Listed Building record MDO27186 - Church of St John the Baptist, Symondsbury

Church. C14 with C15 porch, c C17 chancel, C20 north vestry. Nave without aisles, crossing and tower, north and south transepts, chancel, south porch, vestry. Lias rubble-stone with ashlar dressings, slate roofs with stone slates at the eaves.

The parish church of Saint John the Baptist, of local rubble and ashlar with slate roofs, is a cruciform 14th century building with central tower. The nave appears to have been lengthened in the 15th century when the south porch was added, and the chancel was probably rebuilt in the 17th century.
The church was restored in the early 19th century and again in 1923. <2>

Le Pard, Gordon, 1998, Medieval sundials in Dorset. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 119, 81 (Article in serial). SDO21411.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 236 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(1) Parish Church of St. John The Baptist (Plates 58, 155) stands near the middle of the parish. The walls are of local rubble with dressings and ashlar of the same material; the roofs are slate-covered. The church seems to have been largely rebuilt in the 14th century. The earliest details are the E. and W. arches of the Central Tower; rather later the N. and S. arches were built and the tower, which is smaller than the crossing, added partly on corbelling and arches within the crossing. The Nave and Transepts are probably also of the 14th century but the nave appears to have been lengthened in the 15th century when the South Porch was added. The Chancel was perhaps rebuilt in the 17th century. The church was restored early in the 19th century when the window-tracery was removed and again in 1923 when most of the window-tracery was replaced and the gallery removed; the North Vestry is modern. … '

<2> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 415 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450243 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 1 2025 12:29PM