirteenth century, he won the
day. In any case the mother church of Southampton was St Mary's,
outside the walls of the town. That a Saxon church stood upon this site
is certain, and this was possibly represented in Leland's time by the
chapel of St Nicholas, "a poor and small thing," which then stood to
the East of "the great church of Our Lady," which he saw and which
probably dated from the time of Henry I. This church was, alas,
destroyed by the town only a few years later because its spire was said
to guide the French cruisers into Southampton Water, and the stones
were used to mend the roads. It may be that the chancel escaped, or it
may be that a new and much smaller church was erected in 1579. This,
whichever it was, was much neglected till in 1711 a nave was built on
to it. Then in 1723 the chancel was destroyed, and a new one built. In
1833 this was rebuilt, and then in 1878 a new church was built, in
place of the old which was pulled down, by Street.
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