Parish Church Of St Mary

Parish Church of St Mary, Charminster

This parish church has a core dating to the 11th century at the east end of the nave, with later 12th-century arcades and part of the south walling. The east half of the south aisle was widened in the 15th century to form a south chapel. The 16th century saw the addition of a west tower, north and south vestries, and a south porch. The chancel was demolished in the 17th century and rebuilt around 1838. The north aisle was rebuilt later in the 19th century. General restorations took place in 1838–9 and in 1895, when the roofs were renewed.

The walls are constructed of local rubble stone with some flint coursing, combined with limestone and Ham Hill ashlar. The roofs are lead, except for the chancel and north aisle roofs which are slate.

The south elevation shows considerable architectural development. The south aisle at the west end has probable 12th-century walling with a 3-light 15th-century window. The late 15th-century south doorway has a pointed moulded head and continuous moulded jambs with run-out stops and a triangular chamfered rear arch. The south chapel, dating to the late 15th century with 16th-century widening in the south-west corner, contains a 15th-century window of 3 cinquefoil lights in a square head below a moulded label with head stops. The south wall has a much restored 15th-century window. To the west, the recess-like 16th-century exterior has a window of 2 elliptical-headed lights in a square head with chamfered reveals. The 16th-century south porch has a porch arch reconstructed in the 17th century; the parapet includes two 16th-century gargoyles and a corbel bearing the Trenchard monogram, now supporting a 20th-century cross.

The nave features a clerestory with five windows: three 2-light 15th-century windows clasped in square heads interspersed with single-light 12th-century windows. The ashlar parapet has strings above. The short chancel contains a 17th-century east window reset inside out, of four lights with vertical tracery in a 4-centred moulded head with moulded splays and a chamfered label, now on the inside. A reset 15th-century window in the south wall has 2 four-centred lights in a square head with label.

The west tower and adjoining vestries, built in the early 16th century by Thomas Trenchard, bear his monogram on the west buttresses. The tower comprises three stages with a moulded plinth and strings carried round the angle buttresses and an octagonal vice-turret at the north-west corner. It has an embattled parapet, gargoyles, and crocketed pinnacles. The west doorway has a moulded 4-centred head and continuous moulded jambs with pedestal stops, all set in a square surround formed by diagonally set standards and a moulded string across the head. The traceried spandrels include the Trenchard monogram. The west window has five transomed lights with 4-centred openings below and ogee cinquefoil openings above, with a high 4-centred head containing vertical tracery. The second stage has a small rectangular window. The third stage, containing the bell opening, has two 2-light double-transomed square-headed windows with square labels; all lights have elliptical heads and are filled with pierced stone panels. The north and south vestries flank the west tower and are contemporary with it, featuring set-back buttresses and 3-light windows to north and south.

The north aisle, rebuilt later in the 19th century, has gabled east and west ends with re-used 12th-century corbels as kneelers. The east window is a 15th-century reset of 2 cinquefoil lights in a square head with moulded label and head stops. Four reset windows between buttresses are all 15th-century with 20th-century repairs, similar to the window in the east wall.

The interior features a tower arch with reveals and soffit decorated with pairs of cusped ogee-headed stone panels, the lowest bearing the Trenchard monogram. Panelled arched openings lead to the north and south vestries. The nave has north and south arcades of four bays with 12th-century 2-centred arches springing from columns with scalloped capitals with voluted corners and moulded bases. Square responds at the east and west ends mark the remains of the antecedent nave. The column bases have spurs. Supporting the roof trusses are a number of reset 15th-century corbels. The west wall of the nave includes boldly projecting tower-buttresses flanking the tower arch. The chancel arch is round-headed with two lightly chamfered orders and ornamental labels; the shafted jambs have a 3/4 shaft to each outer order and a cluster of 3 segmental shafts to the inner order. The middle shaft is keeled with scalloped capitals and moulded abaci and bases.

The fittings include bells, brass and indents, and remains of a cross clock. The font is probably 12th-century, recut and reshaped in the 15th century. Monuments and floor slabs are recorded in the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England; the south chapel (Wolfeton) contains canopied table-tombs of the Trenchard family dating to the 16th century.

Mural paintings in the nave include areas of stencilled decoration on the north wall depicting strawberries and leaves in red on white ground, dating to the early 16th century. Over the north arcade are traces of a black-letter inscription from Matthew V, 16. The third bay has a rectangular panel with an inscription from Nahum I, 15. The south arcade walling has further black-letter inscriptions recorded in the Royal Commission entry.

Other features include an octagonal oak pulpit with a moulded and jewel-ornamented plinth, modern base, and sides in two heights of panelling with enriched framing, enriched guilloche rails, and cornices. A piscina, plate, royal arms, sundials, weathervane, and miscellaneous items are recorded in the Royal Commission entry.