Church Of St Aldhelm

The Church of St. Aldhelm is an Anglican parish church with significant historical development spanning the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. However, the visible structure largely dates from a complete reconstruction in 1869 by George Gilbert Scott, undertaken to replicate the original appearance. The church is constructed of coursed rubble and ashlar with stone-tiled roofs, coped verges, and finials.

The church comprises a nave with north and south porches, a chancel, a crossing tower, north and south transepts, a north vestry, a north lean-to store, and a south organ chamber. It exhibits Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles, all reflecting the pre-restoration design, with some original fabric incorporated. The nave, with four bays, features lancet windows arranged singly, in pairs, and in triples, with clasping west buttresses and a corbel table. The C15 north porch has a shafted, four-centred arch doorway with a niche containing a canopy above, angle buttresses, a pierced parapet, and benched flagstone flooring, along with four wall monuments. The elaborate south porch, added in 1869, is two-storied with a concave-sided gable, set-back buttresses, pinnacles, arcading, niches with canopies, statuary, a two-light window on the first floor, and a door opening with an ogee label, featuring carved heads as stops. Inside the porch is benched flagstone flooring and stone fan-vaulting, with two wall monuments.

The two-bay south transept has a pierced parapet with pinnacles, buttresses, two large gargoyles, and two-light windows to the east and west with square heads and cusping, along with a three-light south window featuring simple Perpendicular tracery. The north transept is in a matching style. The organ chamber and vestry are adjacent to the transepts and feature pierced parapets in a Decorated style, using reused earlier gargoyles. The lean-to store has an asbestos sheeting roof and two and four-light windows, both dating from 1869. The octagonal crossing tower has two-light bell-chamber windows, an embattled parapet, a recessed stone spire, decorative banding, and a windvane. The chancel displays a pierced parapet and three and five-light windows in a Decorated style.

The interior is partially plastered, with some ashlar walls set against ornamental tile pavements. The nave and chancel have arch-braced roofs supported by shafted corbels. The tower rests on double-chamfered arches with rib-vaulting and single-chamfered ribs on cartels, and includes a large ring for bell ropes. Original Perpendicular tie-beam roofs remain within the transepts, along with arcading and rich carvings, including angel figures. Reset C15 corbels are present in the vestry and organ chamber. The majority of fittings are in a High Gothic style, including the reredos, tiled texts in the chancel, altar rails, choir stalls, screens, pulpit, and pews. A good C15 octagonal font is adorned with carvings of angels. A chest is dated 1691, and two Jacobean chairs and two C17 brass wall monuments are also present. Fourteen principal late C18 and early C19 monuments, one C18 brass, are displayed, alongside eight mid/late C19 stained glass windows and two early C20 windows, one likely by Morris and Co. A late C19 organ completes the interior.