Listed Building record MDO10399 - All Saints Church, Piddletrenthide

A parish church of 12th century origin. The chancel, south porch and north vestry date to the early 14th century and the west tower is dated 1487. The nave and aisles are circa 1500 in date. The church was restored in 1852 and 1880. Side of a Roman tegula found in the 1983 excavation of the North aisle.

All Saint's Church. South door and South chancel are 12th century, South porch and North vestry are from the 14th century, West tower late 15th century, aisle and nave circa. 1500. General restoration 1852 by Hicks, and 1880 by Ewan Christian. <2-3>

Excavations during 1983 revealed that the North aisle wall of circa. 1500 was built 0.28m higher than a mortared floor which lay 0.35m below the modern floor, indicating the existence of an earlier North aisle. The only find was the side of a Roman tegula. <5>

Pike, A, Piddletrenthide, The Village and its Church (Monograph). SDO18195.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1908, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1907, 1-11 (Serial). SDO17439.

Piddletrenthide
By the Rev. C. W. H. DICKER.

The Lady Emma, daughter of Richard, Duke of Normandy, became in the year 1002 the second wife of King Ethelred, receiving at the time the English name of Elfgifu. She thereby came into the possession of certain royal lands in the Piddle Valley, traces of which remain to this day in the local names of King-grove and Kingcombe. During the 50 years of this lady's residence in England, as Consort first of Ethelred and afterwards of Cnut, she gained the same notoriety for her persistence in bringing this country under Norman influences as history attributes to her son, Edward the Confessor. To this fact we probably owe the bilingual name of Piddletrenthide the " trente hides," as her friends would doubtless call it, "on the Piddle." I may say that Piddle or Pydele is a genuine old English word, which occurs in charters with the meaning "stream or brook."
This parish or Manor, in Elfgifu's native tongue the Queen presented, with a number of others, to the Benedictine monastery founded at Winchester by Eadward the Elder, afterwards famous as Hyde Abbey.
Piddletrenthide is situated near the summit of the great central chalk highlands of Dorset, two or three miles to the south of the greensand outcrop and the mighty escarpment which overlooks Blackmore Vale and Somerset. The village proper stands upon the hard Middle Chalk (our worthy sexton wishes it didn't), and the characteristic fossil, Inoceramus myteloides, is not infrequently found there. Its altitude above sea-level ranges from 286 feet at the lowest point of the valley to 700 feet on the eastern, and 780 feet on the western spurs of the Upper Chalk.
The dwellers on these uplands may, I think, be reckoned as being descendants of the oldest surviving race in Britain. There appears to be every likelihood of our having amongst us an unbroken strain of Welsh blood, undisturbed by such vicissitudes as have befallen the Celtic families of Wtest and North Wales. For the Dorset chalk was never subjected to an English hostile invasion ; the tide of battle in the sixth century, deflected by the impassable fens and thickets of the Stour and the Frome, flowed northwards before it turned westwards, compassing Selwood and fighting its way through the vales of " Blackmoor" and Taunton into Devon.
In early times our quite treeless downs offered on their well-grassed slopes and rich valleys the most highly-prized accommodation to a people of pastoral pursuits ; and to-day they abound in evidences of having supported a crowded and industrious Celtic population. A mile or so to the north immense works, divided by mounds and ditches into rectangular enclosures, crown the hills above Plush, forming what must have been an impregnable camp of refuge for hundreds of families with their flocks and herds. Southwards, at Piddlehinton (the hin tun, the " lower Piddle village," as the name implies), is a similar but unfortified kraal in the bed of the valley, besides which earthworks of kindred design meet the eye in every direction. Go where you will in our parish, and you ate compelled to tread on ground furrowed and wrinkled in all directions with Welsh spade-work.
Not that these remains constitute the earliest chapter of our Piddle history. On a hill to the north-east of our parish are to be found typical examples of the so-called " Pit Dwellings" and round and square " Pond Barrows," whilst round tumuli are scattered throughout its whole area. Not the least interesting of these relics are a series of double pits with a narrow sloping entrance. Then there are clearly traceable ancient roadways, having an obvious connection with the various earthworks, whilst above them all frowns the great chain of world-famed fortresses, guarding every pass leading up from the Vale, and forbidding all attempts on the part of envious Sumorsoetas to get a footing in the coveted uplands that smiled above them, wrestling with the gloomy forest land below. Doubtless some of these old works bear traces of Roman occupation ; but it was in any case a merely passing incident of no historic importance.
There are many things which testify to the Celtic descent of the Mid-Dorset folk, which cannot be well brought within the scope of this paper; the people are now English as English as Lord Roberts or Mr. Lloyd-George. The genius and faculty for annexing and "Englishing" foreigners is pre-eminently a characteristic of our race. At first this Island received its lessons in English at the edge of the sword and battle-axe, but these soon gave place to methods of peaceful assimilation and inter-marriage. For we read of no English women being imported by the followers of Cerdic ; frau and fraulein were left on the banks of the Elbe with the forgotten Thor and Freya ; Woden was exchanged for Christ, and the vivacious and accomplished Welsh maiden supplanted homely Gretchen. But the predominant element is always the English, and after so many years' supremacy it is not surprising that hardly any traces of the older blood remain beyond certain racial characteristics of temperament and speech. Queen Elfgifu found her manor English, and as such we must proceed to deal with it. The condition of the place from the 7th century to the 11th can only be deduced from the data supplied in the Domesday survey, which tells us that the boundaries, population, and general industrial status of the inhabitants of Piddletrenthide were much the same in King Edward's time as they are now, mutatis mutandis.
