The Church of St. John the Apostle, Marchwood, was built 1839-1843 at the instigation of Mr. Horatio Francis Kingsford Holloway. It is a Commissioners' Church erected by Public Subscription with Mr. Holloway as the principal subscriber. The Church Building Society provided a small loan. Mr Holloway later provided the funds for the Village School.
H.F.K. Holloway was a man of some wealth who had inherited his maternal grandfather's fortune and adopted his surname. Mr. Holloway's family name was Martelli. The census of 1851 revealed that he was born in the parish of St. Clement Dane, London in 1808. Fosters Guide to Oxford shows that he was admitted to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1826. His brothers, Thomas and Charles, followed him to Oxford; Charles to Trinity in 1828 and Thomas to Brasenose in 1833.
In 1834 Mr. Holloway purchased Marchwood Park, a regency mansion built in 1820, now Marchwood Priory Hospital. In 1841 he married Mary Ann Breton who was a daughter of Peter Breton, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire. Peter Breton and his wife are commemorated in the West Window of Marchwood Church.
Horatio Holloway afterwards became High Sheriff of Hampshire.
Thomas Chessher Martelli, Mr. Holloway's brother, obtained his degree and was ordained. He became Priest in Charge and thereafter the first Vicar of Marchwood.
Samuel Wilberforce, who was then Vicar of Alverstoke, Gosport, Archdeacon of Surrey and a Chaplain to the Queen, and later became Bishop of Oxford, attended the consecration of the building.
The Architect was J. M. Derick. The style of the church is Early English which is unusual for a building of its date. The style only became popular a few years later. The Chancel and the Sedelia mark the church as a possible product of the Oxford Movement.
John MacDuff Derick was the architect whom Dr. Pusey chose to design St. Saviour's Church, Cavalier Hill, Leeds. St. Saviour's was built in memory of Dr. Pusey's wife and daughter. Derick was born in Ireland and practised in Oxford, at first in partnership with Mr. Hickman. He later had offices in London. He flourished between 1838 and 1848 after which he moved to Dublin. Clark, in "Nineteenth Century English Church Builders" indicates that he resigned his profession but had to take it up again after some misfortunes. He moved to the U.S.A. and is said to have practised there. "The Builder" of 1861 announced his death and said that his wife was in England seeking financial assistance.
Derick's works include: -St. John's Marchwood, 1839-41
St. Saviour's, Leeds, 1842-45
Magdalen College Oxford, 1844 (competition winner for design of Choristers'School, not built)
Eton College Chapel, 1845 (did not win competition for new design)
Floating Boatmen's Chapel at Oxford (Not built)
Colabah, Afghanistan, Memorial Church, 1845 (picture in "The Illustrated London News", issues 6 and 68)
St. John's Cathedral, Newfoundland, 1845 (designs later taken over by Scott)
Brayfield on the green, Northants, 1847 (restoration using zebraic stonework)
St. Mary the Virgin, Benefield, Northants, 1847-48 rebuilt, a sumptuous Tractarian Church
Holy Trinity, Over Worton, Oxford, 1848 (remodelled)
Bruen Testimonial Church, Carlow, Ireland, 1853-54
St. James' Church, Birch, Rusholme, Manchester
St. John's Roman Catholic Church, Banbury
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