Listed Building record MDO9516 - St Mary's Church, Moor Crichel

The Church of St. Mary (disused) has walls of ashlar and roof coverings of lead and of slate. It was built in 1850 to replace a Medieval church. <2>

<1> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 299 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 40-41 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(1) The Church of St. Mary (disused) stands in the park of Crichel House and has walls of ashlar and roofcoverings of lead and of slate (Plate 52); it was built in 1850 at the expense of H. C. Sturt to replace a mediaeval church. The architect's name is unknown, but comparison with the church at Sutton Waldron (Dorset IV, 84) suggests George Alexander.

Architectural Description—The Chancel has buttresses of two weathered stages. The E. window is of three cinquefoil-headed lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head. The N. and S. windows have cinquefoil-headed lights with curvilinear tracery in two-centred heads. The chancel arch is two-centred and of two moulded orders separated by a casement moulding with spaced leaf-bosses; it springs from shafted responds with octagonal capitals and bases, the capitals with brattishing. The fan vaulting has cusped and moulded panelling.

The North Vestry has an E. doorway with a two-centred head and a label, and a square-headed window of two trefoil-headed lights. Further N., a similar doorway gives access to steps going down to a burial chamber under the N. transept.

The Nave has a window above the chancel arch, with a central roundel flanked by vertical tracery in a two-centred surround. The N. wall has, on the E., an archway to the N. transept with a two-centred head of two moulded orders springing from shafted jambs. Further W. are four windows, each of two cinquefoil-headed lights with a tracery light in a two-centred head with internal and external labels. The S. wall is uniform with that on the N. The W. wall has a doorway with a moulded two-centred head and continuous jambs, flanked externally by corbels supporting trefoil niche-heads. The W. window is of three cinquefoil-headed lights with tracery in a two-centred head, with labels as before. Inside, the W. doorway has a segmental rear-arch and a surround of stonework with trefoil panelling; below the sill of the W. window is a moulded string course with a black-letter inscription recording the building of the church in 1850. The nave roof has seven arch-braced hammer-beam trusses set on shafted stone wall brackets.

The North Transept, evidently designed as a manor-house pew for the inhabitants of Crichel House, has buttresses, roof and parapets similar to those of the chancel. Internally the E. wall has a row of stone recesses, presumably intended for memorial tablets, with shafted jambs, cusped two-centred heads and trefoil and quatrefoil tracery. The N. wall has a window of three pointed lights with trefoil and cinquefoil cusping under a four-centred rear-arch with shafted jambs. The W. wall has a doorway with a two-centred head and continuous jambs in a casement-moulded and shafted outer surround with traceried spandrels ; adjacent is a square-headed window of three trefoil-headed lights. The South Transept is generally similar to the N. transept, but less elaborately decorated. Above the S.W. corner is an octagonal bell-cote with trefoil-headed openings and a domical ogee crocketed cap.'

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1977 (Map). SDO17396.

(ST 99500830) Church (NAT) (disused) (NAT)

<4> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF051577 (Index). SDO14738.

ST MARYS CHURCH, MOOR CRICHEL

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209288 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2023 2:34PM