Listed Building: CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS (467801)

WEYMOUTH SY6677NW PORTLAND ROAD, Wyke Regis 873-1/29/634 (West side) 12/12/53 Church of All Saints GV I Anglican parish church. Rebuilt and rededicated 1455. Portland stone ashlar, lead roofs, stone slate to porch. PLAN: very regular plan with 5-bay nave continuous with chancel and sanctuary, N and S aisles, W tower, S porch, and NE vestry. EXTERIOR: the tower is in 4 stages with string courses, set back buttresses with diagonal top stage, not carried through to pinnacles, crenellated parapet, and NE octagonal stair turret carried above the parapet. The W front has a blocked doorway to 4-centred arch and moulded jambs, below a lofty 3-light window, and a 2-light with stone louvres to the bell stage to each face; that to the N face has a Ham stone head. The label is carried round as a continuous string, including the head of the buttresses. The S front has a small light at the second stage, and a multangular clock-face, and the E face has a small door with pointed head opening to the roof; this is now of very low pitch, but was originally steep, and the door opened to the inner roof space. The nave, chancel, and aisles have a continuous moulded plinth, and a plain parapet above a string with prominent gargoyles, and with saddle-back coping; the N nave parapet is rendered. There are no clerestorey windows. All windows are 3-light Perpendicular, except 5-light to the chancel, under drip courses, and divided by 2-stage weathered buttresses, set back at the corners. Tracery is uncusped in the aisles. A small priests' door to the chancel, and one 3-light window, but the N side is covered by the vestry, in 2 storeys, with a small square light at each level, in chamfered surround. A N doorway opposite the porch entry. The gabled S porch has a plain pointed doorway in 3 chamfered orders under a small statue niche to an ogee-cusped head. The inner doorway is 4-centred, under a niche with cinquefoil head. The walls are plain, with an eaves mould. A stone terminal cross here and to the chancel E end. On the W wall of the N aisle is a large stone memorial tablet, in Greek Revival style, and signed 'J Hamilton Archt', commemorating the loss of the ship Alexander on 26 March 1815. On a voyage from Bombay to London she was totally lost in West Bay, when '... 140 souls Mishappily perished with the exception of 5 lascars whose bodies were found and buried near this spot.....' INTERIOR: a very consistent design, on a Portland stone floor, with piers of 4 shafts and 4 hollows to high bases and small capitals, with arcade in 3 orders. A continuous moulded cornice to the nave, with alternate round and square floral embellishments. The low-pitched panelled roof is carried on short shafts to stone corbels, mainly with carved angels. The tower arch has a broad wave mould with shafts and small caps, small door to tower vice, and concrete flooring; it is enclosed with a C19 screen. The chancel has plain walls, with many monuments. On the N side is a wide plank door to straps, and a narrow squint; there is a piscina or aumbry (no outlet) in the S wall. The S aisle has an ogee-headed stoup to the E of the door and a piscina at the E end; above the door a painted stone Royal Arms in high relief. The N aisle has a plain W wall, with the Royal Arms of George III, and N doorway on 4 steps with nosings, under a flat 4-centred rere-arch, and a plank door with slight ogee head, inscribed 1598. On this side the windows are not centred to the arcade bays. At the E end is the organ. The aisle ceilings are in compartments, with a deep longitudinal moulded beam and drops to corbels each side. FITTINGS: the pews are all C19 with trilobed poppyhead, font is a tall flared stone octagon, with Art Nouveau decoration at the heads of panels and cover 'In loving memory of Oliver Warner and his 4 sons' (undated). Plain octagonal pulpit, brass eagle lectern, Communion rail with turned balusters. No early glass; the E window, with the Evangelists and Paschal Lamb is dedicated to Joseph Swaffield, who died in 1841, aged 84, and the adjacent S window is of similar date. There are many wall and floor tablets (see RCHME); one in the chancel is dated 1623. Apart from refurnishing, and replacement of the roofs (in the C18, and in 1936), this is a remarkably consistent and unchanged C15 design; nothing has been added structurally. (RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 370). Listing NGR: SY6621177788

Record last edited

Oct 15 2009 2:15AM