St Aldhelm's Chapel is a Grade I listed building in the Dorset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 November 1959. A C12 Chapel.
St Aldhelm's Chapel
- WRENN ID
- night-hall-vale
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Dorset
- Constituency
- South Dorset MP: Lloyd Hatton (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 20 November 1959
- Type
- Chapel
- Period
- C12
- Address
- St Aldhelm's Chapel, Worth Matravers
- OS grid reference
- SY 960 755
- Coordinates
- 50.57974, -2.05684
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Saint Aldhelm's Chapel is an Anglican chapel-of-ease dating from the 12th century. It features rubble stone walls and a pyramidal stone slate roof topped with a 20th-century stone cross on a circular base. A moulded corbel table is present on the north-east wall. The chapel has large added buttresses on the north-west, north-east, and south-east walls, as well as at the north angle, with an original shallow buttress at the south angle. The building has a square plan and includes a small lancet window at the east end of the south-east wall, which also has a moulded string course. The entrance is located in the north-west wall and consists of a round-headed doorway with two simple orders and a hoodmould.
Inside, a central composite pier supports a quadrupartite vault, featuring simple chamfered ribs and shallow wall shafts. The walls are unplastered, and the floor is stone flagged, raised but still below ground level. There is a 19th-century stone font. Although traditionally described as a chapel and noted by Hutchins as being served by a royal chaplain in the 13th century, the building lacks specific ecclesiastical features. Its plan form, orientation, and limited natural lighting are atypical for a church, giving it the appearance of a vaulted undercroft, possibly intended for an uncompleted tower structure. The chapel is situated on a platform in the center of an earthwork enclosure and is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Local climate
St Aldhelm's Chapel receives an average of 770 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 64% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 75% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 9 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 91% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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