Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Dorchester

A large and lavish church built 1910-12 by Charles E. Ponting, designed in Free Late Gothic style with freely interpreted tracery and Arts and Crafts influences. The church is constructed of rock-faced coursed and snecked Purbeck limestone from nearby Swanage, with window surrounds, tower facing and internal facings of Bath stone from Hartham quarry, and brown clay-tiled roofs.

The plan comprises a four-bay nave with clerestory and lean-to aisles, a south-west tower base, north and south transepts (with organ chamber in the north transept), a two-bay chancel with vestries and gallery to the north, and an apsidal south chapel separated from the chancel by a narrow passage aisle.

The exterior is characterized by its unfinished appearance in places. The nave and chancel are roofed as one structure. Double west windows are divided by a central buttress under a tall gable. The most striking feature is the base of the intended tower on the south side, serving as an impressive porch entrance with florid decoration around the arch and in the spandrels. Above is a statuary niche containing the Virgin Mary, framed by four shields bearing symbols of the Evangelists. The west window of the tower base is filled with a temporary wooden frame, while the unfinished head and tracery are interrupted by the roof slope. The south transept dominates the south side with a large four-light window and a projecting buttress from its east face, against which stands a shallow porch for the priests' door—described as the most original feature of the design. The south chancel chapel is lower with an apsidal east end and single-light windows. The chancel east wall has a gable flanked by buttresses rising to two slim pinnacles. The east window, set under a depressed arch, contains seven lights arranged 2:3:2 with curving tracery of complex form and much cusping. Over the chancel arch on the roof ridge is a leaded octagonal base to a fleche (Ponting's term was Sanctus bellcote), the remainder of which was removed in 1998.

The interior displays considerable craftsmanship and decoration. The nave and chancel are roofed in one sweep with a segmental wagon vault of dark stained timber panels against white plaster. The main trusses are tie-beams with slim turned king-posts. Decorative brattishing with shields adorns the wall plates. Floors comprise red quarry tiles and oak blocks in the nave and aisles, while the chancel has a black and white geometric floor of Derbyshire fossilstone marble. The main entrance leads into the tower base, a transeptal space at the west end of the south aisle, opening into the nave through a tall, elegant panelled arch. The northern arcade features a distinctive double arch in its western bay with a richly decorated niche containing a statue of St George. The aisles are low and quite dark with moulded depressed arches to the nave dying into octagonal piers carrying slim attached shafts facing into the nave. These are continued as wall shafts to the roof corbels. Clerestory windows contain four Perpendicular lights under square heads with segmental rere-arches. The aisle windows are similar but simpler. The chancel contains a triple sedilia with ogee canopy and adjacent piscina. An arcade of three half-sized arches opens through a narrow vaulted passage aisle into the south chapel, a device borrowed from J.L. Pearson.

The font is square and plain, set on four short marble colonnettes, with an openwork Gothic oak cover. The pulpit, designed by Ponting in 1912, is octagonal and quite open, constructed of oak with heavy corner posts rising from the floor and encrusted with elaborate carving. The top rail features angels' heads; the main panels have slender traceried piercings. The sounding board is an octagon with convex sides, similarly rich in carving. The rood screen, presented in 1914, is exceptionally tall with vaulted coving to a full rood loft above, comprising five divisions of three lights with a transom band at half height and tracery beneath. The choir stalls and priest's stall date from 1955 and are of oak with angled vertical mouldings. The altar rail of 1966 employs an unobtrusive post-and-lintel design. The organ of 1976 was installed in 1990 in a light oak case with overtly modern details within a traditional composition with angled wings for the pipes. The original oak chairs were replaced by upholstered seating circa 1980-5. The south chapel contains a fine stone Pieta in relief by Herbert Palliser, dating from 1940. A grid-form lighting gantry of steel and oak (circa 1990-2009) hangs over the crossing. The chapel is furnished with a low wrought-iron rail and gate, probably by Barkentin & Krall, dating from 1933.

Stained glass includes an early light by C.E. Kempe & Co., circa 1912, at the east end of the passage aisle. The chapel apse contains three lights of 1925 by George Parlby, who also designed three windows in the south aisle (1933-5) and the south transept south window (1943-5), with Powell & Sons as makers. A four-light window in vibrant colours by Francis Skeat, dating from 1959-61, is located in the west end of the north aisle.

The church replaced a temporary church built 1896-7 on a different site, also designed by Ponting and measuring 112 feet long. A building fund for the replacement was begun in 1901. Ponting designed a new church in 1907 for a site on Bridport Road, which was rejected by Bishop Wordsworth of Salisbury. After intense disagreement, the present plot was agreed with the Bishop in 1909, with deeds exchanged in January 1910. Ponting's plan was recycled, though the tower and transept were relocated to the south side rather than the north to suit the orientation of the roads east and south of the site. The foundation stone was laid on 21 April 1910, and the church opened on 11 July 1912. The cost was estimated at £10,000 excluding the tower.

Charles E. Ponting (1850-1932) of Marlborough served as diocesan surveyor for the Wiltshire region of the diocese of Salisbury from 1883-1928, the Bristol region from 1887-1915, and the Dorset region from 1892-1928. He worked elsewhere in England, Wales, Ireland, Australia, Bucharest and Oporto. He restored or repaired some 225 churches with sympathy and harmony. St Mary, Dorchester, is the finest of his fifteen new churches and chapels. He never became a member of the RIBA.