Church Of St Mary

ST 81 NE COMPTON ABBAS WEST COMPTON (main road)

10/103 Church of St Mary 16.8.60. GV II

Parish church, 1868. By George Evans. Snecked rubble and ashlar with ashlar dressings. Tiled, gable-ended roof with stone copings. Plan: nave, chancel, south tower/porch, south aisle, north vestry/organ chamber. In the 'Early English' style. Tower/porch: buttressed; not divided into stages; 2 centred moulded arch with shafted jambs and stiff-leaf capitals surmounted by label with head stops; ashlar vice turret to west; lancet with label having head stops above; arcaded bell openings each face having 3 arches the outermost of which are blind; broachspire with gablets. Other windows mainly lancets with labels having carved stops. West window of 3 graduated lancets. South chancel window has 2-centred head and plate tracery. Vestry has an octagonal stack and a west door with shafted jambs. Interior features: moulded 2-centred chancel arch with marble shafted jambs having carved capitals, label with carved stops; 2-bay, 2-centred arcade with flat soffits and plain jambs, massive round central pier with carved capital; vestry/ organ chamber arch is segmental pointed with flat soffits and jambs: 4-bay nave roof sub-divided by sub-principals; main principals have arch- braced collars with king-posts and struts and spring-from corbels; sub- principals are scissor-braced and spring from wall-plates; quadripartite, ribbed stone vault to chancel springing from marble vaulting shafts with carved capitals and corbels, apsidal end to chancel; C12 circular font with foliate scroll decoration, recut C19, on cylindrical pier with square base; C19 wooden font with shafted arcading on stone base; C19 pews; trefoiled rere-arches; C17 brass wall memorial to Thomas Lawrence; C19 and C20 glass. (RCHM Dorset, vol IV, p 13, no 1. Pitfield, F P, Dorset Parish Churches A-D, Dorset Publishing Co 1981, pp 196-8. Newman J and Pevsner N, The Buildings of England: Dorset , Penguin, 1972, p 159).

Listing NGR: ST8691018463