Building record MDO46836 - School, Piddletrenthide

The school at Piddletrenthide was built of flint, rubble and brick with ashlar dressings in 1848. A pair of early 16th century gates with spear-headed railings and finials of two openwork stages stand at the play-ground entrance. These formerly stood in Westminster Abbey but were acquired by John Bridge (silversmith and jeweller) in 1826. <2-3>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, 1964 (Map). SDO10373.

(SY 70669960) Piddletrenthide Primary School (NAT)

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 216 (Monograph). SDO136.

'(3) The School (70669960), ¾ m. S. of the parish church, was built in 1848 and has walls of flint, rubble and brick, with ashlar dressings. Inside is a terracotta bust of John Bridge, by E. H. Bailey, R.A., dated 1821. At the entrance to the forecourt is a pair of iron gates (Plate 62) that were formerly in John Bridge's collection of antiquities. From their similarity to the 16th-century railings at the tomb of Lady Margaret Beaufort in Westminster Abbey it is evident that the gates were among items that were removed from the abbey c. 1820 (Report of Select Committee, 1841) and acquired by Bridge. Much of this material was re-purchased by the National Art Collections Fund in 1911 and returned to the abbey, but the gates were excluded from the sale. Each gate is 3½ ft. wide, 3¾ ft. high and has 13 diagonally-set spearheaded uprights joined by horizontal rails, and a broad top rail with cable mouldings above and below a row of lozenge-shaped jewels. The iron hinge-posts are square-set and are decorated with miniature three-stage weathered buttresses; above the level of the top rail each hinge-post is produced in the form of a spiral-shafted Doric column supporting an open-work finial.'

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 314 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 454811 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 21 2023 11:25AM