Listed Building record MDO3537 - Monument erected by John Bastard in memory of the fire of 1731

Monument dated 1760, an inscription explains that it was erected by John Bastard in memory of the fire of 1731. It consists of a pedimented canopy supported on Roman Doric columns, and is an example of the Bastards' later and more severely classical style.

Originally designed as a pump house; a fountain was substituted for the pump in 1897. <2>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 23 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(5) FIRE MONUMENT (Plate 102), commemorating the fire of 1731, stands at the E. end of the Market Place against the churchyard wall. It was designed by John Bastard and was erected in 1760 at a cost of £66 0s. 5d. (Bastard's Survey Book, D.C.R.O.). Two free-standing columns support a pedimented Roman Doric entablature with the date 1760 on the tympanum. The rear wall, of ashlar, with terminal pilsaters to crorrespond with the colmns, bears the following inscription: 'In REMEMBRANCEof God's dreadful Visitation by FIRE which broke out the 4th June 1731, and in few Hours recduced, not only the CHURCH, and almost this whole Town to Ashes wherein 14 Inhabitants perished, but also, two adjacent Villages. And, in grateful Acknowledgement of the DIVINE MERCY, that has raised this Town like the PHAENIX from it's Ashes, to it's present beautiful and flourishing State, And to prevent by a timely Supply of Water, (with God's Blessing) the fatal Consequences of FIRE hereafter THIS MONUMENT of that dire Disaster and Provision against the like, is humbly erected by JOHN BASTARD, a considerable Sharer in the general Calamity. 1760'. An inscription of 1768 records an endowment of £600 by John Bastard and another inscription records the repair of the monument in 1858.

<2> DOE (HHR), 1973, DOE (HHR) Blandford Forum RD Dorset September 1973, 35 (Scheduling record). SDO17703.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205503 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 24 2022 1:54PM