Parish Church Of Lady St Mary

The Parish Church of Lady St Mary, Wareham

This is a Saxon minster church of the 8th century with a south chapel from the 12th century and substantial early 14th century work in the chancel. The west tower dates from probably the early 16th century. The nave and aisles were rebuilt in 1840-2 by T.L. Donaldson, and an organ chamber was added by Crickmay & Sons of Weymouth in 1893-4.

The church is built of grey Purbeck limestone, with the tower in ashlar and other parts in rubble. The roofs are of slate and tile.

Layout

The building comprises a west tower with an attached west porch and vestries in the returns between the tower and aisles. The four-bay nave has two aisles and a long chancel. The south chapel sits at a lower level with a former treasury above it. A further small chapel called the Becket chapel occupies the south-east angle of the chancel. The organ chamber stands north of the chancel.

Exterior

The tall, sturdy tower can be seen across the south part of Wareham and dominates views from the River Frome. It rises in four stages with diagonal buttresses to the first three stages. The west elevation features a large transomed window with four lights and indeterminate Gothic tracery, probably dating from 1842. A small rectangular light appears in the next stage; otherwise the lower three stages are blind. The belfry stage has one large louvred bell opening in each face, without tracery except for some Perpendicular cusping in the east face. The battlemented parapet has continuous mouldings to the merlons. There are no pinnacles. A polygonal north-east stair turret rises at the corner. On the north side of the tower is a lean-to vestry, probably early 16th century like the west porch. The porch has a solid parapet with four heavy moulded panels in the west face, "already in the spirit, if not the forms, of the Renaissance" according to Pevsner.

The nave is tall with lean-to aisles. The aisle windows are large with two lights, one transom and no cusping. The clerestory has similar but smaller lights without transoms. The chancel is quite long with a transverse gabled organ loft to the north. The chancel's north window is Decorated in style, reset from the chancel wall, with dense cusping and a rose with twisting tracery. East of this is a 14th century window containing Decorated work of three lights, two with ogee heads, and three six-foiled circles in the tracery, probably contemporary with the 14th century Decorated rebuilding and enlargement of the chancel.

At the east end the corners are masked: on the north by a large square stair turret resembling a clasping buttress, and to the south by a larger plain buttress-like projection forming the Becket chapel. This chapel has one small Perpendicular window facing east and is roofed by a broad slope of stone with weatherings. The south chancel wall contains a three-light Perpendicular window with cinquefoiled cusping and, adjacent to it, a 14th century priest's door with chamfered head. The south side is plainer than the north. The south chapel has almost unrelieved stonework with few windows and a half-sunken doorway. Its east window has two lights with a quatrefoil in plate tracery, dating from around 1200-30.

Interior

Entry to the nave from the west is through the majestically high Perpendicular tower arch, which has wave mouldings separated by slim single shafts. The four-arched nave arcades have tall octagonal piers with moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches. The clerestory windows rest on a continuous sill course. The nave roof of 1903 is of dark-stained timber with arch-braced collars and spindly queen-posts. The chancel roof dates from 1893-4.

The west walls of the aisles are said to be Saxon. The south aisle west wall has a small three-light Decorated window with reticulated tracery set high up. There is a large east window under a four-centred arch, of seven lights with one transom and reticulated tracery. The lower part was apparently blocked but reinstated in 1842.

The chancel contains a triple sedilia with a fourth arch containing a double piscina. Directly east is a small door to the tiny Becket chapel, which measures 6 feet 3 inches by 8 feet 6 inches and is lit by a small three-light Perpendicular east window. It has a one-bay lierne vault with circular moulded bosses and an ogee-headed piscina in the south wall. Opening into the chancel high up on the south side is a reset doorcase, probably late 12th century, with a pointed arch but still with Norman nailhead ornament and a band of zigzag carving around the jambs. It formerly led into a room above the south chapel, said originally to be a dormitory but probably used as a treasury by the 16th century.

In the east wall of the north aisle is a double piscina of the 13th century under a trefoil head and a 12th or early 13th century oculus with moulded frame, reset here from the chancel north wall in 1893-4. Above this is a three-light Perpendicular window now opening into the organ chamber.

