Monument record MDO1216 - Roman altar, Godmanstone

(SY 66589738). During alterations to the chancel of Holy Trinity Church, Godmanston, lettering was noticed on the north face of the base of the south reveal of the chancel arch. The stone is almost certainy a Roman alter stone dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Very nearly half of the width of the inscription had been cut away and destroyed when it was reshaped and sued as a plinth by the Norman masons. (1)

National Record of the Historic Environment, 452991 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1965, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1964, 104-106 (Serial). SDO64.

‘A ROMAN ALTAR IN GODMANSTON CHURCH. In September 1964, when making alterations to the chancel of Holy Trinity Church, Godmanston, Mr. H. W. Drewer-Trump of Messrs. Webb and Ford, Maiden Newton, and the church architect, Mr. E. Walmsley Lewis, noticed lettering on the north face of the base of the south reveal of the chancel arch. Our Chairman, Mr. W. Stuart Best, who is also a Churchwarden, wrote to Mr. R. P. Wright of Durham University for an elucidation of the inscription, with results seen below.

According to the survey of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments the chancel arch is of mid-12th century date. Among the pieces of limestone selected by the Norman builders was a stone (Fig. 2) at least 2ft. 10 ins. by 1ft. 6 ins. and 10ins. thick on which an inscription had been cut in Roman times. This stone was laid on its side and re-used by the Norman masons to form the plinth for the attached shafts, the moulded base and the squared base of the south side of the chancel arch; in so

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 10:34AM