Description

ST 82 SE MELBURY ABBAS QUARRY LANE

8/190 Church of
St Thomas
16.8.60.
GV II*

Parish Church, 1852. By George Evans of Wimborne. Ashlar with tiled
roofs and stone gable copings with finials. Moulded strings and
plinth. Diagonal buttresses. Plan: nave, chancel, south aisle
continuous with tower and south transept, north transept, north vestry,
south porch. In the 'Decorated' style with flowing tracery. Tower:
3-stage, embattled, with diagonal buttresses and octagonal vice turret
projecting above roof line with short spire: 2-centred west window
under label with head-stops; belfrey has paired lancets with pierced
stone panels. South aisle has 2 square headed, 2-light windows with
flowing tracery. North nave windows are 2-centred, of 2 lights with
flowing tracery. Transept windows are 2-centred with reticulated
tracery. South chancel wall has a lancet with flowing tracery to the
west and a 2-light, 2-centred window with flowing tracery to the east.
The north wall of the chancel has a similar lancet. East chancel
window of 3-lights with flowing tracery under 2-centred head. East
vestry window of 2-lights with flowing tracery. South porch has
2-centred, moulded arch,shafted jambs and a label with head stops.
South doorway has 2-centred, moulded head with continuous jambs and
label with carved foliage stops, 2-centred vice door. Interior
features: 2-centred, moulded chancel arch with shafted jambs and label
with elaborate head-stops; 3 bay arcade with smaller supplementary bay
west, 2-centred, of 2 chamfered orders on octagonal piers; 2-centred,
moulded vestry arch with shafted jambs; other arches of 2 or 3 straight
chamfered orders; nave and transept have hammer beam roofs with arch-
braced collars springing from elaborately carved angel corbels; boarded,
ribbed, waggon roof to chancel; flat, ribbed, boarded aisle roof;
wooden pulpit with ogee-headed panels on stone base; octagonal pulpit
with ogee-headed panels in baptistry under tower; pews with poppy heads
carved in chancel; various C19 encaustic tiles; C19 glass.
(RCHM, Dorset, vol IV, p 47, no 1. Newman J and Pevsner N. The
Buildings of England: Dorset. Penguin, 1972, p 272.)

Listing NGR: ST8821020076

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17540064

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)