The arable land in the parish employed 1 7 bullock teams ; half the manor was the Lord's demesne, in this case held by the nominee of the Abbot of Hyde. The manor farm worked five plough teams, and the work on the estate was done by 20 serfs, 20 villeins, and 30 boarders, probably occupying as many cottages as the village could show at the present day. The other half of the manor included a strip of pasture or sheep-run " two miles long and half-a-mile wide " ; this seems to imply that the whole of the central valley-land was reserved for this purpose, as nowhere else could such an area be located, and a sub-manor of three hides (some 400 acres) in the hands of freeholders, namely, "a knight and a certain widow," whose land employed three ploughs. Now, it is interesting to note that, at the present day, 400 acres remain freehold in the whole parish, and that previous to the Enclosures Act a strip of land in the most likely position for such a sub-manor as is mentioned in Domesday was known as " Freelands." This ancient landmark is now entirely lost, the lands in question having been exchanged for others in another part of the parish some 90 years ago.
The number of mills is given as three (which are still in existence), and the demesne allotted to the Church was worth £28. A further statement in Domesday puzzled me Aliud valet xv. Sol. Hoc manerium tenuerunt Aimer et Alured T.R.E.pro II. Mancriis de rege E, et non poterant cum terra ista ire ad quemlibit domm- Finally, the Survey tells us that "afterwards Roger of Arundel held this manor of King William."
When we remember that those 20 villeins and 30 boarders all had farming lots of their own, with their implements and stock a man of the former class sometimes having as many as 30 acres or more it is obvious that the English common-field system must have been in full swing long before the reign of Edward the Confessor. It is possible that some of the measured "acres," marked to-day by clearly discernible balks on the hillsides of Piddletrenthide, are a link between us and the first English eyes that rested on the freshly-cut turf twelve centuries ago.
The site of two of the common-fields, including a magnificent Combe of Lammas land, is laid down on a plan of land for sale under the Enclosures Act, dated 1816 (in the possession of Mr. J. E. M. Bridge). A third field was evidently situated some distance southward, where acre and two-acre strips are still conspicuous. In the old common-field on the west of the church the strips take the form of curved lynchets, apparently the result of ploughing-out. Other lynchets abound on both sides of the valley ; some of them appear to be terraces cut in the face of the hillside, and some far older than others. A great many are now hidden under copses in fact, all the woods in the parish, with one or two exceptions, are planted upon lynchets.
The church, dedicated in the name of All Saints, stands upon a picturesque knoll near the northern boundary of the parish, justifying the conclusion that the lower two miles of valley was originally an uninhabited sheep-run. An ancient track runs along the western side of the valley ; beginning in the farther common-field, passing the old reservoir known as the Morning Well and the church, it probably became the village street, leading southwards parallel with the river to the lower common-field and on to Piddlehinton. The site of the ancient village, or Church-Town (as they call it in Cornwall), is now occupied by a few dilapidated cottages and farm buildings of considerable antiquity.
Of the church which stood at the time of the Norman Conquest no vestige remains. The present Romanesque doorway and piers of the chancel arch show that it was rebuilt early in the 12th century, probably under the auspices of the Arundel family. These remaining bits of Norman work are mainly constructed of Ham Hill stone. The rest of the history of this church, which for rustic stateliness and beauty cannot be excelled in many English villages, must be largely a matter of conjecture until some documentary evidence can be adduced to throw light upon it ; but we may venture roughly to deal with it as follows :-
The Norman building must have gradually disappeared in the 14th century under the several alterations that then took place. The earliest of these works would seem to have been the erection of a chapel at right angles to the old chancel ; this may have been the " Chapel of the Holy Trinity" referred to in the will of Alex. Riston, dated 1392 (Hutchins]. Then the chancel and nave were rebuilt, the original Norman piers being retained for the chancel arch, and a large and lofty porch added to the south doorway. In the 15th century a beautiful south aisle or chantry of three bays was erected. Its arcade of richly-moulded pillars and arches, with vine-wreathed capitals, is in the best style of Perpendicular work, and gives marked distinction to the interior of the church. Outside it is adorned with fine buttresses, carrying lions of spirited design, gargoyles, and a battlemented parapet. The corbels of the hood-mouldings are carved with considerable ingenuity into likenesses of ecclesiastics, each paired with a grotesque animal, but in the eastward window an angel is introduced.
