Church of St Osmond

Church of St Osmond

An Anglican parish church originating in the 12th century, with surviving work of that date and from the 15th century, largely rebuilt in the mid-19th century by Robert H Shout (1823–1882) of Sherborne.

The church is constructed with a Ham stone plinth below coursed, dressed-stone walls with Ham stone ashlar quoins. The roofs are tiled with stone gable-copings and 19th-century crosses at the apices.

The plan comprises a nave and chancel, with north and south aisles to the nave, a vestry to the east end of the north aisle against the chancel, and a western tower with aisles running across it.

The west tower is in three stages. The lowest two stages date mainly from the 15th century; the diagonal buttresses and bell-chamber are mid-19th century. The mid-19th-century west doorway has moulded jambs, a depressed-arch head, and label stops. Above this is a window of panel tracery, also mid-19th century. The bell-stage windows with stone tracery are reset 15th-century work. The stair-turret is 15th century with a mid-19th-century top and spirelet. The chancel dates wholly from the mid-19th century and features diagonal buttresses with set-offs, gargoyles, pinnacles and crocketed finials, and a stone parapet with blind panel tracery above a fleuron cornice. The east window has three lights with ogee trefoil cusping, supermullions, and a quatrefoil in a roundel over the centre light, with an ogival crocketed label featuring a foliage boss. The north and south chancel windows each have three lights with panel tracery over, both from the mid-19th-century rebuilding. The north and south aisles each comprise four bays and overlap the west tower. They feature three-light trefoil-cusped windows with panel tracery over and a quatrefoil in a roundel at centre. The south doorway into the south aisle has moulded jambs with fleurons. Above this doorway is a carved stone inscription with painted letters reading: "This is None Other but y House of God and this the Gate of Heaven". The doorway is sheltered by a corbelled-out stone canopy, which is gabled with a stone cross at its apex. The north aisle is mid-19th century with windows similar to those in the south aisle.

In the interior, the 12th-century chancel arch is reset in the north aisle at the entrance to the organ chamber. Its shafted responds have tall scallop capitals, with a two-centred arch of one chamfered and one moulded order. The 12th-century tower-arch has plain jambs and chamfered imposts, with a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders with a sunk quadrant between. The nave is of three bays with pointed arcades springing from shafted piers and round capitals, the north arcade dating from the 15th century and the south arcade, designed to match, from the 19th century. The nave roof is a collar-truss with four-centred arch-bracing carried on carved angel-corbels and king-posts above the collar. The chancel roof follows the same design but with an ornamental wall-plate. Both roofs date from the mid-19th-century rebuilding.

The principal fittings include a 13th-century stone font with a round bowl, moulded band, and convex detail into a cylindrical stem with hollow-chamfered base. A 15th-century piscina, reset in the south aisle, comprises a recess with trefoiled head and sunk spandrels with panelled jambs. A brass to William (Grey), Rector 1524–5, is reset in the chancel; it carries a Latin inscription and depicts a priest in mass-vestments holding a chalice and wafer.

Most fittings were installed during the mid-19th-century rebuilding. The polygonal stone pulpit is carved with traceried blind arcading and retains brass candleholders. The oak lectern has attached brass candleholders with twisted stems. Oak congregational seating survives throughout except in the south aisle; the pews have rectangular ends carved with small roundels bearing varying motifs. The oak choir stalls have carved details and retain brass candleholders. Patterned glass in the aisles forms a single uniform scheme of diamond panes with repeating yellow floral motifs and brightly-coloured foliate margin glazing. The communion rails are gilded with spiral posts and foliage under the rail. The panelled oak reredos of 1880 depicts the symbols of the four evangelists. The six bells include four earlier bells re-cast by Thomas Bilbie in 1775, with two new bells by Bilbie added at the same date. The tenor bell is inscribed "I to the church the living call, and to the grave do summon all". A war memorial takes the form of a marble plaque bearing a regimental crest and inscribed with the names of twelve fallen from the First World War, with inscriptions reading: "IN MEMORY OF THE MEN OF THIS PARISH OR ASSOCIATED THEREWITH WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY 1914–1918" and "ERECTED BY PARISHIONERS AND FRIENDS".