Description

CORFE CASTLE WEST STREET, KINGSTON
SY 95 79
(South side)
6/192
Parish Church of Saint James
20.11.59
GV I
Anglican Parish Church. Built c 1880 for 3rd Earl of Eldon. Architect G E Street.
Ashlar stone walls, with chamfered plinth - moulded round apse. String course
under window cills. Stone slate roofs with coped gables. In C13 style, showing
French influence. Nave with north and south aisles of 4 bays, and clerestory;
crossing with central tower, north and south transepts - vestry east of north
transept; apsidal sanctuary, west narthex. Tower, of 2 stages above roof, has
moulded parapet with stepped coping and cornice with wide billet ornament. In
belfry, a triple arcade on each face has the 2 outer arches blank, the centre with
a louvred window. Angle buttresses to lower stage, circular angle shafts to belfry.
String courses to each stage. In ringing chamber each face has a trefoil-headed
lancet. West gable wall has shallow buttresses. Large rose window. Narthex
below this, with lean-to roof, has open arcade (now glazed) of 7 bays, with
pointed arches on circular columns. Doorways at each end. Single lancets in
west walls of aisles. Nave aisles have, in clerestory, 4 pairs of lancets
separated by shallow buttresses. Aisles have similar lancets, separated by gabled
buttresses. East of the north transept a circular stair turret with conical cap
and surface moulding in lattice pattern. Vestry east of this has twin gables on
each face, with lancets at 2 levels. Apsidal sanctuary has lancets separated by
gabled buttresses. Single lancet in east wall of south transept. In south wall,
a triple lancet in sunk panel, pointed arched, with hoodmould. In west wall a
circular window with quatrefoil tracery. Internally, nave has pointed waggon type
roof with exposed rafters, and wind-bracing. Simple timber lean-to aisle roofs.
Quadripartite vaults to crossing and transepts, sexpartite vault to sanctuary.
Nave arcade has Pubeck marble piers with attached shafts, stiff-leaf capitals
and moulded arches with dog-tooth ornament. Crossing arches similar, with moulded
capitals. Rere-arches to windows, with Purbeck marble shafts. Sedilia and piscina
in sanctuary. Encaustic tile floor. Stained glass by Clayton and Bell. Wrought
iron chancel and parclose screens. Wrought iron pulpit on stone base. Stone font -
quatrefoil shape, on Purbeck marble base. (All these fittings by Street). Main
west door with fine ironwork, flanked by 2 smaller openings, from narthex. In
sanctuary, 2 marble monuments by Chantry to first Earl and Countess of Eldon,
dated 1832 and 1831 (moved from Old Church). In south transept, 2 simple tablets
to second Earl and his daughter, dated 1854 and 1864 - also from the Old Church.
An outstanding and unspoiled Gothic Revival Church (J Newman and N Pevsner.
Buildings of England. Dorset. p. 243).

Listing NGR: SY9555579552

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St James's Church, Kingston (Isle of Purbeck) at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q16900484

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.

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