DORSET BUILDING STONE
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 St. Andrew's Church Monkton Wyld. Grade: 2* Lead author: Pat Snelgrove
SY 33720 96380; Lat/Long, 50.763211  -2.9411334

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.
 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".
Picture
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.
Picture
Buttress with cherts and Caen stone. Photo: PS.
Picture
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.
Picture
Church Exterior with porch to right. Photo : AH
Picture
South wall with window of Caen Stone Photo: PS
Picture
The arches are of Caen Stone. Photo: PS
Picture
Close -up of marble column. Mrs. Dodson would have seen much of this stone in her early years in Mansfield. Photo: PS.
Picture
Church Tower. Photo:AH
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
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.
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”.


Picture
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.
Picture

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  • Home
    • About Us
    • Glossary
    • References and Sources
    • Work in Progress
  • Building stones
    • How we study building stones
    • Palaeogene >
      • Heathstone
      • Sarsens
    • Cretaceous >
      • Chalk
      • Flint
      • Upper Greensand
      • Chert
      • Wealden
      • Purbeck >
        • Upper Purbeck (Purbeck Marble)
        • Upper Purbeck (Broken Shell Lst. aka Burr)
        • Middle Purbeck (Upper Building Stones)
        • Lower Purbeck (Cypris Freestones)
    • Jurassic >
      • Lower Purbeck >
        • Cypris Freestones
      • Portland Stone - Dorset
      • Chert
      • Kimmeridge Bay Dolomitic Limestone
      • Corallian
      • Cornbrash
      • Forest Marble
      • Fuller's Earth Rock
      • Inferior Oolite
      • Bridport Sands
      • Junction Bed
      • Blue Lias
    • Dorset Bricks
    • Non-Dorset Stone >
      • Tertiary >
        • Bembridge Limestones - Isle Of Wight
      • Cretaceous >
        • Beer Stone - SE Devon
      • Jurassic >
        • Bath Stone - Somerset & Wilts
        • Blue Lias of Somerset
        • Doulting Stone - Somerset
        • Ham Hill Stone - Somerset
        • Portland Limestone – Wilts (Chilmark)
        • Normandy >
          • Pierre de Caen (Caen Stone)
        • Pas de Calais
      • Triassic: White Lias of SE Devon
      • Carboniferous >
        • Carboniferous Limestones: Polished Black
      • Devonian
    • Building Stone Trails >
      • Devon Trails
      • Somerset Trails
    • Stone Index >
      • Stone Index A-B >
        • Abbotsbury Ironstone
        • Bath Stone
        • Beer Stone
        • Bembridge Stone
        • Binstead Stone
        • Blue Lias Stone
        • Bridport Sandstone
        • Broken Shell Limestone
        • Burr
        • Burton Limestone
      • Stone Index C-E >
        • Caen Stone
        • Carstone
        • Chert
        • Chilmark Lower Building Stone
        • Chilmark Main Building Stone
        • Chilmark Stone
        • Chilmark Upper Buiding Stone
        • Clavellata Beds
        • Cliff Stone
        • Clunch
        • Corallian
        • Cornbrash
        • Cypris Freestone
      • Stone Index F-O >
        • Featherbed Limestone
        • Featherstone
        • Forest Marble
        • Flint
        • Fuller's Earth Rock
        • Grey Chalk
        • Ham Hill Stone
        • Heathstone
        • Inferior Oolite
        • Ironstone
        • Lower Chalk
        • Lower Lias
        • Melbury Sandstone
        • Middle Chalk
        • Middle Lias
        • New Vein
        • Osmington Oolite
      • Stone Index P-T >
        • Portland Cherty Beds
        • Portland Cherty Series
        • Portland Stone
        • Purbeck Marble
        • Purbeck Stone
        • Quarr Stone
        • Rag
        • Sarsen Stone
