Description

DONHEAD ST. MARY CHURCH HILL
ST 92 SW (east side)

7/41 Church of St. Mary
6.1.66
GV I

Anglican parish church. Late C12, C13, C14, C15, C19 restoration.
Dressed limestone, tiled roof. Plan: nave with aisles, chancel
with side chapels, west tower and south porch. C14 gabled porch
with diagonal buttresses and raked sides, Tudor-arched ovolo-
moulded doorway, coped verge with cross finial to stone roof.
South aisle has blocking course and 2-light C15 window with cusped
lights and hoodmould either side of porch. Nave clerestory has
five C13 lancets with hoodmoulds, coped verge with sanctus cross.
South chapel has chamfered pointed priest's door and two 3-light
C15 windows with cusped lights and hoodmoulds, blocking course with
saddleback coping. Chancel has one 2-light C14 window to south and
three C19 stepped lancets to east, diagonal buttresses and coped
verge, large stone tablet to Jeremiah Bower died 1759 set against
north wall. North chapel has 3-light Perpendicular window and
tablet to Elizabeth Bower died 1791 on east wall, north side has
two 2-light Perpendicular windows and blocking course. North aisle
has central blocked hollow-chamfered doorway with hoodmould, 2-
light C15 cusped window either side, blocking course. Nave
clerestory has five C13 lancets. All chapel and aisle windows are
square-headed. Three-stage west tower mostly C15 with angle
buttresses and string courses, double chamfered pointed west
doorway with 3-light Perpendicular windows with pierced wooden
louvres and hoodmoulds, moulded string course with gargoyles to
battlemented parapet with eight crocketed pinnacles.
Interior: porch has stone benches to sides, pointed barrel vaulted
roof with ovolo-moulded stone ribs, cyma-moulded inner doorway with
hoodmould and C19 double doors. Nave has 5-bay C19 wagon roof with
moulded tie beams, polychrome tiled floor. Tall chamfered tower
arch with hollow-moulded upper arch on C19 corbels, blocked lancet
over, wooden newel stairs to belfry, late C19 Perpendicular-style
screen filling arch. Clerestory windows have hollow-chamfered
rere-arches. Fine late C12 three-bay south arcade with double
chamfered arches on octagonal abaci and cylindrical piers with
multi-scalloped or stylised leaf capitals, blocked Tudor-arched
west doorway in south aisle. North arcade of three double
chamfered arches on cylindrical piers with plain chamfered capitals
and roll-moulded bases, aisles have restored late Medieval lean-to
roofs with carved bosses and chamfered ribs. Wide double hollow-
chamfered pointed chancel arch on octagonal responds with wind-
blown leaf capitals, chancel has C13-style east windows with rer-
arches on marble shafts and C19 wooden pointed barrel-vaulted roof,
2-bay chapel arcades with hollow-chamfered and roll-moulded piers
and moulded arches, roll-moulded pointed transitional archways
between chapels and aisles, C19 pitched roofs. Good 1880s glass
in east windows, rest of glass probably by Kempe, 1860s. Restored
Jacobean pulpit with carved panels, C12 black marble and stone drum
font with arcading and carved 'woven' frieze, C19 pews. Pedestal
piscina in south chapel with Dunston memorial glass of 1984. Good
collection of C18 and C19 wall tablets including stone and slate
tablet in south aisle to John Jeffries died 1711 with Composite
pilasters to segmental pediment, several classical tablets by
Osmond of Sarum such as to William Grove of Ferne died 1855 and to
Charles Wyndham of Donhead Hall died 1846, large marble to Col.
William Burlton died 1870 by Bedford of London.
(N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, 1975)

Listing NGR: ST9066824440

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17529990

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.

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