St. Stephen’s Church, Pamphill. SZ98835 00932, 50.8081 -2.0178. Lead author: JT

​St. Stephen’s is the parish church of Pamphill, being built as a memorial to Walter Ralph Bankes under the orders of his wife Henrietta Bankes, by the architect C.E. Ponting. Thought to be on the site of a 13th century church, it was finished in 1907. 

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The walls are a mixture of rock-faced Purbeck limestone, with occasional blocks of sandstone from Studland. The Bankes estate in the Isle of Purbeck included many working quarries in the Purbeck limestone, and several different beds have been used. Also in work at this time was the quarry on Woodhouse Hill in Studland, where beds of the Poole Formation, Broadstone Sand, were obtainable. The Broadstone Sand sand grains are sharp-edged, oval, and approximately 0.3 mm long. The grains are cemented with finer iron-rich sand.
The dressings of the windows, doorways and quoins are of Bath Stone, which was brought to Wimborne station by the Somerset and Dorset railway. The church is active, but is not left open

2. South wall of St. Stephen’s.

4. A weathered corner of the tower shows the ooliths in the Bath Stone of the dressings.

6. The Poole Formation Heathstone from Studland.

1. St. Stephen’s Church was completed in 1907, using rock-faced Purbeck limestone, with occasional blocks of Studland Heathstone. The dressings are of Bath stone.

3. A closer view of the south wall shows the rock-faced tooling.

5. A magnified view of the smooth Bath Stone in the church entrance.

Text and Images: JT, Feb. 2018.