Description

ST 39 NE BETTISCOMBE

5/8 Church of St Stephen
11.11.66
GV II
Parish Church. Entirely rebuilt 1862, in Perpendicular style, by
John Hicks of Dorchester. Rubble-stone walls with freestone banding and
dressings. Tiled roof. West Tower, Nave, North Aisle, Chancel, South
Porch, West Tower, of four stages with stone quoins, unbutressed. South
stair turret of only two stages. Medieval Perpendicular west window of
three lights with tracery, reset. Two-light bell openings with stone
"traceries". Plain parapet with raised corners, stone-coped. South
elevation: window-porch-window; chancel: window-buttress-window. C19
windows of two trefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil over. One reused
medieval head and mullion at east end of chancel south wall, with heraldic
label-stop. Porch with 2-centred arch entrance with moulded stone jambs.
Diagonal buttresses with set-offs.
Interior: Nave with three-bay north arcade, carried on standard responds
with hollow chamfers. Plain capitals and bases. Tower-arch: straight-
chamfered dying into walls. Chancel-arch: three responds with wave-mountings
over. Roof, wooden, of single-hammer-beam design with arch-braces, all carried
on carved stone corbels. Segmental ridge-members Pulpit: C19, stone of
debased Perpendicular type with tall panels and traceried heads. Signs of
the Four Evangelists. Font: C19, octagonal stone bowl with central stone
support and four Purbeck marble colonettes. Carved panels with e.g. Star of
David, Dove, IHS, Passion flower, acorns and leaves. Monuments: (1) Stone
floor-slab, at chancel-step, to Jane wife of John Pinney, dated 1695.
(2) Blue lias floor-slab, next to (1), to Nathaniel Pinney dated 1724 and Naomi,
his wife dated 1741. Lettering within panelled framing, comparable to Manor
House hall. Source: R.C.H.C. Dorset I, p. 28(1).

Listing NGR: SY3990999978

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26412369

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)