Listed Building record MDO12778 - Church of St Peter, High Street, Shaftesbury

Located near the centre of the town. Has walls of greensand ashlar and rubble and is roofed with lead and partly with modern materials. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

St Peter's is the mother church of Shaftesbury and is the only one remaining of the twelve which were once in the town. The Abbess was patron of St. Peter's and the list of vicars begins with John Schipp, September 6th 1305.

The church is partly 13th century having been altered and repaired at various times. It consists of three parallel aisles of the same length. Four aisles with slender pillars on each side of the centre one, dividing it from those on the north and south. Each aisle has an alter at the east end. The south aisle was widened sometime between 1799 and 1848.

Below is a vault once used as a cellar by the Sun and Moon Inn adjoining but restored as a chapel sometime since 1907.

The east window of the central aisle is Perpendicular but has been restored; it contains a few medallions of old glass. (2)

Parish Church of St. Peter of ashlar and rubble has 14th century north and south arches in the west tower indicating a building of that date. The remainder of the tower, the nave, north aisle and west porch are of the late 15th century; the south aisle was rebuilt and enlarged in the 16th century. There is no chancel. Alterations were made in the 19th century. Plan. (3-4)

Excavations in St. Peter's Church by Shaftesbury and District Arch. Group during 1976 examined levels in the 'crypt' or undercroft before new floors were laid; against the south wall, three features were located.

1) A large pit, partly obscured by a 19th century brick arch, was excavated to a depth of 1.10m. A substantial amount of pottery was recovered from the black soil infill, which ingeneral terms had similarities with the Middle or Late Saxon pottery, although in Dorset these forms may have continued well into the 11th century. Charcoal, pieces of chert, unworked flint and two worked flints (one a transverse arrowhead) were also found in the infilling).

II) A feature (pit?) dug after the south wall was built in 16th century (No details or finds given).

III) A roughly semi-circular feature (? Pit) situated to the west of the above was investigated to a depth of 1 metre. The loose infilling contained 18th or 19th century material.

A small trench also examined the foundations of two piers in the north and south arcades of the church. (5-6)

Historic England, Historic England Archive, PC41098 (Index). SDO14738.

St Peter's Church, taken from High Street in the north-west. Note on the envelope stating ready for Architectural Diary September the 13th 1926. The postcard claims that the tone of the church bells is the sweetest in the county.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1904, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1903, liii-liv (Serial). SDO16.

St. Peter's Church, Shaftesbury
where Mr. Doran Webb addressed the meeting.
Before the Town Hall was built the principal entrance to the church was through the western porch, a 15th Century building with a stone-vaulted roof, but for some years past the handsome ISth Century gates have for good reasons been fastened up, and at present a door in the north aisle opening on the street affords the only means of access to the building.
The church, late Perpendicular in style, is the only one in the town that has not been rebuilt. It consists of a nave and north aisle of equal length, a wide south aisle, having a species of crypt beneath it, a western embattled tower, and west porch. A structural chancel seems never to have existed, but doubtless a high screen ran across the entire width of the building, that portion of the nave eastwards of the screen forming the choir, having a chapel on either side. Built into the walls of the chapel at the east end of the north aisle are canopied niches, and on the floor is a stone slab with the indent of four shields, one at each corner. In the centre of the slab is a brass plate with this inscription :—
"Sub isto saxo timulat' corpus Steph'i Payne armiger', fil' et hered' nichi' Payne, arm', quond' seneschali hujus monasterii, qui obiit xiijg die mens' Decembris : Anno D'ni MCCCCOVIJ ; cujus a'ie p'piciet' altissimus D'e Amen." Stephen Payne, Seneschal of the Abbey of Shaftesbury, held, says Hutchins, "seven messuages, three gardens in Shaston, of the Abbess ; forty acres of land in Bellchalwel of the Earl of Northumberland ; and seventy-eight acres in the hundred of Alcester, of the Abbot of Evesham, by rent of five shillings. In the east window of the church is some old stained glass ; one shield bears the emblem of the Trinity, another of the Five Wounds of the Passion ; the third shield bears the arms of Fitzjames of Lenston :—Azure, a dolphin embowed or, impaling. Bendy of eight or and azure, within a bordure of the first (Newburgh of Winfrith). The arms on the fourth shield are :—Quarterly 1 and 4, Argent, a barrulet gules, between four bars gemelles wavy azure ; 2 and 3, Argent, a chevron gules, between three castles sable.
On the floor of the nave are two memorial slabs, the one to Walter Barnes who died in 1707, the other also to a Walter Barnes who died in 1722.
The font dates from the 15th Century, and is of Purbeck marble, which has been barbarously painted.
The altar table and alms box date back to the 17th and the pulpit, with sounding board, to the ISth Century. Ranged round the walls of the church are a number of carved bench ends and some linen-fold panelling. The roofs of nave and north aisle are late Perpendicular work, and are covered with lead. In the east end of the south aisle is a doorway blocked up, and beneath this aisle is a crypt at present used for a cellar. The south wall of the tower has been pierced with a lancet window at a height of four feet from the ground. This is now blocked up. Possibly the inn which abuts against this side of the tower was of old the priest's house. Externally, perhaps, the finest feature of the church is the pierced stone parapet of the north aisle. Carved on shields are the Tudor rose, pomegranate, portcullis, &c., which enable us to date the work with certainty to the early part of the 16th Century.

Shaftesbury and District Archaeological Group, 1977, 1st Interim Report (Jan. 1977) L15 St Peter's Church, Shaftesbury (Monograph). SDO21188.

Shaftesbury and District Archaeological Group, 1977-80, Shaftesbury and District Archaeological Group; Interim Report 1977-80 (Serial). SDO11483.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1927-8 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 86262293) St Peter's Church (NR)

<2> Sydenham, L, 1953, The Town and Abbey of Shaftesbury, 18 (Monograph). SDO18011.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 61 (Monograph). SDO99.

<4> Department of the Environment, 1973, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Dorset (Borough of Shaftesbury), 38-9 (Scheduling record). SDO16496.

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1978, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1976, 59-60 (Serial). SDO76.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1980, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1977, 129-31 (Serial). SDO77.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF051589 (Index). SDO14738.

St Peter's Church, Shaftesbury. File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate.

<8> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 1016948 (Index). SDO14738.

[LATE SAXON POTTERY FROM ST PETER'S CHURCH, SHAFTESBURY]. Short typed report on late Saxon pottery from St Peter's Church, Shaftesbury, by Laurence Keen.Contents : Loose notes

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206417 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 26 2025 12:01PM