St. Andrew's Church Monkton Wyld. Grade: 2* Lead author: Pat Snelgrove
SY 33720 96380; Lat/Long, 50.763211 -2.9411334
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The hamlet of Monkton Wyld lies in a valley in West Dorset, 3 miles north of Lyme Regis, close to the Devon border. Mrs Elizabeth Dodson, a wealthy widow, funded the building of this very picturesque church and also the parsonage, a school room and schoolmaster’s house in the locality.
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In the churchyard is the grave of James Harrison (d. 1864), a geologist who found the earliest British dinosaur, which was named Scelidosaurus harrisoni after him. (Further Information appears below). We did some conservation work here in the autumn of 2014, centred on the grave, which bears the enigmatic inscription "to die is gain".
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View of church. Photo: PS
The church was built in Decorated style to a design by Richard Cromwell Carpenter, who is particularly known for his restoration of Sherborne Abbey (1850-5). The church was consecrated in 1850 but the spire was not completed until 1856. The first incumbent was Rev. Hutchings who was married to Mrs Dodson’s daughter. A sacristy was added in 1886. The clock was added to the tower in 1911.
Buttress with cherts and Caen stone. Photo: PS.
The pulpit is of carved oak on a base of Mansfield stone, a Permian dolomitic limestone from Nottinghamshire, supported by columns of polished Devon marble. Photo: PS.
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Church Exterior with porch to right. Photo : AH
South wall with window of Caen Stone Photo: PS
The arches are of Caen Stone. Photo: PS
Close -up of marble column. Mrs. Dodson would have seen much of this stone in her early years in Mansfield. Photo: PS.
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Church Tower. Photo:AH
Church Exterior. Photo: AH
The windows, dressings and copings are of Caen Stone. Chert is also present. Some repairs have been made at the east end of the church where Caen stone has been replaced with Bath stone (not shown). The roof is slate. A square central tower is surmounted by a 120 ft. octagonal spire with twin tiers of dormer windows.
The church is entered on the south side by a wooden porch with open colonnettes and tracery to either side. The nave is separated from the side aisles by three gothic arches either side which also support the tower and spire. 
The carved octagonal font is also of Caen Stone. Photo:PS
Of interest to a geologist is the grave in the church yard beneath a large yew tree of James Harrison, an amateur fossil collector in the 19th century (see article on James Harrison below). The grave was cleared of vegetation by members of the Dorset Geological Sites Group in 2014.
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The life and work of James Harrison (1819-1864)
As an amateur collector, James Harrison’s claim to fame is that he recognised bones, namely a broken femur and tibia, as something special and sent them to Sir Richard Owen, an acknowledged expert on dinosaur bones at the British Museum in 1859. After the discovery of a skull, 12 blocks of Lias stone which showed evidence of further bones were purchased. A nearly complete skeleton matching the skull was extracted from the blocks. Richard Owen recognised that they were a new species of scelidosaur, a small dinosaur, and named them after the finder Scelidosaurus Harrisoni . Drawings of the fossil are featured in Part 2 of his Monograph on Dinosaurs.
As an amateur collector, James Harrison’s claim to fame is that he recognised bones, namely a broken femur and tibia, as something special and sent them to Sir Richard Owen, an acknowledged expert on dinosaur bones at the British Museum in 1859. After the discovery of a skull, 12 blocks of Lias stone which showed evidence of further bones were purchased. A nearly complete skeleton matching the skull was extracted from the blocks. Richard Owen recognised that they were a new species of scelidosaur, a small dinosaur, and named them after the finder Scelidosaurus Harrisoni . Drawings of the fossil are featured in Part 2 of his Monograph on Dinosaurs.
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He was not a local man by birth having been born in Purley, Sussex on 6th February 1819 but came to live in Charmouth with his sisters about 1850 after giving up a career in medicine due to ill health. He married and had two daughters, Edith and Mary.
He corresponded with several distinguished geologists of his time about his fossil finds and these letters were carefully preserved. They were presented to the Lyme Regis Museum by his younger daughter Mary together with some fossils from his collection in 1937. Other specimens were acquired by the Natural History Museum about the same time. It is understood from correspondence that James Harrison prepared the fossils himself as Sir Richard Owen, then Superintendent of the Natural History Collection at the British Museum, when commenting on the dinosaur skull stated “the singular care and skill devoted by Mr. Harrison to the removal of the matrix, is peculiarly well displayed”. |
The grave tended by members of Dorset Geological Sites Group in 2014. Photo: AH
His health took a turn for the worse in 1858, and after this he continued his letter writing from his bed until his death aged 45 years in 1864.
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