The tower is the great glory of Piddletrenthide, and judging from the curious description in Leonine Latin verse it was erected by Nicholas Locke, vicar, a native of the village, in 1487. The date is one of the earliest instances of the employment of Arabic numerals. The first storey of the tower is pierced on the south side only with a small pointed window ; the higher stage has on each face a pair of graceful belfry windows of two lights, each divided horizontally by a transom. The proportion of wall-space to window could hardly have been arranged with better judgment. The buttresses show the same masterly hand as those of the south aisle, and the work probably is of the same date. Within, the tower has fragments of a beautiful fan-traceried vault, which may or may not have been completed. The great arch opening into the nave is richly panelled and similar to those at Cerne, Charminster, and (I think) Bere Regis. Contemporary with the chancel, or possibly a little later, is a large chantry or chancel-aisle on the north side, of peculiar construction, to describe which would be to state an architectural problem too intricate for the present occasion, and unintelligible without diagrams. I may some day, perhaps, appeal to the Club for help in solving it. I will now be content with calling attention to the curious way in which the builder of this chantry has joined it on to the ancient North-East Chapel, shown in the accompanying sketch. In this sketch we may note work of four different periods.
The latest addition to the building as it now stands was presumably the north aisle, which is a continuation of the chancel-chapel for four bays westward. Its design and construction are poorer than the work of the south aisle, although the arches are more symmetrical than those of this period generally were e.g., in the neighbouring church of Cerne.
Now, who were the pious builders who lavished all this costly work upon All Hallows' Church? In default of any definite information, one is inclined to attribute these chantries and aisles to the benefactions of the Collier family, who for many hundreds of years held the manor, as tenants at first of the Abbot of Hyde and afterwards of Winchester College.A rood-loft formed part of the design at the time of the building of the south aisle, the staircase in the thickness of the east wall being an integral part of this work. Its noticeable feature is a window, four feet above floor-level, opening into the aisle, which cannot have served any purpose of a squint. In erecting the screen, mortices were cut into the chancel step, and the Norman capitals of the piers were slightly mutilated. Mortices are also observable in the chancel arch, where it received the ends of the beam carrying the rood.
The font is of the 13th Century, and consists of a roughly worked octagonal bowl of Forest marble upon a cylindrical stem. The base (of Ham Hill stone) is of the Perpendicular period. This font is remarkable for the exceedingly shallow excavation of its bowl, which is only some four or five inches deep. The whole building was restored in the middle of the last century in a manner which demands some thankfulness, the general design of the fabric having been closely studied and very little new work chiefly repairs to window-tracery inserted. The painted glass includes a window by Wailes, two admirable ones in Clayton and Bell's later style, and a satisfactory west window in the tower from Munich.
The old Laudian Holy Table was removed from the chancel, and for many years lost sight of. During the incumbency of the Rev. R. W. H. Dalison (1894-8), it was discovered in a public house in the village, but it now occupies a suitable place in the South Chapel, restored to its sacred use. I may add that some of our young men are at work at a reredos of carved wood to stand behind it.
The register was commenced in 1654, when "Upon thee Prayr 5 of y e Pishoners of Puddle Trenthead " Edward Collier was appointed " to be the pish Register."
Upon the suppression of Hyde Abbey by Henry VIII. The manor became part of the spoils of Winchester College, and during the troublous times that followed, the Collier monuments, many of which must have been found in the church, were entirely swept away. The family held the manor during part of the 17th century, and it then changed hands several times before coming into the possession of its present holders, the Bridges, in 1812. To Mr. John Bridge, early in the last century, Piddletrenthide is greatly indebted for its rich endowment of forest trees and beautiful woods, whose many-tinted foliage gives the place a special charm. Old surveys of the parish show an almost entire absence of timber, King's Grove being the only ancient wood. Even the present imposing avenue at Dole's Ash did not exist 100 years ago.
Under the ownership of Winchester College the old village near the church died down, and a new one sprang up, straggling southwards. The ancient two-mile strip of pasture was broken up and a string of small holdings established all down the river. Great building operations went on from the later years of Henry VIII. Down to the close of the Stuart period, as is shown by the architecture of the houses and cottages, several of which bear dates carved upon them. Flint, with bands of ashlar, is the prevailing material, varied in later work with courses of brick, and two or three houses of the Jacobean days are entirely of red brick. One house (with a lower storey of Tudor date) has a remarkable stone newel staircase, with massive oak treads. The Manor House, a solid Georgian mansion, built by Mr. Wm. Cox during his tenure, stands upon the basement of the old Tudor Court-house, some of the mullioned windows of which are still to be seen. Its ancient fish-ponds (still available for their original purpose) and stately culver, or pigeon-house, are interesting links with the past.

