Listed Building record MDO8855 - Church of St Andrew, Winterborne Tomson, Anderson

Former parish church, now redundant. Small single-cell twelfth century church, re-roofed, and windows inserted in the sixteenth century and refurbished in the early eighteenth century. Flint and rubble stone walls with chamfered plinth. Tiled roof with stone eaves courses. Tiled timber bell-cote at west end.

SY 88479742. Church of St. Andrew, Winterborne Tomson built of flint and rubble with ashlar dressings and buttresses consists of an apsidal chancel and a rectangular nave, probably of the first half of the 12th century. In the 16th century it was repaired, heightened and given a 'wagon' roof and new windows, with further improvements in the early 18th century. Restored in 1931. <2>

St Andrew's Church, Winterborne Tomson, was declared redundant in 1972 and was vested in the Redundant Churches Fund in 1974. <4>

21/2 Church of St Andrew A. Parish Church. Fabric of C.12 origin with apse. Refashioned in C.15. Good early C.18 fittings and W. gallery formed of rood loft and probably early C.16. <5>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 88479742) St. Andrew's Church (NAT)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 5-6 (Monograph). SDO146.

‘(2) THE CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW (88479742) stands near the middle of the settlement of Tomson. It is of flint and rubble with ashlar dressings and buttresses, the latter mainly of Heathstone; the roof is tiled, with stone-slate verges (Plate 96). The building, consisting only of an apsidal Chancel and a rectangular Nave, with no dividing arch, was probably built in the first half of the 12th century; in the 16th century it was repaired, heightened and given a wagon roof and new windows; further improvements were made early in the 18th century at the expense of Archbishop Wake. The building was restored in 1931 by A. R. Powys with money from the sale of Thomas Hardy's MSS. Powys is buried in the churchyard.
The church is of special interest for its apse, a unique survival in Dorset, and for the unspoiled, rustic appearance of the interior.
Architectural Description—The church is a simple rectangle with an apse at the E. end (Plate 96). The side walls are about 2½ ft. thick at the base but taper sharply towards the top. The apsidal Chancel (7½ ft. by 15½ ft.) has three shallow 12th-century ashlar pilaster-buttresses of two stages, with chamfered plinths, chamfered offsets at about three-quarter height, and weathered tops. Those to E. and S. appear to have been partly rebuilt but the N. buttress retains original masonry throughout. The much worn plinth of the E. buttress appears to have an ovolo moulding. A fragment of ashlar extending into the N.E. quarter of the apse from the N. buttress suggests that the original apse was wholly ashlar-faced, but the rest of the N.E. sector and all of the S.E. sector has been refaced in rubble and flint with random ashlar blocks and a few bricks; this work seems likely to have been done in the 17th century. The N. wall of the Nave (34 ft. by 15¾ ft.) is mainly original and of flint, but the upper 2 ft., in coursed rubble, probably indicates heightening in the 16th century. Attached to the wall are three secondary buttresses; the middle one is of stone and probably of the 15th century, the others are of brick and perhaps of the 18th century. The middle buttress blocks a narrow original doorway with ashlar jambs and a deep lintel which is barely longer than the width of the opening, indicating that behind the buttress the jambs are probably corbelled; above the lintel protrudes a rough corbel. A blocked window in the E. part of the N. wall is probably a 15th-century insertion. The S. wall has three 16th-century windows, each of two lights with segmental heads, moulded stone jambs and mullions and square labels. To the W. is a narrow original loop with an elliptical head and a chamfered and rebated surround; it is blocked internally. The square-headed W. doorway has a chamfered head and jambs with shaped stops and is probably of the 18th century. The 16th-century wagon Roof is segmental in cross-section and forms a shallow half-dome over the apse. Its transverse and radial wooden ribs rise from hollow-chamfered wall-plates and intersect two longitudinal ribs and a central ridge piece; in the apse these members are moulded but in the nave they are chamfered. The intersections are masked by wooden bosses, some modern and plain, others original and foliate. A blank wooden shield decorates the hollow-chamfered wall-plate at the base of each rib and plain stone corbels project from the wall-face below many of the shields.
Fittings—Brass Indent: In floor-slab in third pew on N. side, indent for rectangular plate, 7 ins. by 2 ins. Communion Table: In apse, of oak with tapering spirally turned legs, probably early 18th century; top board curved to fit apse wall. Communion Rails: of same period as table, with spirally turned balusters, moulded rails and rectangular posts with ball finials. Font: octagonal Purbeck marble bowl truncated to about half original height, each face formerly with a blank shield enclosed in a quatrefoil; octagonal stone pedestal with hollow-chamfered octagonal base; 15th century. Gallery: of oak, now at W. end of nave but probably originally a rood-loft; main beam with casement and roll mouldings; parapet, partly restored, with plain oak panels between chamfered uprights with traces of red and green pigment; to the W., gallery floor rests on second moulded beam with deep mortices suitable for posts of central rood-screen doorway and twelve subsidiary uprights; late 15th or early 16th century.

Anderson, Church of St. Andrew, Winterborne Tomson
Monuments and Floor-slabs. Monuments: On N. wall of nave, (1) of A. R. Powys, 1936, Purbeck marble wall tablet. In churchyard, S. of nave, (2) anonymous table-tomb with brick sides and stone top. Floor-slabs: In nave, on S. side, in second pew from W., (1) of John Morton, 1654; in centre aisle, (2) of James Ainsworth, 1849. Plate: includes a silver cup and cover-paten, by I.M., with hall-mark of 1638. Pulpit: In S.E. corner of nave, uniform with pews (see Seating); with polygonal oak sounding board above. Screen: standing 7½ ft. W. of communion rails and dividing chancel from nave, with plain oak posts and rails and moulded cornice; top rail in S. bay arcuated to give head-room for pulpit steps; early 18th century. Seating: In chancel and nave, ten high-sided box pews, of oak, with panels fielded in 18th-century manner on obverse but with posts and rails with moulded edges, more typical of 17th-century panelling, on reverse; pews provided by William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury 1716–37. (Hutchins I, 196.)’

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 486-7 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> Royal Archaeological Institute, 1983, Archaeological Journal 140, 41-2 (Serial). SDO16977.

<5> DOE (HHR), 1954, List of Buildings of Special Historic or Architectural Interest: Blandford Rural District (Scheduling record). SDO17701.

<6> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF051600 (Index). SDO14738.

ST ANDREW'S CHURCH, ANDERSON

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF081593 (Index). SDO14738.

ST ANDREWS CHURCH, WINTERBOURNE TOMSON, ANDERSON

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455794 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 16 2025 1:17PM