Church Of St Mary

BIANDFORD ST MARYLOWER ST 80 NE LOWER BLANDFORD

5/3 Church of St Mary 14-7-55 GV II*

Parish Church, C14 west tower, C15 chancel; south aisle and porch 1837; north aisle and transept 1862; vestry 1908. Rubble, banded flint and rubble and chequerwork flint and ashlar with ashlar dressings. Slated and tiled roofs with end stone copings. Plan; nave; chancel; west tower; south aisle and porch; north aisle, transept and vestry. Both medieval and C19 work mainly in the Perpendicular style. West tower: 3-stage, embattled and unbuttressed with moulded strings; C19 south door with chamfered, 4-centred head; west window of 2 pointed lights; single-light belfry windows with chamfered, pointed heads. South aisle windows are pointed, of 2-lights and have labels with carved foliage stops. Chancel south wall has an original 2-light square headed window with stopped label west and a C19 single light window with carved stopped label. Central, blocked, pointed chamfered door. East chancel and north transept windows are C19, pointed, of 3-lights with carved foliage labels. Vestry has 2-light, square headed windows and pointed, chamfered door. North aisle has 2 trefoiled lancets north and a 2-light perpendicular west window. Porch is gabled with a chamfered, pointed arch and a label with carved stops. The south door is pointed and moulded with continuous jambs. Internally the south arcade is of 3 bays with pointed, moulded arches, round columns with moulded capitals and bases. The north aisle arcade is similar, of 2 bays with simpler mouldings. Pointed transept arch with respond piers. Pointed chancel arch of 2 chamfered orders springing from corbels. Pointed tower arch of 2 chamfered orders. Nave and south aisle have plastered waggon roof. Chancel has ribbed waggon roof; transept has collar-truss roof. C19 carved wooden reredos with ogee-headed niches. Communion rails with carved vine scrollwork. Ogee headed trefoil piscina. C19 open traceried pulpit. Fielded panel pews possibly incorporating C18 woodwork. C19 octagonal font with quatrefoils and trefoiled panels. Various C17, C18 and C19 monuments including one of 1758 to Francis Cartwright the architect. (R.C.H.M. Dorset, vol. III, p.40/1, no. 1. Newman, J and Pevsner, N. The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972, p.101.)

Listing NGR: ST8916805271