Details
WEYMOUTH
SY6677NW PORTLAND ROAD, Wyke Regis
873-1/29/634 (West side)
12/12/53 Church of All Saints
GV I
Anglican parish church. Rebuilt and rededicated 1455. Portland
stone ashlar, lead roofs, stone slate to porch.
PLAN: very regular plan with 5-bay nave continuous with
chancel and sanctuary, N and S aisles, W tower, S porch, and
NE vestry.
EXTERIOR: the tower is in 4 stages with string courses, set
back buttresses with diagonal top stage, not carried through
to pinnacles, crenellated parapet, and NE octagonal stair
turret carried above the parapet.
The W front has a blocked doorway to 4-centred arch and
moulded jambs, below a lofty 3-light window, and a 2-light
with stone louvres to the bell stage to each face; that to the
N face has a Ham stone head. The label is carried round as a
continuous string, including the head of the buttresses.
The S front has a small light at the second stage, and a
multangular clock-face, and the E face has a small door with
pointed head opening to the roof; this is now of very low
pitch, but was originally steep, and the door opened to the
inner roof space.
The nave, chancel, and aisles have a continuous moulded
plinth, and a plain parapet above a string with prominent
gargoyles, and with saddle-back coping; the N nave parapet is
rendered. There are no clerestorey windows. All windows are
3-light Perpendicular, except 5-light to the chancel, under
drip courses, and divided by 2-stage weathered buttresses, set
back at the corners. Tracery is uncusped in the aisles.
A small priests' door to the chancel, and one 3-light window,
but the N side is covered by the vestry, in 2 storeys, with a
small square light at each level, in chamfered surround. A N
doorway opposite the porch entry. The gabled S porch has a
plain pointed doorway in 3 chamfered orders under a small
statue niche to an ogee-cusped head. The inner doorway is
4-centred, under a niche with cinquefoil head. The walls are
plain, with an eaves mould. A stone terminal cross here and to
the chancel E end.
On the W wall of the N aisle is a large stone memorial tablet,
in Greek Revival style, and signed 'J Hamilton Archt',
commemorating the loss of the ship Alexander on 26 March 1815.
On a voyage from Bombay to London she was totally lost in West
Bay, when '... 140 souls Mishappily perished with the
exception of 5 lascars whose bodies were found and buried near
this spot.....'
INTERIOR: a very consistent design, on a Portland stone floor,
with piers of 4 shafts and 4 hollows to high bases and small
capitals, with arcade in 3 orders. A continuous moulded
cornice to the nave, with alternate round and square floral
embellishments. The low-pitched panelled roof is carried on
short shafts to stone corbels, mainly with carved angels. The
tower arch has a broad wave mould with shafts and small caps,
small door to tower vice, and concrete flooring; it is
enclosed with a C19 screen.
The chancel has plain walls, with many monuments. On the N
side is a wide plank door to straps, and a narrow squint;
there is a piscina or aumbry (no outlet) in the S wall. The S
aisle has an ogee-headed stoup to the E of the door and a
piscina at the E end; above the door a painted stone Royal
Arms in high relief. The N aisle has a plain W wall, with the
Royal Arms of George III, and N doorway on 4 steps with
nosings, under a flat 4-centred rere-arch, and a plank door
with slight ogee head, inscribed 1598. On this side the
windows are not centred to the arcade bays. At the E end is
the organ. The aisle ceilings are in compartments, with a deep
longitudinal moulded beam and drops to corbels each side.
FITTINGS: the pews are all C19 with trilobed poppyhead, font
is a tall flared stone octagon, with Art Nouveau decoration at
the heads of panels and cover 'In loving memory of Oliver
Warner and his 4 sons' (undated). Plain octagonal pulpit,
brass eagle lectern, Communion rail with turned balusters. No
early glass; the E window, with the Evangelists and Paschal
Lamb is dedicated to Joseph Swaffield, who died in 1841, aged
84, and the adjacent S window is of similar date. There are
many wall and floor tablets (see RCHME); one in the chancel is
dated 1623.
Apart from refurnishing, and replacement of the roofs (in the
C18, and in 1936), this is a remarkably consistent and
unchanged C15 design; nothing has been added structurally.
(RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 370).
Listing NGR: SY6621177788
