Church of St Thomas of Canterbury

Details

COMPTON VALENCE SY 59 SE COMPTON VALENCE VILLAGE

5/22 Church of St Thomas of Canterbury 26-1-56

GV II *

Parish Church. West Tower, C15. Rest of church entirely rebuilt in 1838-9 using C14 Gothic features by Benjamin Ferrey, at expense of Robert Williams of Bridehead. West Tower, Nave with north aisle and south porch, chancel with polygonal sanctuary, north vestry. Crypt under chancel. Greensand rubble walls, with lias stone buttresses and window dressings. Stone slate roofs. Tower roof of lead. West tower, with diagonal buttresses, two stages, with an embattled parapet and C19 stair turret on the north side. West window of 2 trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a two-centred head label and head- stops, mullion and tracery renewed. Bell-chamber has in each wall a window of 2 trefoiled lights in a square head, the lights are filled with pierced quatrefoils. Nave of 4 bays, divided by very massive buttresses in 2 stages 3 windows, each of 2 ogee-trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a 2-centred head with a label. North aisle has 4 windows, each of one ogee-trefoiled light. South porch has diagonal buttresses and a south gable with moulded kneelers, coping and foiled apex-stone. The outer archway has moulded jambs and a moulded 2-centred head. Niche in the wall above with trefoiled head. Porch has a sexpartite stone ribbed vault. Chancel has a 3-sided sanctuary, containing in each face a 3-light window with tracery in a 3-centred head. Buttresses between with gable-shaped weatherings. Moulded cornice is enriched with ball-flower. North vestry, has in the east wall a window of 2 trefoiled lights in a square head, doorway in the north wall. Interior: tower has C19 tower-arch, and a C19 ribbed vault with central boss carved with an angel. Nave arcade has depressed 2-centred arches, main hollow-chamfer moulding continued down the piers. Chancel has a sexpartite ribbed vault, springing from carved and moulded corbels, at the east end the wall-ribs form window rere-arches. Roofs of nave and aisle are wood, C19. Fittings: font, octagonal bowl with splayed underside with paterae, octagonal stem and concave plinth decorated with small shields, C15. Pulpit: stone, 5-sided on a flared stem, each face panelled, C19. Reredos, stone, 3 panels with cinquefoil cusping and foliated gablets, Communion prayers. Benches, complete set, oak with simple poppy-heads, C19. Monuments : N. wall, to Ann (Chappell) wife of Samuel Best, 1740, stone with flanking lonic pilasters, architrave and broken pediment. (R.C.H.M. Dorset I, p.l04 (1); Newman and Pevsner, Dorset, p.160)

Listing NGR: SY5928793247

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

399076

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Inventory of Dorset I West, (1952), 104
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Dorset, (1972), 160

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.