Details
BEAMINSTER CHURCH STREET
ST 4701/4801
11-11-66 (SOUTH SIDE)
7/32
CHURCH OF ST MARY
GV I
Parish Church. C13, C15 and C16. Nave, north and south aisles, chancel,
north east chapel, west tower, south west vestry, north porch. Rubble-
stone and ashlar walls, ashlar dressings. Stone slate and lead roofs.
C13: east end of north aisle wall, formerly end wall of C13 north transept.
C15: north and south aisles, chancel rebuilt. Nave and aisles of 5 bays
with 3-light stone mullions with panel tracery in pointed heads. Each
bay with a short buttress. Window to organ-chamber, 4 lights with cusped
trefoil ogees. Tracery with flattened quatrefoils under a 4-centred head.
Plain parapets. Chancel: 2 bays east windows of 5 cinque-foiled lights
with vertical tracery over. South wall with 2 C15 windows and a priest's
doorway. North chapel, rebuilt 1505 by John Hillary of Meerhay. East
window, of 4 cinquefoiled ogee lights, modern tracery in a 2-centred head.
West tower, early C16. 3 stages, set-back buttresses pinnacled. Course
of quatrefoils, above plinth, paterae above first string, coupled bell-
openings in top stage and crenellated parapet. Sculpture in tiers: Virgin
and Child, flanking niches, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension with
flanking figures, divided by crocketed pinnacles. All in second stage.
Polygonal newel stair in north east corner fully pinnacled. North porch
with diagonal buttresses, string and crenellated parapet, 1860's.
Arch with moulded jambs and 4-centred head. South west vestry, mid C16,
with reset windows. Interior: Nave arcades, 2 west piers, C15, 2 east
piers, C16. Conventional pier-design, 2-centred arches. Nave roof:
arch-braced construction, renewed in C19, crenellated wall-plate and
one set of purlins. North and south aisles with pentice roof on carved
head-stops, c.C17. Chancel roof; also arch-braced Cl9. Chancel-arch,
C15, 2-centred of one continuous moulded order. Soffit with double-panels,
divided into tiers. Squint to south aisle. Fittings: font, late C12,
Purbeck marble with square shallow bowl with round arcading on one side.
Round stem with 4 colorettes. Piscinae: chancel, C14, north chapel with
C20 cill, south aisle, C13 With trefoiled head and gable. Pulpit: oak,
octagonal with 2 tiers of arcaded panels, early C17. Brasses: 6 of C16,
C17 and C18 date. Monuments: north aisle, to Danel Cox, 1778, John Cox
1783, Samuel Cox, 1801, brothers, white and grey marble wall monument
put up in Samuel's lifetime, with shield-of-arms and standing female
figure leaning on urn. 4 other marble wall monuments, including to
Richard Symes, barrister, 1783 and family; oval medallion carved with
female figure leaning on an urn. South aisle: 'Strode' monuments to
Thomas Strode, Sergeant at Law 1698-9, marble with standing figure in wig,
gown, side pilasters support cornice etc.
R,c.H,t..I. Dorset I, p 17(1)ff. F.P. Pitfield, Dorset Parish Churches (1981)
pp 48-52.
Listing NGR: ST4789401249
