Parish Church Of St Aldhelm

Parish Church of St Aldhelm

Church, built 1892–94 by Bodley and Garner, completed 1911 by GG Hare except for a projected south-west tower which remains unexecuted. The building is constructed with a brick core faced with limestone ashlar and plain-tile roofs.

The church is a 3-aisled structure with no structural division between nave and chancel, a vestry to the north side of the chancel, and a north porch. It is designed in the Late Gothic style, broadly following the Decorated tradition.

The sanctuary projects one bay beyond the south aisle and features a 7-light east window with Perpendicular principal mullions defining the central 3 lights, sub-arches to the outer lights, multi-foiled reticulated tracery and hoodmould. Below the transom are blank lights with a sacred Monogram on a shield to the central division, which has blank cusped ogee-arched tracery head.

The vestry on the north side of the chancel is single-storey and spans 2 bays, positioned over a boiler room. It has a 3-light east window with cusped ogee-arched heads to the lights and a straight head, and a similar window to the north side. A double-chamfered north door with hoodmould provides entry.

The north aisle contains 9 bays, of which the westernmost is windowless, with a porch serving the penultimate western bay. The aisle has a single stone bellcote to the outer side of the east gable with a pinnacle and a pair of stone flues near the apex. The 2-light windows to the north have cinquefoil-headed lights and spherical cusped triangles to the head, with hoodmoulds. The porch features a doorway with a many-moulded head dying into wave-moulded jambs, a hoodmould and double wrought-iron gates. A tall niche above contains a statue of St Aldhelm. The porch front is flanked by gabled buttresses and has a stone-coped gable with kneelers. The porch interior has 8 arch-braced rafters with king posts. The north door has 3 shallow hollow chamfers to the head dying into chamfered jambs and is fitted with a double-leaf door with ornamented hinges.

The south aisle comprises 10 bays, of which the 2 westernmost bays are windowless. It has a 3-light east window with foiled reticulated tracery and hoodmould, and a 3-light window to the easternmost bay of the south side with a straight head, cinquefoil-headed lights and a pair of cusped spherical triangles to the head. The remaining windows are 2-light openings to the south with reticulated tracery and hoodmoulds. A south door to the penultimate western bay has 3 hollow chamfers to the head dying into chamfered jambs.

A projected tower in front, which would have incorporated a south porch, was not executed.

The west end features 2-light windows to the aisles with cusped Y-tracery, cinquefoiled heads to the lights and hoodmoulds, and a string course at cill level between buttresses. A west door interrupts a high plinth and has a many-moulded and chamfered head dying into double-chamfered jambs, a hoodmould and 2 stone steps leading to a double-leaf door with ornamental hinges. Footscraper niches to the plinth either side have chamfered ogee-arched heads.

The principal west window has 3 lights with cinquefoiled ogee-arched heads, multi-foiled reticulated tracery and hoodmould extended over niches either side. The niches have ogee-arched heads in rectangular surrounds with blank tracery to the spandrels and contain statues of the Angel of the Annunciation to the left and the Virgin Mary to the right.

The west front is flanked by offset gabled buttresses and has a plinth with deep ridged stone coping interrupted by similar, taller buttresses either side of the central bay which terminate between the gables of the nave and aisles. All gables have moulded stone coping, kneelers and small rectangular ventilation slits.

Interior

The body of the church features 10-bay arcades with clustered piers of quatrefoil section, double-moulded capitals and bases, and arches with 2 sunk quadrant mouldings and continuous hoodmoulds. The nave has a waggon roof ceiled to the easternmost bay with a lattice of small decorative ribs and bosses, and polychrome decoration. The aisles have boarded canted waggon roofs.

Fittings include a rood screen of oak in the late medieval style, a limestone font of goblet form, and a printed and gilded wood font cover in the classical style by Randoll Blacking, featuring an openwork obelisk finial and Tuscan columns supporting the canopy.

Stained-glass windows to the south aisle and chancel date to 1911 and are by Brulison and Grylls, whilst those to the west end of 1911 are by WE Tower. However, according to the Short Guide to the church, all windows are by CE Kempe and Co.