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1:2500 scale, 1981 (Map). SWX1197.

(ST70200072) Church of All Saints

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 212.5 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(1) THE PARISH CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS stands at the N. end of Piddletrenthide village, to the W. of the R. Piddle. The walls are of ashlar, squared rubble, and banded flint and ashlar; the roofs are slated and of lead. The masonry includes limestones from both Marnhull and Ham Hill. The South Doorway and one respond of the Chancel Arch are of the 12th century. The Chancel, the North Vestry and the South Porch are probably of the first half of the 15th century. The West Tower is dated 1487; the Nave and the North and South Aisles are of c. 1500. The church was restored in 1852.

The graceful and firmly-dated W. tower is especially notable.

Architectural Description—The Chancel (16 ft. by 23 ft.) has a 19th-century E. window of five two-centred trefoil-headed lights below vertical tracery in a two-centred head. At the N.E. and S.E. corners are stout square-set angle buttresses of two weathered stages; the E. wall of the vestry takes the place of a N. buttress. The N. wall has, in the western part, an arcade of two bays opening into the eastern part of the N. aisle. The arches are four-centred and of three orders, with a wide hollow-chamfer separating two ogee mouldings; they spring from moulded respond corbels and an octagonal pier with a moulded capital and base; immediately on the N. is a segmental rear-arch; the arcade is of the 19th century but the faculty petition of 1852 (Salisbury Diocesan Archives) shows that it replaces earlier arcading of similar form. The S. wall has two windows, each of three two-centred trefoil-headed lights under vertical tracery in a casement-moulded two-centred head. Between the windows is a doorway with a chamfered four-centred head and continuous jambs with run-out stops. The chancel arch is two-centred and of two moulded orders; the inner order is wave-moulded, the outer is hollow-chamfered. The arch appears to be of the early 15th century, but the small size of the voussoirs suggests that they are earlier material, recut. Each respond is composed of a central half-round shaft flanked by smaller three-quarter shafts, all with scalloped and enriched capitals with chevron ornament above; each shaft has a moulded circular base above a chamfered square plinth, with spur spandrels; the S. respond is of the 12th century, with some restoration; the N. respond has been wholly restored. Adjacent on the N. is a narrow opening with a moulded square head. The North Vestry (9¾ ft. by 82/3 ft.) has, in the E. wall, a square-headed window of two trefoil-headed lights and, in the N. wall, a similar opening of one light. In the S. wall is a blocked two-centred doorway to the chancel.

