Listed Building record MDO3513 - Church of St Nicholas, Ashmore

Parish church, rebuilt in 1874 by Charles Edwards of Exeter. The walls of the building are of greensand and flint in chequerwork style, and it has a gable-ended, tiled roof with stone copings.

The church of St Nicholas, rebuilt in 1874, is said to contain a 13th century, chancel arch. Fittings from the old church are incorporated in the present building (RCHME 1972).

Hutchins (1861) records that the church was rebuilt in 1874 (the Architect being Mr C Edwards, of Exeter), when the chancel arch was re-erected as the entrance to the vestry. Hutchins lists some of the special features of the old church (they have all now disappeared):
(1) The W end, which was an unaltered example of Early English work; central and side buttresses and two narrow lancet windows.
(2) Solid projecting piers of chancel arch with plain abaci, probably of early Norman date.
(3) A solitary nave window, probably dating from the rebuilding done in 1423.
(4) A small piscina in S. wall.
(6) Tablets in walls and inscribed floor -stones mentioned in Hutchins are also now gone.
A font bowl now stands in the vestry. It is said to be of Saxon origin ; but this is doubtful.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 209991 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey map 1:10,560, 1963 (Map). SDO18658.

(ST 91131777) Church (NAT)

John Hutchins, edited by Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W, 1861, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 1, 369 (Monograph). SDO12569.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 1 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(1) The Parish Church of St. Nicholas was rebuilt in 1874. A two-centred archway of two plain orders with continuous jambs, opening into the N. vestry from the E. end of the N. aisle in the rebuilt church, is said to be the old chancel arch, reset. The arch may be of the 13th century, but since Hutchins (III, 370) says that the former chancel arch did not correspond with its piers, the responds must be of 1874. Fittings from the old church are incorporated in the present building.'

Le Pard, Gordon, 1998, Medieval sundials in Dorset. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 119, 73 (Article in serial). SDO21411.

Undated, History of Church of St. Nicholas, Ashmore (Monograph). SDO18226.

Record last edited

Aug 29 2025 10:19AM