Church of St. Thomas, Melbury Abbas. Grade: II* NGR: ST88210 20076 Lead author: PS

The village of Melbury Abbas was originally owned by the nunnery at Shaftesbury. In the 19th century the manor was held by Sir Richard Glyn of the Williams & Glyn banking family, and it was he who built the church of St. Thomas in 1851 on the site of an older church in poor repair. 

The church (1) is built mainly with sandstone quarried from the Upper Greensand in local quarries which are now mainly filled in or overgrown.  The roof is tiled. 

1. View of the Church

​The walls are ashlar Melbury Sandstone (2, 3) with foundation courses of Shaftesbury Sandstone (4).

2. A section of Melbury Sandstone wall

3. Loupe showing Melbury Sandstone detail

4. Loupe showing Shaftesbury Sandstone

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Windows (5), doorways (6) and other dressings are Corallian limestone. The diagonal buttress on the south west corner of the tower (7) illustrates the use of all three stones.  It has lower courses and quoin stones of Shaftesbury Sandstone and an infill of Melbury Sandstone. The string course and carved dressings are Corallian limestone. 

5. Windows in the south wall of the chancel

6. The south doorway

7. Buttress on St.Thomas church

Interior

​Additional information on the interior will be added later as current ‘Virus’ guidelines restricted entry to the church to private prayer.
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References
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol4/p.47
Hill M., Newman J., Pevsner N. (2018), The Buildings of England, Dorset, Yale U. Press, p.388