Description
Stower Provost, a parish in Dorsetshire, 3 1/2 miles SSW of Gillingham station on the L. & S.W.R. Post town, Gillingham. Acreage, 2815; population of the civil parish, 700; of the ecclesiatical, 838. There is a parish council consisting of nine members. A nunnery or cell to St Leger de Pratellis in Normandy was founded in the time of King John, and with the manor was given to King's College, Cambridge, by Henry VI. in 1444. The living is a rectory united with Todbere, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £490 with residence. Patron, King's College, Cambridge. The church is good. There are Primitive Methodist and Congregational chapels.
Parish Church
The church of St. Michael is a building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch, and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 4 bells: the stained east window was presented by the late Rev. Henry James Slingsby, formerly rector, and there are others to the Rev. Robert Abercrombie Denton and the Rev. Richard Arthur Francis Barrett, both former rectors: the church affords 300 sittings.
