St Mary, Cerne Abbas

St Mary’s is a Grade I parish church on Abbey Street, Cerne Abbas, Dorset, in the Diocese of Salisbury, below the former Benedictine abbey.

Overview

Historic England lists a fourteenth-century chancel (east wall rebuilt in the seventeenth century), fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century aisle walls, a south porch partly rebuilt in 1696, and an early-sixteenth-century west tower standing within the body of the church. A clerestory was added in the early sixteenth century. T. H. Wyatt restored the church in 1870, removing the wall above the stone screen and inserting the present chancel arch. The fabric is stone and flint rubble with ashlar dressings and lead roofs; the three-stage Ham stone tower has octagonal buttresses, pinnacles and Somerset-style bell openings. The four-bay nave has late Perpendicular piers. Fittings include a medieval octagonal font, an oak pulpit dated 1640 with sounding board, and a stone chancel screen. Dorset Heritage Explorer dates the chancel to about 1300, the nave arcades and aisles to the mid-fifteenth century, the tower to about 1500 and the clerestory to about 1530; in 1639 the east end of the chancel was rebuilt west of its earlier line.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1323846
• British Listed Buildings: Parish Church of St Mary