The Nave (46 ft. by 21 ft.) has, on the N. side, an arcade of four two-centred arches; each arch is of three orders in which a wide hollow-chamfer separates inner and outer ogee mouldings. The arches spring from moulded capitals above columns and responds in which the hollow-chamfers are repeated while three-quarter shafts take the place of the ogee orders; the bases are polygonal. To the E. of the E. respond is a 19th-century opening with a two-centred head which rests, to the E., on an octagonal shaft. The S. side of the nave has a three-bay arcade similar in detail to the N. except that the moulded capitals are enriched with vine and leaf carving. The E. respond contains a small doorway for the former rood-loft stairs, with a moulded elliptical head and continuous jambs. Near the W. end of the S. side of the nave is the 12th-century S. doorway (Plate 11), with a segmental head enriched with vertical and horizontal chevron ornament, and responds with chevron ornament, three-quarter shafts and moulded abaci; the original masonry includes both Ham Hill and Marnhull stone. The segmental rear-arch is chamfered, with continuous jambs and run-out stops. The adjacent wall-faces are rendered and it is uncertain if the doorway is in situ or reset.

The North Aisle (59 ft. by 11½ ft.) has E., N. and W. walls of Ham Hill ashlar, with moulded plinths and string-courses, and embattled parapets with continuous moulded copings. Further E. the parapet continues, and oversails the western half of the N. gable of the vestry. The six buttresses are of two stages with weathered offsets; a subsidiary string-course formed by the continuation of the window hood-moulds passes around the upper stage of each buttress. At the E. end of the N. wall is a small blocked doorway with a moulded four-centred head. Adjacent is a large window of six trefoil-headed lights below vertical tracery in an elliptical head; the lights are grouped under two two-centred tracery heads; the rear-arch is four-centred and casement-moulded, with carved head-stops at the springing; the jambs are splayed. The abnormal size of this window and the presence of an adjacent doorway suggest that the E. end of the N. aisle was originally a chapel. The other four bays of the N. aisle have uniform windows, each of three trefoil ogee-headed lights, with vertical tracery in two-centred heads; the openings are casement-moulded internally and have moulded rear arches above hollow-chamfered shafts with moulded caps and, in two cases, with miniature bases.

The South Aisle has a hollow-chamfered plinth, a moulded string-course and an embattled parapet as in the N. aisle. The buttresses are of two weathered stages; the two square-set inner buttresses are enriched on the weathering of the lower stage with sculptured lions (Plate 18); the diagonal S.E. corner buttress has grotesque carving on the weathering of both stages. Grotesque gargoyles project from the parapet string-course above each buttress. The E. wall is unusually thick and, being in line with the chancel arch, may in part survive from the 12th century; it was refaced about the end of the 15th century and contains a casement-moulded, two centred window of three two-centred lights with cinquefoil cusping under vertical tracery; the hollow-chamfered label has carved angel-stops and the rear-arch is casement-moulded, with continuous jambs. In the S. wall are three windows similar to those in the western part of the N. aisle but with splayed interior jambs; the central window is larger than those to E. and W. and has four lights; the labels of all three windows have grotesque stops.

The West Tower (Plate 186) is of three stages, with a moulded plinth and an embattled parapet. At the N.W., S.W. and S.E. corners are square-set angle-buttresses of four stages, with weathered offsets intermediate to the tower stages; the N.E. corner has a polygonal vice turret. The tower stages are defined by weathered, hollow-chamfered and roll-moulded stringcourses. The string-course between the first and second stage is stopped against the sides of the buttresses while that between the second and third stage is continuous and constitutes the division between the third and fourth stages of the buttresses. The weathered tops of the buttresses are enriched with carved grotesques. Above the buttresses are diagonally-set pinnacle shafts with moulded and crocketed finials; other diagonally-set pinnacles rise from gargoyles on the parapet string-course at the centre of each side; the mouldings of the battlement coping continue around the pinnacles. At a slightly higher level, pinnacles with gabled sides and crocketed finials cap the N.W., S.W., and S.E. corners of the tower. At the N.E. corner the vice turret rises higher than the tower parapet and culminates in a flat-topped parapet with a string-course and gargoyles, and a moulded coping with six small crocketed finials.

