Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST ANN (467832)

WEYMOUTH SY6681SE RADIPOLE LANE, Radipole 873-1/12/501 (North side) 12/12/53 Church of St Ann GV II* Anglican parish church. C13 nave, N and S chapels and chancel C14, W front rebuilt C16, porch and rebuilt S chapel C18, C19 restoration, C20 vestry. Portland stone ashlar and rubble, slate roofs. PLAN: the original 2-cell building of nave and chancel is extended by transept-like chapels each side, with S porch, and N vestry. EXTERIOR: W front has diagonal stepped buttresses and a coped gable, carrying a notable exmple of a square bell-turret in 2 stages, with 1 over 2 vertical openings with 5-cusped heads; the turret roof is a low, lead-covered pyramid, and there are 4 gargoyles. A large stepped external buttress abuts the centre of the front to sustain the turret. The nave S front has a C14 two-light window left of the porch, and a small 2-light C16 window with plain pointed lights, to the right. The deep square porch has a chamfered stone eaves course, and a coped gable over a small tablet inscribed 'WMCW 1733', below which is a large plain inscribed war memorial slab. A round-arched chamfered opening has a pair of C19 doors with chamfered framing, and decorative cast-iron grilles. The S chapel has a coped gable above a flush tablet inscribed 'WM EM Churchwardens 1735' (date of the restoration), above a 3-light uncusped window with plain label. The chancel has a small light with cusped ogee head, a plain glazed opening (former doorway) with bold ogee lintel, and a 2-light with quatrefoil. The E end has a 2-light Perpendicular window in flush surround, with label to square stops, and casement plus cavetto moulds. The N side of the chancel has a 2-light uncusped window with trefoil head, and a small cusped ogee-headed light, blocked below. The N chapel, E side, has a 3-light C14 window without label, and a 3-light C14 with label in the S wall; here the churchyard level is high, and a drainage channel has been formed, revealing the plinth. In the internal corner is the flat-roofed vestry, and the N side of the nave has a lofty C16 2-light to 4-centred heads, and a small lancet. INTERIOR: the nave is in 5 bays, with tie-beam trusses with king posts and queen struts; much of this is late medieval work, with chamfered members. The painted walls are on a carpeted floor. The priest's door, leading to the vestry, is not directly opposite the main entry, and to its right is a recessed opening to a flat lintel. A deep W gallery with panelled front, on a moulded beam with brackets. At the W end is a pointed recess, formerly the W window, with exposed rubble fill. The chapels are entered through pointed arches with a plain chamfer; the N chapel has a painted barrel roof, and the S a 7-sided barrel, and on tiled floors. A cusped piscina in each. The chancel arch is double chamfered, and the roof is in arch-braced rafters. FITTINGS: painted pews with floral panels, carved oak pulpit, 1902, in memory of Richard E E---sward, and a matching reading desk. The E window is a memorial to Captain Prowse, 1885, above a late C19 stone reredos. The polished oak communion rail incorporates 17 turned balusters of the C16 from a staircase at No.4 North Quay (RCHME). The C13 font bowl, formerly square, but cut to a rounded front, is on a central shaft and 4 slender columns, and with a 1978 cover, opposite the porch. Above the chancel arch are the Royal Arms of William IV, and there are various monuments, detailed in the RCHME inventory, but including a fine Baroque cartouche, in the nave, to Humphrey Hardy, d.1725, and a rectangular marble tablet with a St George and Dragon, with leaf enrichment, in Art Nouveau style, to Charleton W Gordon-Steward, Major in the 5th Fusiliers, killed in action, April 1917. Above the font is a painted ceiling panel depicting St John the Baptist. HISTORICAL NOTE: the Church of St Ann, now in a rather peripheral position in Weymouth, was the mother church for the area, until replaced by St Mary, St Mary Street (qv) in 1605. It lies immediately to the W of the Manor House (qv), and opposite the village school (qv St Ann's Church Room). (RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 363; The Buildings of England: Newman J & Pevsner N: Dorset: London: 1972-: 355). Listing NGR: SY6672481370

Record last edited

Jan 18 2010 11:11AM