Church Of St Nicholas

ST 91 NW ASHMORE HIGH STREET (north west-side)

11/8 Church of St Nicholas 16.8.60. GV II

Parish Church, 1874 by Charles Edwards of Exeter. Chequerwork greensand and flint. Gable-ended, tiled roof with stone copings. Ashlar west bellcote. Plan: nave, chancel, north aisle, north vestry and organ chamber, south porch. In the 'Decorated' style. All major windows have large, square, projecting impost blocks. Nave has 2-light windows under 2 centred heads with labels. Chancel has lancets with labels and 3-light east window. Vestry and aisle have paired lancets. West wall has 2 lancets with a round window containing 4 quatrefoils above. Slit cross above. Gabled porch with moulded 2-centred arch with label. South chancel door has trefoiled head. Interior: 2-centred chancel arch of 2 chamfered orders with flat soffit; aisle to vestry arch 2-centred with flat responds (possibly former chancel arch); chancel to organ chamber arch is 2-centred with flat jambs having corner shafts; arch braced collar truss nave roof with king-posts and struts, alternate principals springing from corbels; similar chancel roof but with 2 levels of cusped windbraces to purlins; corbels carved in relief by John Skeaping C20; ogee headed piscina; octagonal pulpit with panelled tracery; C18 font with cauldron shaped bowl on baluster shaped stem (bowl may be C12); C19 square font bearing crosses in sunken relief on octagonal pier with marble corner shafts; C19 glass, C18 and C19 wall monuments reset; C20 painted reredos by W H R Blacking; other fittings largely C19. (RCHM Dorset, vol IV, p 1/2, no 1. Newman J and Pevsner N, The Buildings of England: Dorset, Penguin, 1972, p 78. Pitfield, F P, Dorset Parish Churches, A-D, Dorset Publishing Company, 1981, p 37-39).

Listing NGR: ST9113217777