The tower arch is two-centred and has a flat soffit and responds, decorated with paired trefoil-headed sunk stone panels; these are flanked on E. and W. by ogee-moulded ribs rising from carved capitals and three-quarter respond shafts with polygonal bases; these in turn are outlined by continuous hollow-chamfers and ogee mouldings. The vice doorway has a chamfered four-centred head and continuous jambs with moulded stops. The W. doorway has a two-centred head with ogee and casement mouldings, continuous on the jambs; these are enclosed in a casement-moulded square-headed surround, with leaf enrichment in the spandrels. On each side of the doorway are diagonally set standards, against which the plinth stops. The standards are capped by a hollow-chamfered string-course which continues from side to side above the doorway, stopping against the western buttresses; carved in relief within the hollow-chamfer is the black-letter inscription—
Est pydeltrenth villa in dorsedie comitatu
Nascitur in illa qua. .rexit Vicariatu 1487

The figures 1487 have recently been restored in cement but the original stonework, much defaced, was verified by this Commission in 1948. Above, the two-centred, five-light W. window has a casement-moulded external surround and a label with carved grotesque stops; inside, it has a double casement-moulded rear-arch with continuous jambs, the casement-mouldings being separated by a fillet; the mullions and tracery are of the 19th century. The bottom stage of the tower retains fragments of 15th-century vaulting; the wall ribs survive, with leaf bosses at the springing and apex, and in each corner are two ogee-headed panels and the springing of the cross-ribs. The second stage has a small two-centred S. window of two trefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil above, and a label with carved stops. In the third stage each face of the tower contains a pair of belfry windows, each window being of two transomed lights, with trefoil heads in each height and a quatrefoil above in a two-centred head. The labels have variously carved head stops, the middle stop on each side serving both windows; the lights are closed with perforated stone panels.

The South Porch has walls of banded flint and ashlar, with a hollow-chamfered plinth to the W. and a weathered string-course to the S. The buttresses are of two weathered stages; that to the S.W. is diagonal and that to the S.E. is square-set, probably having been rebuilt when the S. aisle was added. The S. archway has a wave-moulded two-centred head with continuous jambs. The S. gable has a moulded kneeler on the W. side; on the E. side the gable is incorporated in the parapet of the S. aisle. Below the string-course is a stone inscription panel with a moulded border; the inscription is illegible.

