Chapel Of St Catherine

SY 58 SE ABBOTSBURY ST CATHERINE'S HILL

5/70 CHAPEL OF ST CATHERINE 26.1.56 GV I

Chapel on hill-top. c 1400, repaired in 1742 and late C19. Dressed stone walls, much weathered. Buttresses set back at corners and at bay divisions with 2 pairs of set-offs, pedestal tops and crenellated cornices. Octagonal newel-stair projects at the north-west corner, and is buttressed only to parapet string. Openings to parapet walls and for top light. Tall parapet wall with 3 segmental openings at foot of each bay for rainwater. Stone slab roof, recently (1983) renewed in Clipsham stone. Single-cell rectangle with axial porches to north and south. East window is of 3 cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a two- centred head. Label with returned stops. The second bays in the north and south walls, each have a 2-light window with two-centred head, both repaired. Both porches have steeply-pitched stone slab roofs, diagonal buttresses, and 2-centred doorways with moulded jambs. Ribbed pointed-barrel roofs to porches. Interior: pointed, barrel vault of stone, springing from moulded cornices, and divided into 8 main bays by moulded ribs. Each bay has 2 ranges of 3 panels with cinquefoiled heads. Basses are carved with foliage, 2 figure-subjects, a beast and a man's head. East wall has 4 image brackets. South wall has a piscina with trefoiled head and cinquefoil drain of leaf form. North west newel-stair to roof and tiny chapel in the head of the stair-turret. This retains one of a pair of stone supports for its altar slab, and has an ornate ceiling (partly reconstructed) supported by a central column with a richly carved capital. Scheduled Ancient Monument (RCHM Dorset I, p 3 (2).)

Listing NGR: SY5725684836