Church Of St Stephen

The Church of St Stephen is a parish church that was entirely rebuilt in 1862 in the Perpendicular style by John Hicks of Dorchester. It features rubble-stone walls with freestone banding and dressings, topped with a tiled roof. The structure includes a west tower, nave, north aisle, chancel, and south porch. The west tower has four stages with stone quoins and is unbutressed, while the south stair turret consists of only two stages. A medieval Perpendicular west window with three lights and tracery has been reset, and there are two-light bell openings with stone traceries. The plain parapet has raised corners and is stone-coped.

On the south elevation, there is a window-porch-window arrangement, and the chancel features a window-buttress-window layout. The 19th-century windows have two trefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil above. A reused medieval head and mullion can be found at the east end of the chancel's south wall, complete with a heraldic label-stop. The porch has a 2-centred arch entrance with moulded stone jambs and diagonal buttresses with set-offs.

Inside, the nave has a three-bay north arcade supported by standard responds with hollow chamfers, plain capitals, and bases. The tower arch is straight-chamfered, merging into the walls, while the chancel arch features three responds with wave-mountings above. The wooden roof is designed with single-hammer beams and arch-braces, all resting on carved stone corbels, with segmental ridge members.

The pulpit, dating from the 19th century, is made of stone in a debased Perpendicular style, featuring tall panels and traceried heads, along with symbols of the Four Evangelists. The font is also from the 19th century, with an octagonal stone bowl supported by a central stone column and four Purbeck marble colonettes, adorned with carved panels depicting symbols such as the Star of David, Dove, IHS, Passion flower, acorns, and leaves.

Notable monuments include a stone floor-slab at the chancel step dedicated to Jane, wife of John Pinney, dated 1695, and a blue lias floor-slab next to it commemorating Nathaniel Pinney, dated 1724, and his wife Naomi, dated 1741, featuring lettering within panelled framing similar to that found in the Manor House hall.