Fittings—Bells: five; 1st dated 1631; 2nd by T. Purdue, dated 1658 with initials AC. IC. CW. TP. IT.; 3rd inscribed in Roman capitals 'love God anno domini 1603'; 4th inscribed in black-letter 'Sancta maria ora pro nobis'; 5th inscribed 'com when I call to serve God all 1631'. Brass and Indent: In floor, immediately W. of chancel step, Purbeck slab with brass inscription plate (12½ ins. by 4½ ins.) inscribed in black-letter 'Here lyethe the bodye of John Colyer whiche departyde this lyfe the firste daye of June in the yere of or Lorde God MCCCCCLXIIII'; in same slab, indent for plate (17½ins. by 2½ ins.) Chairs: two, of oak, with shaped backs and flat seats, 18th century. Chest: In tower, of pine, with panelled sides, late 18th century. Coffin-lid: In churchyard, W. of S. porch, tapering slab with double hollow-chamfered margin, and cross with stepped base, broken in three pieces, top end missing, late 13th century. Coffin-stools: pair, of oak, with turned legs and moulded rails, late 17th or early 18th century. Communion Table: In S. aisle, of oak with turned and enriched legs, enriched rails, early 17th century. Door: to tower vice, of oak planks with four-centred head and hollow-chamfered cover-strips, on wrought-iron strap-hinges with incised design, and with iron ring and escutcheon plate, late 15th or early 16th century. Font: with straight-sided octagonal stone bowl, hollow-chamfered underneath, cylindrical stem and moulded octagonal base, perhaps 15th century, but recut; oak cover with central column surrounded by six scroll-shaped braces supporting vase finial, 17th century. Hatchments: Canvas panels in wood surrounds, partly gilt; in S. aisle, on S. wall, (1) arms of Newman with motto 'Lux Mea Christus', perhaps 18th century; (2) arms of Bridge with motto 'Resurgam', early 19th century; over S. doorway, (3) arms of Bridge impaling another coat, probably 19th century. Inscription: On W. tower, dated 1487, see architectural description, above.
Monuments and Floor-slab. Monuments: In chancel, on N. wall, (1) of John Bridge, 1834, large stone and marble wall monument with Gothic details; marble inscription tablet surmounted by portrait medallion and flanked by figures of Justice and Piety in canopied niches, by C. R. Cockerell, sculptor W. G. Nicholl; on S. wall, (2) of John Gawler Bridge, 1849, marble tablet; (3) of Charlotte Cox, 1806, marble tablet. In nave, on W. wall, N. of tower arch, (4) of William Constantine, 1723, draped marble cartouche with urn finial, cherub heads and winged skull; S. of tower arch, (5) of William Collier, 1655, and Francis (Deane) Collier, 1708, cartouche similar to foregoing but without finial; on N. respond of tower arch, (6) of Richard Exten, vicar, 1739, slate tablet. In N. aisle, on E. wall, (7) of Mary Cox, 1803, marble tablet surmounted by vase with flame finial; (8) of William Cox, 1799, monument of grey and white marbles with relief of mourning figure beside urn, above, oval inscription panel and arms; (9) of Elizabeth Story, 1802, small marble tablet; (10) of Edward Cox, 1796, grey and white marble tablet with shaped head and small urn. In N. aisle, on N. wall, (11) of Sydenham Baker, 1697, monument of slate and limestone with pilasters supporting cornice; (12) of Thomas Bridge, 1792, and Mary Bridge, 1779, monument in Grecian style by W. Theed, 1816, with double portrait medallion and, above, reclining figure holding inverted torch and gesturing toward butterfly, within elliptical-headed surround with bronze inscription; (13) of Robert Bridge, 1836, and Anne Bridge, 1830, tablet by W. G. Nicholl with relief depicting kneeling woman with angel. In N. aisle, on W. wall, (14) of William Cox, 1802, white marble tablet with fluted pilasters, supporting draped urn in relief against grey marble two-centred back-plate, with arms in apex, by P. Chenu, London; (15) of Robert Albion Cox, 1790, and George Cox, 1777, wall monument similar to (8), of white and grey marbles, with bas-relief, arms and oval tablet, by Ford of Bath; (16) of Louisa Bridge, 1841, wall tablet with Grecian enrichments surmounted by relief of mourning female, by W. G. Nicholl. In S. aisle, on S. wall, (17) of Thomas Bridge, 1826, marble tablet in form of Grecian sarcophagus with portrait medallion and festoons, surmounted by relief of weeping child, by F. A. Lege, London, 1827; on W. wall, (18) of John Bludworth, 1688, Elizabeth (Collier) his wife, and three children, monument of slate and limestone, with Ionic columns and entablature supporting shield-of-arms of Bludworth impaling Collier. In tower, on N. wall, (19) of William Collier, 1655, and Henry Collier, 1675, stone and slate wall monument with arms of Collier, erected by Frances Oxinbregge, wife of William. In churchyard, 3 paces S.E. of S. aisle, (20) of Thomas Dumberfeild, 1616, headstone; adjacent, (21) of William Dumberfeild, 1616, headstone; six paces S. of porch, (22) of John Arnold, 1678, headstone. Floor-slab: see Brass and Indent. Plate: includes silver cup with hallmark of 1699, silver alms-dish with hallmark of 1708 and arms of Collier, inscribed 'Ex Dono F:O. in memoria H:C.', cf. monument (19). Sundial: Above entry to S. porch, rectangular stone slab with enriched border, Roman numerals, wrought-iron gnomon and date 1602. Weather-vane: On tower vice turret, with scrolled iron brackets to cardinal points and copper weathercock, 19th century. Miscellanea: In W. tower, chamfered stone pedestal 3¼ ft. high, with circular basin at top, basin with central drain hole; incomplete, perhaps secular.’

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 313-4 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1983, 152 (Serial). SDO83.

Keen, L.

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1990, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1989, 114 (Serial). SDO89.

‘WINTERBORNE CAME AND PIDDLETRENTHIDE PARISH CHURCHES … A new drainage trench against the north-east corner of the chancel of All Saints, Piddletrenthide, exposed the junction of the foundations of the north vestry with those of the chancel. Beneath ground level the east face of a northern chancel buttress was revealed, 450 mm high and 40 mm back from the outer face of the vestry. This demonstrates that the vestry is an addition to the chancel and is not of the same build as implied previously (RCHM (E), Dorset, iii (1979), 213).’

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 888291 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 4 2025 12:57PM