St Peter

C15 Nave, North Transept, Tower, South Porch.

Clay tile roofs.

North wall: 3 C13 lancets, the 2 eastern altered c.1400.

South wall also has 3 C13 windows, similarly treated, all altered c.1400, and now of 2 trefoiled lights in square heads.

C13 doorway has chamfered jambs, 2-centred head and label.

Blocked C15 north doorway has chamfered jambs and 4-centred head.

South Porch, originally C15, completely restored and with C19 outer archway.

West Tower, C15, 3 storeys with a plain parapet and gargoyles.

One of four gargoyles to be found on the tower of St Peter's church. See also [[2749878]], [[2749881]] and [[2749882]]. Architects often used a series of gargoyles on a building to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof so as to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm, especially the washing out of mortar between the stones. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth.

© Jonathan Kington

Interior: nave roof carried on good C19 carved stone corbels, 4 bays of arch-braced collar trusses with splayed Y-strutting over.

Fittings: Piscina, chancel: recess with moulded jambs and square head, C13, partly blocked and no drain.

Monuments: North transept, east wall: white marble wall-tablet by Lester, Dorchester, to Joseph Symes, 1830, and Elizabeth his wife, 1852.

Stone tablet with scrolls, shield-of-arms, 1677 to John Hurding.

South porch, on west wall, freestone tablet with side-columns, cornice, cherubs and emblems of mortality to Mary .., 1697. (RCHM Dorset I, p.39 (1)).