The second of the Dorset churches on my August ‘church crawl’ (as John Betjeman would have called such a quest) is just over 3 miles east from Bere Regis in Dorset. A turning off the A31 leads to the settlement of Winterborne Tomson. In a field by a farm is the Church of St Andrew, now managed by The Churches Conservation Trust.
There are two River Winterbornes in Dorset. Winterborne Tomson sits on the North River Winterborne which flows from its source at Winterborne Houghton through the villages of Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Clenston, Winterborne Whitechurch, Winterborne Kingston, Winterborne Muston, Winterborne Anderson, Winterborne Tomson, Winterborne Zelston, and Almer. After Almer it runs onto Sturminster Marshall where it flows into the River Stour. The name ‘Winterborne’ refers to the fact that usually the river only flows overground during the winter months.[i]
The Church of St Andrew sits in a field by a farm. It dates from the 12th C and is a single cell plan. The chancel is apsidal which is unusual for Dorset. In the late 15th or early 16th C it was repaired, heightened and a plastered wagon roof with timber ribs added.[ii] The windows are possibly early 17th C, maybe replacing windows inserted when the church was heightened.
Its walls are built from flint and rubble. Some of the flint is knapped and a good variety of rubble stone. Decorative banding can be seen. There is evidence of lime mortar. The roof is tiled with a few courses of stone slates. There are 3 shallow buttresses around the apse dating from the 12th C.[iii] A small weatherboard belfry with a single bell sits neatly on the roof.
New glazing was provided in 1931 as the old glazing had gone. The iron saddle bars are original.[iv]
A lancet window now blocked gives an idea of how the church has been heightened.
The table tomb is anonymous. The architect Albert Reginald Powys restored the church in the 1931 and is buried in the church yard (d. 1936). His grave is marked only by a border.[v] The repairs were funded by the sale of a collection of Thomas Hardy’s manuscripts held by SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings). Powys served as Secretary of SPAB for 25 Years. His childhood had been spent at Montacute village where his father was vicar from 1885.[vi]
Reverend Charles Powys on the List of Vicars at the Church of St Catherine, Montacute, Somerset
The studded, oak west entrance door
The plastered wagon roof with oak ribs and associated changes (height increased) of circa 1500 may have been instigated by Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who paid for the timber roof at the Church of St John the Baptist at Bere Regis at this time.[vii] Cardinal Morton originated from Bere Regis or possibly nearby Milborne St Andrew.[viii]
The hammerbeam nave roof at the Church of St John the Baptist at Bere Regis. Very different to that at St Andrew’s Winterborne Tomson.
Nave roof boss at St John the Baptist’s, Bere Regis. Possibly an image of Cardinal Morton
The studded west door, oak box pews, screen, communion rail, font cover, pulpit and table are early 18th C. They have been allowed to silver over time. These were provided by William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 to 1737. William Wake (1657-1737) originated from Blandford, Dorset.[ix]
Tudor Rose boss from the roof St Andrew’s, Winterborne Tomson
Tudor Rose Boss from the nave roof of St John the Baptist’s Church at Bere Regis. The other boss in view is the arms of Cardinal John Morton
The gallery was formed from the old rood loft.[x] The box pews have inbuilt benches on 3 sides, the 4th side being the door. The box pews nearest the front are larger than those at the back.
The octagonal pulpit has a sounding board. However, the congregation in such a small church would have heard everything without it. The church is 12.2 m long (40 ft) and 4.6 m (15 ft) wide.[xi]
The 15th C octagonal font[xii] has had its top truncated, so part of the quatrefoil design is missing.
SUMMARY
The 18th-C antiquarian John Hutchins (1698-1773) wrote in his work The History And Antiquities of the County of Dorset: ‘The Church was dedicated to St. Andrew, and was then a free chapel; the advowson belonged to Marjoria Tourney. It is a small fabric, built of stone and brick, and tiled, having no tower, and containing nothing remarkable. The chancel is of a semi-circular form. The whole was rebuilt and neatly pewed by the late Archbishop Wake.’[xiii]
Note: An advowson is the right to recommend a nominee to a vacant Anglican church benefice.
SUMMARY
On initial approach the church is an unremarkable, small single cell building. It is just a church in a field at first glance. However, it is the historical context and fabric that draws one into its fascination. It was significant enough for possibly two archbishops of Canterbury (definitely one) to provide for its improvement. Albert Reginald Powys restored the church in 1931 and was he was buried there in 1936.
The church has a curious feel. On the outside one gets the sense of the simple, single-cell Norman church. On the inside one is transported to the 18th C with the box pews and the pulpit for preaching with its sounding board. The gallery then conjures up (for me) an image of the west gallery musicians of the Mellstock Quire in Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree.
NOTES
[i] ‘River Winterborne’, Wikipedia, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Winterborne > [accessed 30 August 2024].
[ii] Christopher Dalton, St Andrew’s Church Winterborne Tomson, Dorset, (London: The Churches Conservation Trust, 2005), p. 4.
[iii] Dalton, pp. 2-3.
[iv] Dalton, p. 5.
[v] Dalton, p. 6.
[vi] Dalton, pp. 6-7.
[vii] Ken Ayres & Lilian Ladle visit St Andrew’s in Winterborne Tomson, ‘Small but perfectly formed’, Dorset Life, 2008, < http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2008/07/small-but-perfectly-formed/ > [accessed 28 August 2024].
[viii] Christoper Harper-Bill, ‘Morton, John (d. 1500)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, 11 June 2020, <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/19363>
[accessed 28 August 2024].
[ix] Stephen Taylor, ‘Wake, William (1637-1737)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, 4 October 2008, <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28409>
[accessed 28 August 2024].
[x] Dalton, p. 5.
[xi] Dalton, p. 5.
[xii] ‘Church of Saint Andrew’, Historic England List Entry 1118600, (1955), <https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1118600?section=official-list-entry> [accessed 28 August 2024].
[xiii] John Hutchins, The History And Antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd edn, 4 vols (London: John Bowyer Nichols, 1870), I, p. 196.