Parish Church Of St Mary

The Parish Church of St Mary, Bridport

This is an ambitious medieval parish church standing on a site at the heart of the Saxon borough, though positioned significantly south of where Bridport's centre later developed in the medieval period. The building retains Early English fabric from a major early 13th-century rebuilding, particularly in the transepts, with the remainder dating mainly from the late 14th and 15th centuries. The two western bays of the nave and the entire eastern arm were rebuilt by John Hicks of Dorchester in 1859–60. The nave roof required repair following fire damage in 1996.

The church is built of Ham Hill stone with clay-tiled roofs. It follows a cruciform plan with a crossing tower and a six-bay aisled nave. North and south chapels flank the chancel, and a two-storey structure containing both a porch and a chapel sits between the south aisle and the south transept.

Exterior

From the road, the dominant view is of the impressive triple-gabled and buttressed east end of 1860, featuring Perpendicular traceried windows of five lights in the chancel and four lights in the chapels. The north and south windows of the chapels have three-light windows with reticulation units, matched in the aisles where the medieval tracery was replaced in 1860. The aisles have solid parapets above a string course decorated with fleurons.

The transepts terminate in large gabled ends with Perpendicular windows—six lights in the south transept, five in the north—which appear not to have been renewed in 1859–60. The square angle buttresses with chamfered corners, topped by octagonal pinnacles, are an Early English feature.

West of the south transept stands a two-bay addition, probably dating from the late 14th century, containing a chapel (of St Katherine) with a two-storey porch to its west. The porch has a standard Perpendicular two-centred moulded arch and a small oriel window above. A small octagonal chimney stack with a crenellated rim sits at the corner of the parapet; the oriel perhaps lit a priest's room.

The nave has three-light Perpendicular windows between buttresses—four bays are visible on the south side, six on the north. The two western bays date from 1859–60 and are virtually indistinguishable from the medieval work. The west front is gabled centrally, with a door under a square label and a four-light window. The aisle ends are treated as rectangular blank walls.

The imposing tower dates from the late 14th or 15th century and rises above the roof in two stages, with offset buttresses at the lower stage and a two-light bell opening in each face of the upper stage. It has an embattled parapet with a continuous moulding around the merlons. The square angle-pinnacles are small and insignificant. Access to the tower is by a large stair turret in the angle between the north aisle and transept, then horizontally through a passage over the aisle roofs into the tower.

Interior

The floors are mainly stone flagged. The nave arcades have Perpendicular piers that are a variant on the standard four-shafts-and-four-hollows pattern. Here, the north and south sides of each pier have a flat face flanked by hollow chamfers, while the east and west faces each have three shafts continuing up to the arch mouldings.

The former room over the south porch was opened up to the south aisle with an arched opening above the internal porch door, and by removing its eastern wall towards St Katherine's chapel. The rear arch of the oriel window which lit this room has shafts and ring-moulded capitals in the Early English style; if in situ, this implies that the porch may be 13th century with Perpendicular remodelling.

The transepts have in their east walls arches, now blocked, to former east chapels, with Early English fluted trumpet capitals. In the west wall of the south transept is a former lancet window which now opens into St Katherine's chapel.

The crossing piers are Perpendicular, with slim shafts and a little foliage decoration in bands at the capitals. Over the crossing is a ribbed vault with a large bell-hole in a concave-sided lozenge. This must all correspond with the rebuilding date of the tower.

The chancel and its chapels are all Victorian, continuing the style of the crossing and nave. The nave and transepts have ceiled wagon roofs with moulded ribs and carved bosses; the aisles have lean-to panelled roofs with plain rafters on carved corbels. The roofs in the west arm were conservatively repaired after fire damage in 1996. The chancel roof is more elaborate, of dark-stained timber with hammerbeam trusses. The north chapel serves as an organ loft and sacristy.

Principal Fixtures

On the outside west wall of the south porch is a badly weathered medieval carving from St Andrew's chapel, placed there in 1883. Light oak bench seating in the nave and aisles dates from the late 20th century. The chancel retains few fittings; a late 20th-century reordering installed a nave altar and simple three-sided communion rail just west of the crossing.

The heavy pulpit of Caen stone dates from 1860 and features much Perpendicular carving, with three sides opened up beneath ogee arches to form a frame for a high-relief scene of the Sermon on the Mount. The font is Perpendicular, octagonal with quatrefoil panels on the bowl and a heavy panelled foot.

At the west end of the south aisle, the Royal Arms are painted on board in an arched frame; said to have been given in 1820, they now bear the arms of Queen Victoria. A good pale oak organ case dates from 1984–8.

In the north transept is a trefoil-headed piscina of the 13th century. In the south chapel is a Gothic oak reredos of 1907 and an entrance screen of wrought iron, from a reordering and restoration of the chapel in 1900, when encaustic tiles were laid in the sanctuary.

Monuments

The outstanding monument is in the north transept: a knight in chain mail of about 1250, possibly John Gervase who died in 1262; the face was restored about 1860. There is a small brass in a decorative frame to Edward Coker, gentleman, shot in 1685 by one of the Duke of Monmouth's officers. A slate tablet to Katherine Frampton who died in 1705 has naive incised decoration.

Stained Glass

The church contains a varied collection of stained glass from 1850–1914. The east window has the typically bright colouring of about 1860. The south chapel east window, by A.L. Moore (1902), depicts Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The south chapel south window, second from the east, is by E. Baillie (1851). The south transept east window, dated 1865, may be by Clayton & Bell. St Katherine's chapel south window is about 1894. Four windows in the nave date from about 1890–1914; the first from the east (north wall) is signed by A.L. Moore (1908), and the fourth is signed by Cox, Son, Buckley & Co., London (about 1890). The north transept east window is also by Moore (1908).

Subsidiary Features

The large churchyard has a yew walk leading to the south porch and many good monuments, including prominent obelisks near the road. South-east of the chancel stand gatepiers with heavy V-jointed rustication, dated 1831.

History

Bridport was one of four Saxon boroughs in Dorset and was a substantial settlement by the 11th century. The earliest parts of the present church are early 13th century, probably indicating rebuilding on the site of a Saxon predecessor. As Bridport grew from the 13th century, the centre of settlement moved northwards, accounting for the church's position on the southern edge of the old town centre. This resulted in the building of a chapel of St Andrew, dedicated in 1362, on the site of the town hall about a quarter of a mile north of the church. It was demolished by 1798.

Several chantries in the church were endowed in the late 14th century—in 1368, two in 1387, two in 1400—and these may coincide approximately with the Perpendicular rebuilding around the crossing and of the south chapel and adjacent porch. Galleries were added over the aisles in 1717 and 1790, and removed in 1859. The north transept was "repaired and beautified" in 1776 for the use of the poor, at the expense of Mr Jullantigh.

Thomas Hardy seemingly did not approve of the restoration of 1859–60. In Wessex Tales (1888) he wrote, "The church had had such a practical joke played upon it by some facetious restorer or other as to be scarce recognisable...", which is odd since the "facetious restorer" was John Hicks of Dorchester, to whom Hardy was articled from 1856 to 1862 and became an assistant from 1867 to 1869. Pevsner offers "congratulations" for Hicks's restoration.

John Hicks (1815–69) was born at Totnes, Devon, and worked as an architect in Bristol about 1838–48 before settling in Dorchester. He restored or built at least 27 churches, mostly Gothic. He was popular, amiable and scholarly, and was seemingly at work on at least three churches when he died; yet his death went almost unremarked, and he is little known now except for his association with Hardy.