Listed Building record MDO824 - Lyscombe Chapel, Cheselbourne

The chancel and chancel arch are late twelfth century; the nave was almost entirely rebuilt in the fifteenth and late sixteenth centuries. The chapel may have been used as a dwelling in the seventeenth century, was later used as a small barn/workshop, and it is now disused. The walls are flint with bonding-courses and rubble dressings and some later brick dressings.

Lyscombe Chapel, late 12th century with 15th-16th century alterations, was the property of Milton Abbey and passed to Sir John Tregonwell in 1540. It probably became a dwelling in the 17th century but is now disused. The adjacent cottage, a priest's house, is early 16th century with 17th century additions and is derelict. <2>

Lyscombe was once a manor and hamlet blonging to Milton Abbey. The manor had 13 tenants. Now, Lyscombe consists of only a cottage or two. <4>

A low lying area, beside a stream, centred at ST73630092 has a small rectilinear enclosures and is a typical siting for a deserted hamlet. Several sherds of coarse ware and salt glazed fine ware were found during perambulation. <5>

ST73660107. Lyscombe Chapel, although ruinous, remains standing to the eaves and is protected beneath a Dutch barn (see ground photo). ST73650106.

The priest's house is very ruinous and not outstanding.

Although areas both immediately north of the main farm buildings at ST73600110 and south at ST73630092 are disturbed and suggest depopulation, it seems likely that the main settlement area is now occupied by Lyscombe Farm house and its out-buildings. Several sherds of coarse mediaeval ware were found during field investigation. <6>

Architecton, 2004, Lyscombe Chapel & Priest's House, Piddletrenthide, Dorset. Statement for Scheduled Ancient Monument & Listed Building Consent (Unpublished document). SDO15067.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST73660101) Chapel (NR)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 75-77 (Monograph). SDO146.

‘(2) Lyscombe Chapel (73660106), together with a cottage and a barn, stands in a remote place among the Downs, midway between Cerne Abbey and Milton Abbey and nearly 2 m. N.W. of Cheselbourne church (Plate 130). The walls of the chapel are of flint with bonding-courses and dressings of rubble; there are also some later brick dressings. Until recently the roofs were thatched. The Chancel and chancel arch date from the late 12th century; the Nave was almost entirely rebuilt in the 15th and late 16th centuries; the chapel probably became a dwelling in the 17th century and it is now disused and protected only by a modern iron roof. The adjacent Cottage is of the early 16th century and no doubt was for the priest; in the 17th century it was doubled in size by an addition to the W., and the W. wall of the addition was repaired and refenestrated at the end of the 18th or early in the 19th century. The whole cottage is now derelict and in ruins. The Barn, some 70 yds. to the S.W., is substantially mediaeval; it is reported formerly to have borne an inscription 'L S 1638' but this was probably the date of some repair.

