St. Martin’s Parish Church, Shipton Gorge. Grade 2*. NGR: SY 49806 91459. Lead author: PAS
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The church (1) occupies an elevated site above the old part of the village and overlooks the Bride Valley. The name ‘Gorge’ relates to the family who at one time owned much of the village and land. The Royal Commission gives a date of about 1400 for the tower which is the earliest part of the church. The nave, chancel and south porch were completely re-built in 1861. The architect was John Hicks. The local builder used stone from quarries in the parish with dressings from Ham Hill Stone (exterior) and Bath Stone (interior) under a clay tiled roof. The cost of the re-build was £1000. (Information – C.J. Bailey, ‘The Bride Valley’, Pub. DNH& AS 1982). The stone used may have come from the Inferior Oolite quarries nearby at Walditch which were operating at the time.
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1. View of the church.
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The exterior
The tower (2) is a mixture of two local stones Inferior Oolite and Forest Marble, the latter probably from the Bothenhampton quarries. There would have been a road/trackway linking the villages of Bothenhampton, Walditch and Shipton part of which now only survives as a green way. The west doorway (3) has chamfered jambs of Inferior Oolite and a cap stone of carved Ham Hill Stone. The window above is also Ham Hill Stone. On the south side of the doorway can be seen some blocks of Forest Marble (4). The drip stone is Ham Hill Stone.
2. The tower.
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3. The west doorway.
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4. Forest Marble on the west front
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The south wall of the nave (5) and the windows are an example of the stonework in the re-built nave and chancel and south porch (6). The walls are constructed of regular blocks of Inferior Oolite and the porch doorway and exterior windows are Ham Hill Stone.
5. The south wall of the nave.
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6. The south porch.
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The interior
Both the 4-bay north arcade (7) and the chancel arch (8) are constructed of Bath Stone. The window interiors are also Bath stone. The 19th century pulpit (9 and 9a) was carved by Benjamin Grassby of Dorchester. It is also Bath Stone.
7. The north arcade.
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8. The chancel arch.
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9a.The pulpit.
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9b. Loupe showing ooliths in the Bath stone of the pulpit.
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An item of interest in the church is the 13th/14th century heptagonal font bowl which stands on a plain cylindrical stem (10). It apparently pre-dates the original church by 100 years, so may have come from an earlier church on the site or elsewhere. It was once colourfully painted which has made identification of the stone difficult. Unlike the rest of the interior it is not Bath Stone or any of the Purbeck/Portland Stones, such as Purbeck Marble, often used for early fonts. A possibility is Caen Stone from France
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10. The font.
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Historical and architectural sources
1) 'Shipton Gorge', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 1, West (London, 1952), pp. 221-223. Accessed on line at ‘British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol1/ (pp.221-223)
1) 'Shipton Gorge', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 1, West (London, 1952), pp. 221-223. Accessed on line at ‘British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol1/ (pp.221-223)
PAS 2017 with help from WGT
