Listed Building record MDO17058 - Parish Church of St Nicholas, Worth Matravers

Mainly 12th century, south wall of chancel rebuilt in 13th century, east wall in 14th century. Porch added in 18th century. Rubble stone walls, stone slate roofs with coped gables and corbel tables with carved heads. Nave, chancel, west tower, south porch. The south chapel was demolished and the porch added in the 18th century and the building was restored between 1869-72. 12th century tympanum over the inner door.

(SY 97287745) St Nicholas's Church (NAT) <1>

Parish Church of St Nicholas, Worth Matravers with walls of local rubble and ashlar dressings, comprises a chancel nave and west tower built circa 1100 AD. In the 13th century the chancel was rebuilt except for parts of the north wall; at a subsequent date the elaborate chancel arch and south doorway of circa 1160 were brought from elsewhere, together with other contemporary fragments, and incorporated into the building. The east wall was rebuilt in the 14th century and a south chapel, probably added at the same date, was demolished in the 18th century. The church was restored between 1869-72. Grade A. <2-3>

30/1 /A Church of St Nicholas

Parish church. A small but notable C.12 fabric. Chancel in part refashioned in C.13 and later. Good South doorway with tympanum. Very fine C.12 chancel arch. <3>

The tympanum is dated to c. 1150 and documents a major development in religious sentiment in this period. <5>

Parish church of St. Nicholas. <4>

[NGD note 13-03-23: The original description on the NRHE-to-HER database did say “(Authority 4 is the full text of Authority 3)” but sources (3) and (4) were identical listings – there was literally nothing to distinguish between them. Therefore when the information was transferred to the HBSMR database this source was only listed once – as source <2>. Without being able to identify 2 distinct sources it is unclear which was the duplicate of the other or where the error lies.]

Le Pard, Gordon, 1998, Medieval sundials in Dorset. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 119, 85 (Article in serial). SDO21411.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1929 (Map). SWX1540.

<2> DOE (HRR), 1952, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Wareham and Purbeck Rural District 1952, 42 (Scheduling record). SWX3230.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 410-411 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘a(1) The Parish Church of St. Nicholas (Plate 1) stands in the village. The walls are of local rubble with ashlar dressings; the roofs are covered with stone slates.

The church, comprising a Chancel, Nave and West Tower, was built c. 1100. In the 13th century the chancel was rebuilt, except for parts of the N. wall, and additional lancets were inserted into the nave; at a subsequent date, the elaborate chancel arch and S. doorway of c. 1160 were brought from elsewhere, probably after the Dissolution, together with contemporary fragments and incorporated into the building. The E. wall was rebuilt in the mid 14th century; a S. chapel added probably at this date was demolished in the late 18th century. The church was restored between 1869 and 1872. The gallery and roofs are modern.

The church is of interest in retaining much work of the 12th century, including a carved corbel-table of character.

Architectural Description—The Chancel (20½ ft. by 15 ft.) has reset corbel-tables of c. 1100 on the N. and S. walls, on the N. of ten corbels carved with grotesques, beasts' heads, a squatting man, a bird, a bird's head and a rabbit, on the S. human and animal heads and a running animal. In the E. wall is a mid 14th-century window of three trefoiled lights with curvilinear tracery in a two-centred head. In the N. wall are two 13th-century lancet windows with segmental-pointed rear arches. The S. wall has a deeply battered base and two lancet windows similar to those on the N.; between them is a doorway with restored two-centred head and chamfered jambs. At the W. end of this wall, running diagonally behind a buttress, is a 14th-century squint from the former S. chapel. The stilted semicircular chancel arch (Plate 206), of the mid 12th century but reset, is of three orders on the W. and two on the E. The orders are enriched with chevron ornament; the inner order springs from paired half-round shafts with conjoined moulded bases and scalloped caps, the other orders from attached shafts with similar bases and caps. There is a grooved straight-chamfered impost moulding and, on the W. side only, a moulded label with nail-head ornament; flanking the jambs on the W. are remains of the enriched inner jambs of recesses for side altars which flanked the chancel arch in its original position. In the gable above the arch is a double opening with two round arches, a central rectangular pier, plain responds and chamfered imposts, probably modern.

