Church Of St Mary

SIXPENNY HANDLEY ST 9917 HIGH STREET

12/95 Church of St Mary 18.3.55 II*

Parish church, chancel early C14, tower C14 but rebuilt, porch C14, chancel door 1721, remainder of church 1877 by Crickmay. Banded ashlar and flint with ashlar dressings, tiled roofs with gable stone copings. Plan: nave, chancel, north and south aisles, west tower, north organ chamber, north vestry, south porch. West tower: 4 stages separated by weathered strings; embattled parapet with crocketted finials; diagonal buttresses to lower stages; polygonal south vice turret; C19 pointed, 3-light west window with curvilinear tracery; 2-light, pointed belfry windows with pointed heads, Perpendicular tracery and returned labels. North aisle: north wall has C19, 3-light square-headed windows with returned labels, separated by buttresses; west wall has C19 3-light window with pointed head and curvilinear tracery. Vestry has C19 rosette over 3 lancets. South aisle: west window similar to that of north aisle; south wall windows C19, of 3-lights under pointed heads, separated by buttresses, the left having intersecting tracery and the right reticulated tracery. Chancel; early C14, pointed 2-light north and south windows of 2-lights with quatrefoil heads; C14, pointed east window of 3 lights with reticulated tracery; dated south door with chamfered round head and continuous jambs. South porch: pointed arch of 2 chamfered orders; barrel vaulted stone roof with chamfered ribs supported by external buttresses. Reset C15 south door with 4-centred head and square surround.

Internal features: 3-bay pointed arcades with flat soffits on round columns with moulded caps and bases; C19 pointed, moulded chancel arch; tower arch of 2 chamfered orders dying into responds; segmental pointed organ chamber arch of 2 chamfered orders; C19 collar-truss with turned collars and king-posts to nave; arch braced collar and tie-beam trusses to aisles; barrel roof to chancel; C19 with panelled square sides on cylindrical pier with 4 side shafts and C17 cover; C19 round stone pulpit with fleuron decoration; C12 reset image of Christ in Majesty; reset C17 canopied table-tomb to John Alie and family; other reset C17 to C20 monuments; C19 glass; other features largely C19. (RCHM, Dorset, vol V, p 64/5, no. 1. Newman, J and Pevsner, N. The Buildings of England, Dorset, 1972, p 392).

Listing NGR: ST9955617304