Listed Building record MDO3534 - St Leonard's Chapel at St Leonard's Farmhouse, East Street, Blandford Forum

Deconsecrated fifteenth century chapel which now forms one of the outbuildings of the farm to which it belongs. Built in flint and courses of stone rubble with some repair in brick, and a modern roof of corrugated iron.

ST. LEONARD'S CHAPEL (89060647), on the E. boundary of the parish, is a half-ruined 15th-century building now used as a barn. The E. wall and the eastern part of the N. and S. walls survive. The masonry is partly of flint and partly of squared rubble alternating with triple courses of knapped flint, with ashlar dressings and quoins in the N.E. and S.E. corners, and with putlog holes outlined in ashlar at regular intervals. The roof is modern. Internally the walls are of coursed clunch with random flint courses. The 'chapel' is notable as the only mediaeval building to survive in the parish. It probably originated as an infirmary. <2>

Desecrated and now forming one of the outbuildings of the farm to which it belongs. 15th century. Flint and courses of stone rubble with some repair in brick and a modern roof of corrugated iron. East window of 3 cinquefoil lights in a 2-centred head. One 2-light window vertical tracery remains complete on north side and remains of another on south. North and south. North and south pointed doorways. <3>

St Leonard's, Blandford Forum, a hospital, nominally for charitable work with lepers founded in 1282. <3>

St leonard's Chapel. <4>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey map 1:10,560, 1969 (Map). SDO18658.

(ST 89060648) St Leonard's Chapel

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 22 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(2) ST. LEONARD'S CHAPEL (89060647), on the E. boundary of the parish, is a half-ruined 15th-century building now used as a barn (Plate 114). The E. wall and the eastern part of the N. and S. walls survive. The masonry is partly of flint and partly of squared rubble alternating with triple courses of knapped flint, with ashlar dressings and quoins at the N.E. and S.E. corners, and with put-log holes outlined in ashlar at regular intervals. The roof is modern. Internally the walls are of coursed clunch with random flint courses. The 'chapel' is notable as the only mediaeval building to survive in the parish. It probably originated as an infirmary.

The E. wall has a casement-moulded window of three cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head; to the S. is a modern doorway. The N. wall has, to the E., a window of two lights with vertical tracery in a segmental-pointed head; further W. is a doorway with a two-centred wave-moulded head and continuous jambs; both openings have timber beams in place of rear-arches; the doorway is blocked. The S. wall is uniform with the N., but the head and tracery of the window have perished; W. of the doorway is one jamb of another S. window. Drawings of 1791 and 1859 (Dorchester Museum, Shipp Album I) show that the N. and S. walls were formerly symmetrical, with central doorways flanked by uniform windows. The W. part of the building has disappeared. '

<3> DOE (HHR), 1973, DOE (HHR) Blandford Forum RD Dorset September 1973, 20 (Scheduling record). SDO17703.

<4> Clay, Rotha Mary, 1966, The mediaeval hospitals of England, 288 (Monograph). SWX8347.

<5> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 100-1 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1989, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1988, 156 (Serial). SDO88.

'ST LEONARD'S CHAPEL, BLANDFORD.
As part of a new housing development, plans were approved to retain the chapel as a separate building, perhaps to be used for community purposes, rather than convert it for residential use. To accommodate a detached dwelling to the west it was necessary to demolish later additions to the surviving material fabric and to build a new west wall. Ground works for the construction of the new wall and for the adjacent new dwelling were observed. No archaeological features were found.'

<7> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1992, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1991, 180 (Serial). SDO91.

<8> Gale, J, 1992, St Leonards Chapel, Blandford Forum, an Archaeological Evaluation of the Structural Foundations (Interim Statement) (Article in serial). SDO11418.

180

<9> Gale, J, St. Leonards Chapel, Blandford Forum: An Archaeological Evaluation of the Structural Foundations (An Interim Statement) (Unpublished document). SDO14198.

<10> Cotton, J, 1996, An Archaeological Watching Brief at St Leonard's Chapel, Blandford, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO16804.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205440 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 29 2022 5:26PM