The Nave (46 ft. by 17 ft.) has on the N. wall at each end a pilaster buttress and between them a corbel-table with the corbels carved with human and animal heads and two with plain rolls with saltires at each end. High in the wall are two small windows of c. 1100 each with a rounded head, the head and jambs roll-moulded externally, and with a round rear arch. E. of the easternmost and at a lower level is a restored early 13th-century lancet above which was a square Elizabethan window to light the pulpit (Hutchins I, 699); this last has been destroyed and the opening blocked with carefully bonded masonry. The original N. doorway, between the earlier windows, has roll-moulded jambs with chevron stops and a round rear arch; the flat head is modern and above it there is blocking replacing a three-sided door-head shaped like that in Fordington Church (Dorchester 4); flanking the doorway are two narrow buttresses of ashlar which rise over the door in a parabolic arch to meet as a single pilaster buttress above. The S. wall is generally similar to the N. with a corbel-table, end buttresses, a central buttress divided about the S. doorway (of the lower part only the two bases remain) and a pair of round-headed windows, all of c. 1100. At the E. end of the wall is the square S.W. end of the squint, now glazed externally, and slightly above it to the W. a restored early 13th-century lancet. Adjacent to these on the W. is a blocked doorway, probably of the 14th century, to the former S. chapel; it has a triangular head, hollow-chamfered imposts and chamfered responds. The S. doorway has a reset semi-circular arched head and jambs carved with chevron ornament and a tympanum with a mutilated carving in two pieces depicting the Coronation of the Virgin.

The West Tower (10 ft. square) is of three stages with narrow chamfered offsets, rebuilt clasping buttresses to the lower stage to N.W. and S.W., and a modern pyramidal roof above a moulded corbel-table. The rebuilt tower arch is two-centred with chamfered imposts. Internally, on the N. is a plain doorway to the former stair; in the centre of the S. and W. walls are modern square-headed windows each of a single light, and to the W. a similar window above to light the second floor. The third stage has single square-headed windows in E., S. and W. walls and a two-light window with square mullion to the N.

The South Porch (9 ft. square) was built in the 18th century; the outer doorway has a modern flat head, and the jambs are chamfered externally and made up of reused 12th-century material with chevron ornament on the inside.

Fittings—Bell: three; 2nd 1719, 3rd 1736, both by William Knight but recast 1951. Bracket: in chancel, above S. door, grotesque head, c. 1100. Coffins and Coffin-lids: in chancel— in N.E. corner, (1) lid 2¾ ft. long, incised cross with head formed of circles and stepped base; in S.E. corner, (2) lid 5¾ ft. long, incised cross with seven trefoiled arms and stepped base, flanked by small Latin crosses. In porch, (3) fragment of lid, Purbeck marble, with hollow-chamfered edge and raised cross, discovered in 1957 approx. 400 yds. N.N.E. of St. Aldhelm's chapel over a burial (fn. 1) ; (4) lid 2¼ ft. long, hollow-chamfered edge and raised cross with circular ends and stepped base; (5) lid 3 ft. long, hollow-chamfered edge and raised cross on stepped base. All late 13th or early 14th-century. In churchyard, (6) coffin and lid 6¾ ft. long, hollow-chamfered edge and raised cross with trefoiled arms and stepped base, 15th-century. Font: octagonal bowl, sides with quatre-foiled diaper, moulded rim and lower edge; octagonal stem with moulded capping, trefoiled panelled sides and plain base, early 19th-century. Graffito: on jamb of S. porch, IT 1741.

Monuments and Floor-slabs. Monuments: in nave, on N. wall, (1) to Gerard William Vanneck, grandson of Lord Huntingfield, 1840, white marble tablet with achievement-of-arms on grey marble backing signed Reeves & Son Ft. Bath. In churchyard, N. of nave, (2) to Benjamin Jesty, 1816, '. . . the first person [known] that introduced the Cow Pox by Innoculation . . .', headstone; (3) to Elizabeth Jesty, wife of the above, 1824, headstone. Floor-slab: in chancel, (1) to Christopher Goss, 1698. Niche: in chancel, in E. wall, ogee cinque-foiled head, chamfered jambs and sill, 14th-century. Piscinae: in chancel—in E. wall, (1) ogee trefoiled head, chamfered jambs, plain round bowl, 14th-century; loose in S.E. corner, (2) bowl with quatre-foiled sinking, 14th-century. Plate: includes a cup, undated, and cover-paten of 1574, with identical maker's marks. Scratch Dial: on S. porch, on S. wall. Miscellanea: in S. porch, on E. wall, reset fragment of canopy head and rectangular side standards, under side of head with ribbed vaulting and traces of red paint, late 14th-century; perhaps the fragments referred to in Hutchins (I, 700) as found in a farmhouse and placed in the squint by Rev. A. Kemp (vicar 1843–50).’

<4> Department of the Environment, 1984, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Purbeck 1984, 46 (Scheduling record). SDO19622.

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1985, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1984, 5-9, 19 (Serial). SDO84.

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456477 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 1 2025 12:57PM