Description

SY 5785 ABBOTSBURY CHURCH STREET, EAST SIDE

10/13 Parish Church of St Nicholas
26.1.56
GV I

Parish Church. C14 north aisle wall and north porch. C14 West Tower, north of
central axis, perhaps implying earlier aisleless church. C15 rebuilding from the
east end of the Chancel and addition of North Chapel. C16, nave remodelled with
rebuilt arcades. Plaster ceiling of chancel inserted 1638. Reredos erected 1751,
blocking the east window. Church restored in 1807-8, when gallery erected, and
in 1885 and 1930. Rubble-stone and ashlar walls. Lead and slate roofs. Nave
continuous into chancel. North hall, 4 windows, irregularly spaced, from the east:
of 3 cinquefoiled ogee lights with vertical tracery in a 2-centred head, with
moulded reveals, label and head-stop projecting stair-turret for roof stair;
2-light C14 window; 3-light window with cinquefoiled lights in a pointed-arch
head, C15. 2-light C14 window west of north porch. The north porch, unbuttressed,
has a C14 outer archway with chamfered jambs and segmental-pointed arch with
pinnacles standing on corbels carved with grotesques. West Tower, C15, of 3 stages
with an embattled parapet and carved bosses on the parapet string. Diagonal
buttresses. West doorway has moulded jambs and 4-centred head. The west window
is of 3 cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a 2-centred head. Niche above
the window with carving of The Trinity, c.C15. Bell-chamber has windows of 2
trefoiled lights. South aisle, C16, with regular fenestration corresponding to
bay divisions internally, windows with trefoiled ogee lights with vertical tracery in
a 3-centred head, labels over. Blocked south doorway, C16. C17 doorway between the
2 eastern-most windows, with 3-centred head and label, dated 1636. Chancel,east
window, blocked in C18, covering reredos. Interior: 6 bays, early C16 north and
south arcades with 2-centred and moulded arches springing from hollow-chamfered
piers. Carved foliage capitals. Early C16 clerestorey has 5 windows. Fittings:
font, octagonal bowl, C15, base C20. Pulpit: oak, octagonal with 3 ranges of
enriched arched panels, early C17. Reredos: of painted wood and plaster, with
panelled centrepiece and Corinthian side-columns, entablature and pediment.
Monuments: Porch: Purbeck marble slab carved with figure of abbot with chasuble
and maniple , c.1200. Royal Arms: on front of west gallery, Hanoverian, carved
in wood and coloured.
(RCHM, Dorset I, p.l(l).)

Listing NGR: SY5776985210

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Parish Church of St Nicholas at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17533276

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)