All Saints’ Church, Tarrant Keyneston. ST92530 04065. 50.8361 -2.1076. Lead author: JT

Apart from the 15th century tower, All Saints’ church was built by TH Wyatt, being completed in 1852. The two stages of building can be seen in the different use of the stone. The tower is banded Flint and Upper Greensand with some Heathstone, whereas the body of the church has flint with occasional blocks of Upper Greensand, Heathstone, and Bath Stone, with Bath Stone dressings to the windows and doorways. The 19th century arrangement of occasional blocks of stone set in a wall mainly of one stone is referred to as ‘jumpers’, and is found in several churches of this date in North Dorset.

Inside, the walls have been whitewashed, but the pillars to the north aisle are hexagonal, of Portland Stone with many fossils – the Whit Bed. The font is also Portland Stone, without fossils – the Base Bed

2. West window in the tower, of deeply weathered Greensand, but a repaired cill.

4. The east window in the vestry (left of the white door) is of Purbeck Burr – seen in this view from the north east.

6. Heathstone blocks are of sharp sand of varying colour from the Tertiary beds. Isolated boulders of Heathstone found in the river valleys are remnants of sands and clays eroded from the Chalk downlands during the ice age.

8. A Bath Stone window on the south wall of the nave

1. 15th century tower, banded flint and Upper Greensand, with occasional Heathstone blocks.

3. All Saints Church from the south, the 19th century nave and chancel of flint with occasional blocks of Greensand, Heathstone and Bath Stone, and dressings of Bath Stone.

5. From the north west, the ornamented arches of the windows can be seen to include all the stone used in the church.

7. A magnified view of the Bath Stone dressing on the vestry doorway.

9. A Portland Whit Bed pillar to the north aisle.

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JT 08.02.2018 Photos by MT