SDO10259 - On the Benedictine Abbey of S. Mary, Sherborne, with notes on the restoration of its church

A paper presented as a record of restoration works carried out at Sherborne Abbey church between 1849 and 1877. During this restoration work the south porch was demolished and rebuilt and the tower’s foundations were excavated. The nave and transepts were restored and the west window was lowered. It was during this work that remains of the Saxon church were revealed outside the west of the Abbey church. Carpenter notes that ‘…on the site of the church, a long time ago, a portion of Roman pavement was dug up, with foundations of more than one building resting on it…’ (p.137). ‘…remains…have been now however uncovered, and there are visible remains of a plinth or base course of a building 29 feet wide outside, the centre line of which corresponds exactly with the nave. This ancient porch was pulled down either in Norman days, or to make way for the later Allhallows Church of the fifteenth century, and nothing now remains of it above the floor line of this church.’ (p. 140).