Abbey Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Abbey Church of St Peter and St Paul

Abbey church on the High Street in Dorchester. Built over several centuries from the 12th to 14th centuries, with the tower rebuilt in 1602. The building was significantly restored in three major phases: around 1845 by James Cranston, 1846–53 by William Butterfield, and 1859–74 by George Gilbert Scott.

The church is built of coursed squared limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, roofed with stone-slate, old plain tiles and lead. It comprises an aisled chancel, a nave with south aisle, a west tower and south porch.

The chancel was extended one bay beyond its aisles around 1340 and features deep buttresses and a carved string course on the north side. Three large windows with exceptional tracery design occupy the east and south walls. The north window displays a unique Jesse Tree; the east window has six lights of Reticulated tracery with a central buttress beneath a wheel that Butterfield restored; the south window contains four lights of elongated Reticulation with a transom above four small sedilia windows set in deep arched recesses.

The early 14th-century south chancel aisle has gabled buttresses and a south-east angle turret with stone spirelet. Its east side contains a pair of three-light windows with spherical triangles, and its south side has four three-light windows with cusped Intersecting tracery. The south wall of the late 14th-century nave aisle displays four similar windows with plainer buttresses. A 13th-century south-west angle buttress has two tiers of niches below tall gables and a stone spirelet.

An early Perpendicular south door sits within a 15th or 16th-century open porch with Tudor-arched entrance. A similar Perpendicular west door lies below a four-light window with cusped Intersecting tracery, restored by Scott. The three-stage crenellated west tower was largely rebuilt in 1602 (date marked near the top) with three chequered stone and flint octagonal corner turrets and a deep moulded plinth, though it retains 12th-century work in the south-east stair turret and several round-arched windows. The belfry openings have plain Y-tracery.

The 12th-century north wall of the nave contains one restored tall Romanesque window, two inserted square-headed three-light 14th-century windows with Reticulated tracery, and a small blocked Decorated doorway. The return to the remains of the former north transept has a 12th-century doorway, probably altered, with detached shafts, interlacing capitals and a geometrical tympanum. A 17th-century arched window with plain mullions and transoms was later added to the north wall. The narrow four-bay north chancel aisle is early 13th-century in date, raised in the late 13th century, with two- and three-light windows featuring shafted jambs, mullions and Geometrical tracery.

Interior features are extensive. The rear arches of the three sanctuary windows display rows of ball-flower ornament, and the tracery is encrusted with figure carvings, notably the Jesse Tree on the north window. The triple sedilia and piscina have elaborate stone canopies beneath which sit cusped triangular windows. An earlier double piscina stands to the west. The three-bay late 13th and early 14th-century chancel arcades have composite piers and richly moulded arches. The north chancel aisle contains a large piscina and a row of three aumbries, plus unused early 13th-century vaulting shafts with dogtooth ornament. The arch to the north transept has foliage capitals. The wide south chancel aisle features a 19th-century stone vault in its two eastern bays with a central row of columns, an elaborate canopied piscina and doorway in the south-east corner. The plain semi-circular north and south crossing arches date possibly to the 11th or 12th centuries; the western arch is lighter, with a pointed Transitional arch springing from shafted responds with palmette-leaf capitals. The three-bay late 14th-century nave arcade has much plainer piers and arches, with one pier bearing a large carved image bracket. The east wall of the south aisle contains a blocked window of the transept and a small 14th-century doorway.

The roofs throughout date to the 19th century, with some incorporating crown-post trusses. The sanctuary windows retain much contemporary medieval glass including panels, figures and armorials. A mid-13th-century roundel appears in the east window of the north chapel, and 14th-century fragments survive in a north window of the nave. Two windows by Hardman date to 1830 and 1842 and are located in the south choir aisle; two further windows by Mayer of Munich date to 1899. The east window wheel was designed by Butterfield and executed by O'Connor in 1847. A 14th-century wall painting survives in the south aisle.

Furnishings include a pulpit and pews by Butterfield, early 16th-century choir stalls with carved poppy-head ends, the base of a 15th-century parclose screen, a 17th-century communion table, two 17th-century chests and a bier dated 1685. A Romanesque lead font features figures beneath arcading.

Monuments include two medieval coffins, four fragmentary 15th and 16th-century brasses and four stone effigies. The earliest effigy, dating to around 1280, is a fine cross-legged figure. Numerous 17th and 18th-century stone and marble ledgers are also present.