Parish Church of St Mary Magdelene is a Grade II listed building in the Dorset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 31 July 1984. Church.

Parish Church of St Mary Magdelene

WRENN ID
silent-corbel-peregrine
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Dorset
Constituency
West Dorset MP: Edward Morello (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
31 July 1984
Type
Church
Address
Parish Church of St Mary Magdelene, North Poorton
OS grid reference
SY 518 981
Coordinates
50.78054, -2.68382
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene was constructed between 1861 and 1862, designed by Hicks. It comprises a nave, chancel, a north porch, a small bell tower, and a south-east vestry. The north elevation features rubble stone walls with a chamfered plinth, and ashlar stone dressings. The roof is covered with plain and fish-scale tiles, featuring stone gable-copings, gableted moulded kneelers, and crosses at each gable apex. Low buttresses have two set-offs. The north porch has a pointed arch entrance with chamfered jambs, nook-shafts, foliage capitals, and roll and hollow mouldings. A three-stage square bell tower is set into an angle between the porch and nave, broaching into an octagon in the two upper stages. Each face of the bell stage has single lancet windows with pierced trefoils above, and is gabled with grotesque head-stops. An octagonal spirelet, ribbed along each arris, tops the tower. The chancel has two lancet windows, and an east window of three stepped cusped lancets with a label and foliage stops. The south-east vestry, situated off the chancel, has a pentice tile roof with gable-copings, and a coupled lancet window. Inside, the nave windows have segmental-pointed rere-arches. The roof is of a high, arch-braced collar type, with braces carried on short hammer-beams resting on naturalistic foliage and angel-supported carved stone corbels. The pointed chancel arch has naturalistic foliage capitals and short responds corbelled off with angel-supporters. The chancel also has scissor-braced arch-bracing carried on foliage-carved corbels. A segmental-pointed doorway leads to the vestry. The pulpit, by Boulton, is stone, half-octagonal, and corbelled-out from a squared-off base. It features four carved panels with diaper foliage ornament, a foliage cornice, and angels in roundels. The central panel has an ogee niche with a cusped head, containing a carved figure of Christ in the round. The standards at the corners have small heads and finials. The font is stone, with an octagonal bowl and circular base, displaying foiled designs on each face. A smaller, round font bowl on a short base is from the previous church. Stained glass includes a depiction of Christ Crucified in a mandorla with Saints John and Mary in the east window, and grisaille glass with foliage patterns in the side windows. A font from the old church is also present. The architectural sculpture within the church is of notable quality.

Local climate

Parish Church of St Mary Magdelene receives an average of 810 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 52% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 71% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 26 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 71% of listed buildings. Of these, 10 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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