Listed Building record MDO9490 - Church of Saint Michael, Gussage St Michael

Parish church, with a 12th century west tower and 13th century nave and aisles. The south aisle was rebuilt in the 14th century and further work was carried out in the 15th. The north vestry was added in the late 19th century and the chancel dates from 1857.

(ST 98581132) St Michael's Church (NAT). <2>

The parish church of St Michael has a 12th century west tower, added to in the 14th and 15th centuries. The nave and the north and south aisles were rebuilt in the 13th century, and heightened in the 15th century, when the north porch was built. The chancel was rebuilt in 1857, and the vestry is also modern. <1, 4>

Church of St Michael. Parish church C12 west tower, C13 nave and aisles; south aisle rebuilt C14; C15 upper stage of tower, north porch and some refenestration; 1857 chancel; late C19 north vestry; 1857 work by G E Street. Grade I (see list for details). <5>

Additional reference. <3>

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1896, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 80-83 (Serial). SDO10.

HE first object that strikes the eye, on entering the churchyard, is a grand old yew-tree, which, widespreading as it is, is said to have lost several large limbs in recent years.
The Church presents a curious, rather than a shapely form, as viewed from the X. side. The Tower seems unsymmetrically massive, and the clerestory is disproportionately high for beauty, while the Porch, though its niche and four-centred archway prove it to belong to the Perpendicular, or even Tudor period, has been a good deal modernised, and the Chancel rebuilt by the late Mr. Street still looks crude by the side of the dilapidated old work. On the S. your inspection of the building is constantly interrupted by masses of ivy, allowed to run riot, even over the windows, and by coarse young elder trees, rendering the walls, already too damp by centuries of accumulation of soil, still damper. This, however, is soon to be remedied under the careful superintendence of Mr. Ponting, to whose report I shall frequently allude, e.g. I shall give his opinion as to a Norman buttress, in the centre of the W. wall of the Tower, which wall has no window or doorway ; indeed, there is no external doorway anywhere in the Tower. He considers this buttress to have supported the gable roof, which ran E. and W. to cover the Norman, or lower and second storey, part of the Tower.
You enter the Church by an old door riddled with notice nailholes, with good ironwork about it, and if you have any archaeological feeling, you are bound to exclaim, "Here is an old unrestored Church well worth seeing !" The chief part of the fabric consists of a nave of two bays, opening into N. and S. aisles, of Anglo-Norman style, circa 1180. I feel bound to give Mr. Ponting's opinion, however, " That the arcades between nave and aisles date from about 1320." The Tower ground floor, w
ith its arch opening into the nave, all agree to be the oldest part of the church. The perfectly plain imposts of the piers of this round arch, also the narrow window slits, with rounded heads originally, though now cut square, to carry the beams of the ringing-loft, are proofs of this. They are of the early Norman style. Within the Tower is a wooden staircase, leading across the W. wall to the ringing-stage ; well worth noticing. The tower is so dark that I am indebted to Mr. Ponting's report for the information, that this staircase is of oak of Jacobean date. He calls it a "most picturesque arrangement," and so it is ; but it cannot compare in picturesqueness with the wooden winding staircase that serves the same purpose inside the tower of Stratton Church.
You should look at the round axle of wood, with holes in it, for the insertion of levers, between the two front uprights of the staircase. This is said to have been used in lifting the bells into the Belfry. It could not, however, have been so used, when occupying the precise place, where it now is found ; but it may easily have been removed to that place. The nave bays date from the next period of work in this church. One (or two) of their columns rests on a huge mis-shapen base, five or six inches high, which serves also to support the Font. The font is circular both in bowl and base, and undoubtedly is coeval with the nave of the church. Mr. Pouting thinks, from the unusual height of these base moulds, that they served as a bench base, or seat for the congregation. I do not recollect to have seen such an arrangement for sitting, in the many scores of churches I have visited in most parts of England. The round and massive columns have each only a slightly-cut abacus (or cap mould), save the one close to the font. This has a shallow elongated lozenge-shaped moulding in addition, which scarcely, I suppose, can be called a dog-tooth ornament. The original roof was supported on corbels, which still exist, and on the east face of the tower you will see a bit of its dripmould ; but the Perpendicular people raised the roof considerably and built the clerestory, yet only inserted one window on either side. To give more light they placed two windows on the eastern gable. In Mr. Ponting's opinion, however, the whole of the E. wall is of modern construction. Yet Hutchins, in his first edition dated 1774, speaks of there then existing "Two windows on the E. end of the body of the church, over the chancel." The Perpendicular people added the upper storey of the tower, with the well-proportioned windows, and to this period belong also the windows of the N. and S. aisles, and, as I said, the skeleton of the porch. On the E. end of the 1ST. aisle are mouldings of an arch resembling the nave arches, which prove that at one time the aisle opened into a Chantry chapel. At the restoration, under Mr. Street's direction, this chapel roof must have been lowered ; but I presume that so careful an architect followed, in other respects, the original lines of the chancel, with its window and arch tracery. Indeed, the entire double arch, opening into the organ chamber, which occupies the place of this Chantry chapel, looks to me to have belonged to the old church. The jambs of these two arches are without imposts, and their mouldings are carried up continuously from base to apex. You should look at the large coffin-shaped slab of Purbeck marble, with a hollow chamfer round the edge. The traces of a cross may be seen on the top.
You should all go into the tower to see the staircase and belllifting apparatus ; also please look at the rude sitting arrangement, if such were intended, round the S.W. column and font, while the experts will kindly give me their opinion on the date, whether ancient or modern, of the mouldings of the two archways on the S. side of the Chancel wall.

<1> DOE (HHR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Wimborne and Cranborne RD, 6 (Scheduling record). SDO17339.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 219 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 22-3, No 1 Plan (Monograph). SDO129.

<5> DOE (HHR), 1986, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Wimborne District, 18 (Scheduling record). SDO18076.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 210120 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 28 2025 3:52PM