Listed Building record MDO15985 - Parish church of All Saints, Chalbury

A small parish church consisting of chancel and nave of thirteenth to sixteenth century date with added eighteenth century south porch and north vestry. Excavation in the nave has indicated the presence of a twelfth century timber-framed nave and also evidence for an earlier timber church earlier than the twelfth century.

Church of All Saints. Simple plan of nave, chancel and South porch, C13th origins with C14th and C16th alterations, and extensively restored in the C18th. <1>

All Saints, Chalbury has the most completely preserved C18th interior of any Dorset village church. <3>

Evidence for the remains of an earlier timber church have been found beneath the nave during small scale excavations by the East Dorset Antiquarian Society in 1989. The only evidence for this earlier church was discovery of part of flint rubble base for a timber wall and possibly the slight remnants of a destroyed chalk floor. This church pre-dates the twelfth century nave but is otherwise undated.

The excavations have also revealed evidence for a footings trench for a twelfth century nave, apparently of timber-framed construction and a series of clay floors. A clay base in a linear trench along the same line as the north wall of the chancel was perhaps for a timber cill beam for either the north wall of the nave or a north arcade. This feature is pottery-dated to the twelfth century.

The standing building has a thirteenth century chancel with an inserted fourteenth century east window, a nave, which appears to be of fourteenth/fifteenth century date on excavated evidence (rather than thirteenth and sixteenth century as suggested by the RCHME <4>). The west end of the nave is eighteenth century, as is the south porch and the vestry. <5>

<1> DOE (HHR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Wimborne and Cranborne RD, 1 (Scheduling record). SDO17339.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1968 (Map). SWX1540.

(SU 01850683) Ch (NAT)

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 136 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 2-3 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(1) THE PARISH CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS stands on Chalbury Hill. The walls, partly reface in brick and now largely rendered, are of flint and rubble with ashlar dressings; the roofs are partly tile-covered and partly stone-slated. The church, consisting of Chancel and Nave, appears to date from the 13th century. It was partly rebuilt in the 16th century and it was extensively repaired in 1702 (Churchwardens’ Account Books); further repairs and refitting date from the second half of the 18th century. The North Vestry and South Porch are 18th-century additions. The interior supplies a good example of 18th-century church furnishing.'

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1991, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1990, 43-50 (Serial). SDO90.

<6> Brewster, T F, A short history of Chalbury Church and Parish (Monograph). SDO18252.

<7> All Saints: Chalbury, Notes on the Pew-runners (Monograph). SDO18253.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213073 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 16 2025 4:34PM