Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a parish church of considerable architectural complexity, with origins in the mid-12th century and a building history extending into the 19th century. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a west tower, south chapel, north transept, south porch, and north vestry. The mid-12th century work includes the north aisle and nave. The south aisle arcade dates to the late 12th century, while the north transept is 13th-century, though possibly remodelling earlier 12th-century work. The tower, south aisle, south porch, and chancel are 14th-century, with some 15th-century refenestration. The north vestry was added during restoration work in 1870, carried out by T H Wyatt. Further restoration and the south chapel were added in 1880 by Pearson.

The exterior is constructed in ashlar, banded flint and ashlar, and chequerwork flint and squared rubble with ashlar dressings. The roofs are tiled and stone-slated with stone copings. The west tower has two stages surmounted by one of the few surviving medieval spires in Dorset. It features square-set buttresses and an embattled parapet supported by a corbel table. The tower has a moulded, pointed west door with a lancet above, and similar lancets to the north and south walls. The belfrey stage contains pointed, two-light perpendicular tracery windows. The north aisle has pointed 14th-century windows of one and two lights flanking a central square-headed five-light 15th-century window. The north transept has two 12th-century round-headed lights, possibly reset, and the vestry has round-headed loops. The east chancel window is of five lights under a pointed head with 19th-century curvilinear tracery. North and south chancel windows are 14th-century two-light windows under pointed heads, with the southern windows being restored. The south chapel has a pointed 19th-century three-light east window with shafted jambs and head featuring a quatrefoil in a roundel. The south windows of the chapel are 19th-century, pointed, two-light windows with returned labels. A diagonal chapel buttress contains a niche with 19th-century sculpture of St George. The chapel doorway has a pointed trefoiled head with shafted jambs, with a crochetted pitched label continuous with the string course above. To the left is a three-light 19th-century window with pointed head and curvilinear tracery. The south aisle has a three-light square-headed 15th-century window. The porch is parapetted with a segmental-pointed arch and a moulded pointed inner doorway. The nave has a clearstorey of single-light windows and a 14th-century two-light east window.

Interior features include a mid-12th-century north arcade of three bays with round arches of two plain orders on round piers with scalloped capitals, and a late 12th-century south arcade of three bays with pointed arches, much altered. A 12th-century round arch connects the north aisle to the transept. The chancel arch is segmented and pointed, with two chamfered orders. The tower arch is pointed with three chamfered orders. The north transept has a shafted rear arch with a stiff-leaf capital. A 15th-century octagonal font has quatrefoil panels. A 17th-century pulpit with panelled sides has been restored. The nave roof is a 19th-century crown-post roof of four bays, while the chancel has a 19th-century waggon roof and the north transept a collar-truss roof. The aisles have flat ribbed boarded roofs. The south chapel features a lierne vault springing from carved corbels. A 17th-century wall monument commemorates Robert Fry and his family, with other fittings largely dating to the 19th century.