Details
CORSCOMBE CORSCOMBE VILLAGE
ST 50 SW
11.11.66
5/203 CHURCH OF ST MARY
GV I
Parish Church. C15 West Tower, and North Porch. Core of Nave. Nave
and Chancel rebuilt by J Mountford Allen of Crewkerne, 1875-7. West
Tower, nave, South aisle, chancel, north porch. Rubble-stone walls with
Ham stone ashlar dressings. Plain tile roofs. West Tower: 3 stages
divided by strings. Canted newel-stair on north wall of tower to mid-stage,
stopped off with a hipped stone slate roof. West doorway with a moulded
pointed head, and jambs, C15. Plank door. 2-light stone mullion window
over with a large casement moulding. 2-light bell-openings with a straight
quatrefoil over. Crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles. Tower
unbuttressed. Nave north wall with 3 renewed stone mullion windows.
West has label and head stop of C19. Other 2 have labels with C15 head
stops. Chancel has 2 2-light windows with geometrical tracery heads.
Label and head-stops, all C19. East window: of 4 lights with plate
tracery, labels and stops, C19. North porch, C15, pointed arch and moulded
jambs, Low-pitched gable with gargoyles. Nave, north door sculptured
composition externally, C15, standards set diagonally with angel-head
brackets formerly supporting images. Door-head level has crocketed and
finialled canopies with traceried soffits. Above doorway: 3 niches with
half-angels as brackets, side-standards with trefoiled gables. Interior:
2-centred tower-arch with single respond and 2 outer rolls. Nave: rebuilt
in C19, east of the porch. 5-bay south aisle with conventional pier-design
and pointed arches. C19 roof of arch-braced, collar construction. King-posts.
Wall-plate with pierced quatrefoils and embattled. Chancel-arch, C19,
with 3 responds and plain moulded capitals. Heavy Perp-style mouldings.
Ceiled roof of Marsard-style internally, divided into 20 compartments.
South organ chamber, with a wide 2-centred arch, C19. Pointed door in
south chancel wall, label with foliage stops over. Fittings: Font, stone,
octagonal with 2 cusped panels on each side. Plain, octagonal stone base.
C15, stem and base modern. Pulpit, octagonal, of stone and carried on
short marbled colonettes with foliage capitals. Sides have Venetian
Renaissance detailing, including sunk paterae. East window: stained glass
of 1877. Monuments: Wall Tablet, by Chislett of Beaminster, to Joseph
Bishop, 1823, Sarah his wife, 1800, and others. Marble wall-tablet with
flanking pilaster-strips, draped sarcophagus and bay-tree, to Elizabeth
Bowring 1837, by Wilkins.
Source: RCHM Dorset I, pl05(1). F P Pitfield, Dorset Parish Churches, p208.
Listing NGR: ST5223004866
