St. Mary’s Church Winterborne Stickland. Grade 1 listed (NGR ST83404 10462. Latitude: 50.8409 / 50°50'27”N Longitude: -2.2363 / 2°14'10”W) (Lead author and photos PB unless otherwise stated)
St. Mary’s sits on the Chalk; next to the one winter-stream and within the dendritic pattern of otherwise dry valleys radiating through the Chalk of the North Dorset escarpment. From pre-Conquest times; two manors, Quarrelston(e) running northwards, and Stickland below it had adjacent open field systems on the valley floor around the junction of Winterborne Houghton valley and the main N-S Bryanston to Clenston route-way. The stream down Water Lane from Houghton may dry up for years at a time and both villages have evidence of abandonment if not desertion. Not till the next manor southwards, of Clenston, does this brook become the Winterborne river. Over time, Quarrelston(e) farm became part of Stickland and the remaining manor land was amalgamated with Bryanston. The original Quarrelston(e) family name but with a single r. was used by 18th century John Hutchins, while today it has become spelled as Quarleston(e).
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The chancel and nave of St. Mary’s date back to the 13th century, while the Quarrelston chapel, aka the Aisle chapel or even now the Tomb chapel, dates from the 15th century, (John Hutchins) and was fashionably updated along with the St. Mary nave windows from 1716. The west tower was added in late 15th or early 16th century and the porch also added in the latter. In the east wall of the porch is now seen a damaged 14th century Norman period archway tympanum, depicting the crucifixion, which had been recovered in 1890 from at least twice de-constructed and re-used building stone. The church itself has remained, throughout, within the same footprint and the local flint is assembled variously
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between rubble, squared rubble and dimensional limestone laid coursed, un-coursed and even chequer-boarded. So the overall effect is very mixed and includes cement rendering on some walling to the east. Classical stylings were introduced for internal alterations from 1716 assisted by the Blandford architects and re-building specialists the Bastard brothers, John and William. They added the round headed nave windows, contemporary almost with those of 1713 at St. Mary, Charlton Marshall; where an entire re-build had been designed by Thomas Bastard, father of the two brothers who gained fame for re-building Blandford after the devastating 1731 fire. Finally in the restorations of 1892, glazed tiles were added to the chancel flooring but the floor plan and structural details in stone remained as they were.
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To the south-west - random rubble, coursed squared rubble & flint, chequerboard ashlar and flint.
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To the east - two stage coursed limestone, flint and Heathstone tower - evening view.
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To the north-west - tower with intermittent coursed ashlar and castellations. Squared rubble south walls.
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Upper Greensand frames the South tower doorway, sealed by irregular matching of coursed Purbeck limestone and flint. This white Purbeck seems to be the very evidently bedded Cypris Freestone of the Ridgeway quarries, from which so much of old Dorchester is built.
Upper Greensand archway with much oxidation below coursed flint and mixed ashlar.
The chancel archway is of creamy Wardour Lower Building Stone but the white-arrowed block is a later replacement of oolitic limestone - see below and the scale-banded close-up No 1. of a number of oolitic limestones grouped below.
Re-painted since a black and white RCHMS photo pre-1970’s. Clean stone allows a 1 cm square , interesting close-up photo. See No 2. 100%+ magnification and 0.25 divisions below.
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Simple classical taste of Bastard brothers’ Wardour Lower Building Stone north-wall window frames evenly white but to right replaced chequerboard walling above the window is greyer or creamier and of the same stone. Upper Greensand buttresses’ all natural green and grey along with white and deep green lichen.
1716 window in Quarrelston chapel seems set in an ancient wall with its left hand side ashlar again almost Chequerboard and work of that date. The doorway head is not 18th C. and furnishings would have matched across both sides that date.
Probably there had been a (no longer needed) bracket or holes drilled in the respond so a very clean and never lime-washed piece of oolitic limestone conveniently matched the colour and need. See No.1 below.
The font is in the style contemporary with the Bastard family Blandford workshops of the earlier 18th C. (see St Peter & Paul, Blandford and St Mary, Charlton Marshall). Recorded RCHM as probably Portland-Portland oolitic limestone. But see No.3 below.
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1) Clean local Corallian oolitic limestone with shell.
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2) Hi-magnification local Corallian oolitic limestone showing elongate shell- centred ooids.
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Both 3’s) Believed not Portland limestone: too sparitic below whitewash.
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The Skinner Tomb
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Close inspection reveals: 1) just one macro-fossil, a snail shell in this polished to translucent Belgian Black slab of remarkably 7ft x 3ft 6ins x 2 1/2ins. 2) A transparent oxidisation patch revealing masses of endothyrid foraminifera (microfossils) 3) Probably sunlight and or abrasion has revealed smudgy foram, coral, brachiopod, crinoid and bivalve particles to the 4) LED illuminated hand loupe. 5) The polish has fully oxidised out the black organic carbon along the window facing ledger slab. (the post-polish oxidisation of limestone is not rare but as yet unexplained.) 6) Despite hardness and liability to conchoidal fracture, the Namur/Meuse Belgian Black sculpts well for the expert and retains durability very well. 7) The tomb base again is remarkable. Probably constructed RCHM of only five slabs of once whitewashed Portland-Portland oolitic limestone and each one both symmetrically shaped and with classically symmetrical decoration. But see No 3. above.
An iron rich oxidisation patch alongside an endothyrid foram and endothyrid detritus patch.
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Cluster of complete - articulate - endothyrid foraminifera presented at every angle.
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1. Complete brachiopod shell 3mm long.
3. Probably rugose coral set in matrix full of forams.
5. Tiny crinoid ossicle.
7. Symmetrical micro-fossil of indeterminate kind.
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2. Ribbed broken brachiopod shell with endothyrids. X80 mag.
4. Solitary rugose coral.
6. Quite probably Chaetetid sponge or juvenile stromatoporoid.
8.The single macro fossil - gastropod or marine snail - with plaster
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These blue/white digital images reveal 3-D microfossil remains in translucent black stone better, than in merged shades of black/grey adjustments. .For further information on Carboniferous Limestone see our Building stones section.
The Sutton Monument
1. The Sutton family memorial is first dated to 1653 immediately post-dating the 1652 completion
of Cromwell's conquest of Ireland, so either vastly increased recent shipping or a pre-Irish
rebellion stockist supplied this stone column for engraving. The painted capitals and corbel
are almost certainly local oolitic limestone from between Mappowder and Sturminster Newton.
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2., Broken bivalve shell, complete brachiopods and scatterings of crinoid plates encircle the engravings These are typical of the predominantly blue Carboniferous Kilkenny limestone that can also be face-finished black.
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Typical macro-fossils of the Black and the Blue Carboniferous Kilkenny limestone.
3.Broken bivalve shell and crinoid discs are revealed in places.
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4. Brachiopods typical of this limestone are seen here inverted.
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5. and 6. Corals in the Sutton monument are of some 4-5mm in diameter are seen in a variety of species and preservation.
Semi-circular sculpted crucifixion panel of Purbeck stone
The often lost and reinstated, very weathered, fifteenth century Purbeck grainstone panel was last replaced on the East wall of the South porch.
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References: RCHM Dorset Vol III Part 2