The floor level of the south chapel (of St Edward) is about 3 feet lower than the nave. It is entered from the east end of the south aisle through a Norman arch now framed by a Decorated outer arch with cusping, sub-cusping and an ogee point, which probably originated as a tomb canopy. The chapel has a quadripartite vault of two bays springing from Purbeck marble wall shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The vault ribs are chamfered and the bosses circular. The chapel contains two tomb recesses: at the north-west, one under a triangular gabled arch with cusps; and at the south-east, a lower round arch with similar cusping. Near the latter is a small trefoil-headed piscina and above it a small Norman opening, perhaps originally a window, now a cupboard with traceried oak doors.

The floors are of stone flags with some red and black Victorian tiling around the chancel step, in the aisles and elsewhere.

Principal Fixtures

The nave benches are of pine, probably the seats of 1842 rearranged. The oak pulpit dates from 1882 and has blind traceried panels and foliage carving. An exceptionally fine 12th century lead font is one of about thirty lead fonts extant in England and the only hexagonal one. The bowl has high relief figures of the twelve apostles, each standing under an arch on shafted columns, and sits on an octagonal base with short attached columns. The organ dates from 1883 and has a Gothic oak case with painted pipes.

Carvings

A badly weathered 14th century Crucifixion is set in the north aisle east wall. Nearby are several stones with partial Saxon inscriptions and Latin elements discovered in 1841-2, some reset in the walls. These include one to Catgug, a Brittonic male, on reused Roman masonry, and one to [D]eniel, both 7th to early 9th century; one to Gongorie, 9th century; and one to Vidcu, 7th century, in the north-west vestry. There are also several loose column fragments of the 5th to 8th centuries, a fine 13th century stone coffin, a 14th century coffin lid with cross, and a stone cresset.

Monuments

Two recumbent armoured effigies of Purbeck marble stand in the chancel, possibly representing Sir Henry d'Estoke, around 1240, and Sir William d'Estoke, who died in 1294. There is a fancy Rococo cartouche to Arthur Addams, who died in 1774, and a more elegant tablet to Anthony Trew, who died in 1771. Many minor tablets dating from around 1780-1850 include one to the county historian, the Reverend John Hutchins, who died in 1774.

Stained Glass

The east window is by Clayton & Bell and was installed in phases between 1886 and 1890. The chancel south window dates from 1908. Four windows in the north aisle from 1905-23 and four in the south from 1922-8 are all by Percy Bacon & Bros and include an unusual Warrior's window.

Setting

A large walled graveyard lies to the north and east. In front of the west tower is a forecourt or small square framed by vernacular buildings, with an alley leading south-west onto the quay.

Historical Background

Wareham was a significant port for traffic with France by 700. William of Malmesbury recorded in the 12th century that St Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne by 705, founded a church close to Wareham, and it is likely that Lady St Mary is that church. It was associated with a nunnery, probably the earliest religious foundation in Dorset. This may also have been where Brihtric, King of Wessex, was buried in 802 and where the body of King Edward the Martyr rested temporarily after being murdered at Corfe Castle in 978.

The nunnery was destroyed in a Danish raid in 876 and rebuilt by Alfreda, daughter of Alfred the Great, around 900. Edward the Confessor gave the foundation to the abbey of St Wandrille in Normandy between around 1042 and 1066. It was transferred around 1100 to the Benedictine abbey of Lire, at which time a cell of French Benedictine monks came to Wareham. The south chapel was built at about this time and vaulted in the early 13th century.

A painting of around 1840 shows that the nave was Saxon, with slit windows, clerestory and a high porticus on the north side. In 1840 it was deemed structurally unsafe and a new nave was planned to increase the accommodation from around 450 to 995. Demolition began in May 1841. Reports in the Dorset County Chronicle of 6 May and 20 May stated that the old nave was only 200 years old and that the two important features of the church—the noble tower and spacious chancel—were retained. The round Saxon arches had been mistaken for a crude 17th century attempt at Classical architecture. The church was reopened on 29 September 1842, with Jesse Cornick & Sons of Bridport as builders. The chancel was shortened by some eleven feet to allow for a longer nave.

The architect of the restoration, Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885), is best known as a founder of the Institute of British Architects in 1835 and as a teacher, serving as Professor of Architecture at University College, London, a post he established. Galleries on three sides of the nave and aisles were removed in 1903.