        • Shaftesbury Sandstone
        • Sherborne Stone
        • Tisbury Stone
        • Todber Freestone
        • Trigonia Beds
      • Stone Index U-Z >
        • Upper Chalk
        • Wardour Lower Building Stone
        • Wardour Main Building Stone
        • Weald Clay
        • White Chalk
        • White Lias
        • Yeovil Stone
  • Churches
    • A-Z of Churches
    • East Dorset >
      • Almer
      • Bournemouth >
        • Talbot Village
      • Canford Magna Chapel
      • Corfe Mullen
      • Christchurch Priory
      • Cranborne
      • Edmondsham
      • Gussage All Saints
      • Gussage St. Andrew
      • Hampreston
      • Kinson
      • Knowlton
      • Morden
      • Pamphill
      • Poole St.James
      • Poole, the Spire Church
      • Shapwick
      • Sturminster Marshall
      • Tarrant Crawford
      • Tarrant Keyneston
      • West Parley
      • Wimborne St.Giles
      • Wimborne Minster Exterior Tour
      • Wimborne Minster Interior
      • Wimborne Minster: Purbeck Marble and Decorative Stone
    • Central Dorset >
      • Bloxworth
      • Bradford Peverell
      • Cerne Abbas
      • Hilton
      • Lytchett Matravers
      • Stratton
      • The Piddle Valley >
        • Affpuddle
        • Alton Pancras
        • Bere Regis
        • Piddlehinton
        • Piddletrenthide
        • Puddletown
        • Tolpuddle
      • Winterborne Tomson
    • North Dorset >
      • Batcombe
      • Belchalwell
      • Blandford Parish Church
      • Blandford St. Leonard's Chapel
      • Blandford St. Mary
      • Blandford Cemetery Chapels
      • Bradford Abbas
      • Chetnole
      • Child Okeford
      • Compton Abbas
      • Farnham
      • Folke
      • Gillingham
      • Hammoon
      • Hazelbury Bryan
      • Holnest
      • Ibberton
      • Iwerne Minster
      • Langton Long
      • Leigh
      • Mappowder
      • Margaret Marsh
      • Marnhull
      • Melbury Abbas
      • Melbury Bubb
      • Pimperne
      • Okeford Fitzpaine
      • Purse Caundle
      • Ryme Intrinseca
      • Shillingstone
      • Sixpenny Handley
      • Stockwood
      • Stourpaine
      • Tarrant Gunville
      • Tarrant Hinton
      • Tarrant Monkton
      • Tarrant Rushton
      • Todber
      • Winterborne Stickland
      • Winterborne Zelston
      • Woolland
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    • South Dorset >
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      • Portland: Reforne
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      • Stinsford
      • Studland
      • Swanage
      • Upwey
      • Wareham St. Martin-on-the Walls
      • Wareham St.Mary >
        • St. Martin's-on-the-walls
      • Winterborne Came
      • Winterborne Steepleton
      • Wool
      • Worth Matravers
    • West Dorset >
      • Beaminster
      • Bothenhampton
      • Bradpole
      • Bridport
      • Broadwindsor
      • Burton Bradstock
      • Burstock
      • Catherston Leweston
      • Chelborough
      • Evershot
      • Eype
      • Loders
      • Monkton Wyld
      • Netherbury
      • North Poorton
      • Powerstock
      • St. Gabriel’s
      • Shipton Gorge
      • Lulworth Castle
      • Stoke Abbott
      • Symondsbury
      • Wootton Fitzpaine
      • Whitchurch Canonicorum
  • Quarries , Pits and Limekilns
    • Active Quarries
    • Abbotsbury area
    • Beacon Limestone Quarries
    • Inferior Oolite
    • North Dorset Corallian
    • Kimmeridge Bay
    • Portesham
    • Portland near Swanage
    • Purbeck near Swanage
    • Shaftesbury Sandstone
    • Uplyme Quarries
    • Upwey
    • Whiteway Hill Quarry
    • Winspit Quarry
    • Non-Dorset Quarries and Pits
  • Secular buildings
    • Athelhampton House
    • Blandford Town Hall
    • Cerne Abbas (village and Abbey)
    • Durweston Bridge
    • Ibberton Village
    • Kimmeridge Bay
    • Moignes Court
    • Non-Dorset Buildings
  • Search
  • Contact Us