Litton Cheney

Church of St. Mary, Litton Cheney. Grade: I, NGR: SY 55166 90724 . Lead author: PS

The church (1a) is situated above the village with panoramic views to the south and the steep slope of the Chalk ridge behind (1b). The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century. Its north and east walls were again rebuilt at a later date (not specified). The west tower was added in the late 14th or early 15th century. In the 15th century much of the nave and the chancel-arch were rebuilt. The church was restored in 1878 when the north chapel was added.
The nave and chancel are roofed with grey slates. The south porch is roofed with red tiles.

The main building stones used are Middle Jurassic Forest Marble, Upper Jurassic Corallian limestone and Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Cypris Freestone. There is also a significant amount of Portland Limestone in the stonework of the walls.

The Forest Marble would probably have come from quarries to the south of the village at Puncknowle such as Looke Farm, or Swyre, where quarrying of the stone has been extensive in the past.

1. View of the church from the south

1b. View of the church from the Corallian ridge to the south of the village

2. Barn at Baglake farm with chalk blocks above Corallian limestone

Corallian limestone was quarried locally in the Bride valley in small quarries where Corallian strata were exposed on both sides of the Litton Cheney Syncline, but are no longer evident. A quarry at Baglake Farm on the edge of the village was opened for building stone in the 17th century. However, the stone used in 14th or 15th century in the fabric of the church may have come from further afield such as Abbotsbury, about 7 miles away, where it was quarried on a much larger scale.
Both the Purbeck Cypris Freestone and Portland limestone have probably come from the Ridgeway quarries like Rocket Quarry at Portesham about 8 miles away. Chalk blocks have been used in a number of buildings in Litton Cheney (2) but none were found in the church walls.

The nave
The north and south walls are mainly rough finished Forest Marble blocks on a predominantly Corallian limestone rubble plinth.
In the south wall to the west of the south porch there is a 15th century window which has a Ham Hill Stone surround and more recent replacement mullions and tracery in Corallian limestone (3a, 3b).

3a. Window west of the South Porch

3b.Loupe of the Corallian limestone in th window in the south wall west of the porch

The matching window to the east of the south porch is Ham Hill Stone (4a). A row of Portland Limestone blocks occurs below the plinth under both windows (4b).

4a. The south wall of the Nave east of the South Porch

4b. Loupe of the Portland Limestone under the window east of the porch

There is a large brown block of Purbeck limestone in the wall adjacent to the buttress on the east side of the window (5a, 5b). This buttress has some large sandstone blocks (6a, 6b), (source not identified).

5a.Block of Purbeck limestone in the south wall of the nave

5b.Loupe of the large block adjacent to the buttress in the south wall of the nave

6a. Buttress with sandstone blocks

6b. Loupe of the sandstone in the buttress

On the north side of the nave (7a), west of the north chapel is a blocked 15th century doorway, now behind an oil storage container (7b). There is some Corallian limestone above the doorway. The 15th century window is Ham Hill Stone.

7a. The north wall of the nave

7b. Blocked doorway in north wall of nave

8. The north chapel

The north chapel (8)
The 19th century north chapel is Forest Marble with quoin stones of Portland Limestone.
The Ham Hill Stone 15th century window was re-sited from the nave wall when the chapel was built. The line of stone supporting the eaves is Ham Hill Stone.

The chancel
The south wall of the chancel (9) consists mainly of Forest Marble with blocks decreasing in size upwards to the eaves. There are two partly restored 14th century windows. The window at the western end (10) has a sill and tracery of Corallian limestone, a replacement mullion in Ham Hill Stone, and sides of Portland Limestone.

9. South wall of the chancel

10. Window west of Priest's door in the south wall of the chancel

The eastern window (11) is Portland Limestone with two replacement blocks of Ham Hill Stone and a sill of Corallian limestone. The 14th century priest’s doorway is Portland limestone (12). The plinth comprises wedge-shaped blocks which are Cypris Freestone.

11. Window east of the Priest's doorway

12. Priest's doorway

The east wall of the chancel (13) was rebuilt at a later date. The main stone used is Forest Marble. These are larger than that seen in the rest of the building. There is some white limestone just beneath the roof line probably incorporated when the 19th century Ham Hill Stone window was inserted. A plaque above is inscribed 1838. The quoins on the south east side are Portland Limestone and Corallian limestone and on the north east side Ham Hill Stone with one large block of Portland and a large weathered block of Portland Limestone (14).The north wall (15) has several part rows of Portland Limestone and some Corallian limestone can also be seen, the remainder being Forest Marble. A pale cream stone has been used for the eaves but was not within reach to be identified.

13. the east wall of the chancel

14. The large weathered quoin of Portland Limestone

15. North wall of the chancel

The tower (16)
The base of the tower is Cypris Freestone with some Corallian limestone (17). The walls of the first stage are Cypris Freestone and Forest Marble. The second and third stages are predominantly Forest Marble. All stages of the stair turret are a mix of Cypris Freestone and Corallian limestone. In the south wall are a number of fine sandstone blocks (18a, 18b) probably Forest Marble sandstone.

16. The tower

17. The Cypris Freestone base of the tower

18a. Sandstone in the south wall of the tower

18b. Loupe of fine-grained Forest Marble sandstone in the south wall of the tower

The west front (19a) is a mixture of Cypris Freestone and Forest Marble with the occasional Portland block. The doorway and the window above are Ham Hill Stone. The window has a 20th century repair. There is one block of Purbeck Marble in the wall on the south side of the doorway (19b, 19c).

19a. West front

19b.Purbeck Marble block in west front plinth

19c. Loupe of Purbeck Marble in the west front

The facing stones on the single buttresses are mainly Cypris Freestone (20) but the first two tiers of the double buttress on the north east side also have some Corallian limestone.

20. Buttress N wall of tower

21.The front of the south porch

The south porch
A variety of rubble stone has been used in the 14th century south porch (21) but mainly Corallian limestone in the walls (22a)), with the occasional fossil (22b) and Portland Limestone for the quoins (21).

22a. West side of porch

22b. Belemnite in west wall of the porch

A solitary flint can be seen in the west wall (22c). The exterior doorway (23a) is Portland Limestone (23b). The benching in the porch is made up of slabs of Cypris Freestone (24, 24a) and the inner doorway is also Cypris Freestone.

22c. Corallian limestone in the South Porch

23a.Outer south doorway

23b. Loupe of the Cypris Freestone used in the outer doorway

24. Slabs of Cypris Freestone used in the porch

24a. Loupe of stone slabs in porch

The interior (25)
The walls are plastered. The centre aisle is paved with Blue Lias limestone slabs. The tower arch, the chancel arch and the archway to the north chapel are all Ham Hill Stone. The date of the font bowl (26) is described as being uncertain on a later base (R.C.H.M.E) (27a).

25. View of the interior from the west

26. The font

27a. Close up of the font stone

27b. Loupe of the font stone

27c. Loupe of the Font base

The font stone was not identified (27b). The base is Ham Hill Stone identified from a tiny patch not covered in whitewash (27c).

References
1) Hill M., Newman J., Pevsner N. (2018), The Buildings of England, Dorset, Yale U. Press, p.338
2) http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol1/pp.135-137