The three buildings form a small mediaeval group of considerable interest, but their history is obscure. Three and a half hides of land at Lyscombe formed part of the original endowment of Milton Abbey (see p. 183). The chapel (dedication unknown) is mentioned in 1311 together with the chapels of Woolland and Whitcombe. (fn. 1) It passed into lay hands when Henry VIII granted the abbey's possessions to Sir John Tregonwell in 1540.
Architectural Description—The Chancel (14 ft. by 9¾ ft.) has walls of flint. The original single-light E. window, with a round rear-arch and splayed ashlar jambs, was slightly widened in the 13th century and a chamfered trefoil head was inserted. The N. wall contains an original narrow window with a rebated round head and splayed reveals, the latter mutilated. In the S. wall the original window has been enlarged and fitted with a modern surround. The chancel arch is two-centred and of two plain orders on the W. side, with the remains of a moulded label; on the E. side it is flat. The responds have half-round shafts supporting the inner order, and smaller shafts under the outer order; the caps are scalloped and have moulded abaci continued as a string on the W.; the lower part of the N. respond and most of the S. respond have been destroyed and the capitals have been badly defaced. Floor beams and a stone stair were inserted in the chancel in the late 16th or early 17th century. The Nave (21¼ ft. by 9½ ft.) has walls of flint; the S. wall was rebuilt in the 15th century and the N. wall late in the 16th century. Part of the chamfered E. jamb of the S. doorway survives near the ground; above it is a window of uncertain date, now partly blocked and altered by the insertion of a second opening. The W. wall is of the late 16th century; the gable contains a window with chamfered jambs cut from a single stone; the opening is now square but it retains traces of two pointed lights and a central mullion. In the lower storey the W. wall has two 18th-century openings. A floor with stop-chamfered beams was inserted in the nave, as in the chancel.
The Cottage adjacent to the S.W. corner of the chapel is of one storey with an attic. The E. wall has a boldly projecting chimneybreast, the S. side of which is splayed above first-floor level and carried on a stone corbel. To the N., the chimney-breast incorporates a stone vice which has, in the E. side, a small loop consisting of a chamfered vertical slit with a circular widening at the centre; it overlooks the former S. doorway of the chapel. The other windows and doorways in the E. part of the cottage were altered and rebuilt in brick late in the 18th or early in the 19th century. A brick doorway on the N. side has a reset timber surround, perhaps of the 16th century, with a chamfered triangular head and chamfered jambs. The 17th-century western part of the S. wall contains a three-light stone-mullioned window. A scratch-dial occurs near the S.W. corner. The W. wall was repaired late in the 18th or early in the 19th century; it has two first-floor windows of this date with four-centred brick heads and jambs. In the gable are two reset 15th or early 16th-century fragments; part of a four-centred stone window head with trefoil-headed lights and a small stone panel with paired ogee-headed openings. Inside, the ground-floor room of the E. part of the cottage had, until recently, an original open timber ceiling divided into six panels by deeply chamfered intersecting beams and plates. To the E. is an open fireplace with a deep cambered and chamfered bressummer, and chamfered stone jambs with run-out stops. The entrance to the stone vice is through a doorway with a wooden lintel and a chamfered stone S. jamb with a run-out stop; at the head of the stair was a roughly wrought 16th-century oak door frame with a four-centred head. The W. part of the cottage has an open fireplace of the late 18th or early 19th century.
The Barn (92 ft. by 27 ft.) stands 100 yds. S.W. of the chapel; it is of flint with ashlar quoins and dressings and probably dates from the 16th century. The long axis lies N.–S. and there is a gabled transept to E. and W. in the middle of each long wall. The N. half of the W. side has been rebuilt but the other walls survive, at least in their lower parts. The S. half of the barn had a jointed-cruck roof until about 1950, when it collapsed; the whole structure has now been re-roofed in modern materials. The original trusses were set at 10½ ft. centres and rose from ledges about half-way between the floor and the wall-head on the inner face of the side walls. Externally, the E. and S. walls have weathered two-stage buttresses of flint and ashlar, those on the E. side corresponding with the trusses; on the W. the rising ground obviates the need for buttresses. The gabled S. wall is pierced by a single slit ventilator outlined in ashlar, with chamfered jambs. The transept doorways, 11 ft. wide, are also of ashlar and chamfered.’

<3> DOE (HRR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Dorchester Rural District 1951, 24 (Scheduling record). SWX2329.

Listed Building Grade II

<4> Hutchins, J, 1873, The history and antiquities of the County of Dorset. Volume 4. 3rd edition, 1870, 399 (Monograph). SDO10245.

<5> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 25-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<6> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F2 GB 22-NOV-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<7> Department of the Environment, 1987, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Dorset (Parishes of Athelhampton, Burleston, Charminster, Cheselbourne, Dewlish, Puddletown, Stinsford, Tincleton, Tolpuddle, West Stafford and Woodsford), 31 (Scheduling record). SDO16448.

Lyscombe Chapel, Grade II*, Lyscombe Cottage, Grade II

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 202088 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 29 2024 3:54PM