Church Heritage Record 634204

7-bay aisled nave, the central bay with the transepts twice as wide as the others, west tower partially clasped by the aisles; 2-bay apsed chancel with north vestry (previously organ chamber), north Julian chapel (previously vestry).

Nave 40m (140ft) long, the central aisle 8m (25ft) wide, aisles 6m (18’9ft) wide.

Prehistoric

There are a number of scattered findspots of Bronze and Iron Age artefacts along the river, though none in the immediate vicinity of the site, but stray finds from all these periods are possible.

Roman

Seven iron and bronze figures, possibly Romano-British votive objects were found on the south bank of the river not far from the old town. They are now in the British Museum. In addition an Anglo Saxon button brooch, 5th-century, was found in the grounds of the hospital. None of the above finds are indicative of a permanent settlement.

Norman

There are nine manors with variations on the name Blandford mentioned at Domesday, and it is not known whether any of them refer to a  settlement on the site of Blandford Forum. It is perhaps more likely that dispersed settlements in Blandford St Mary and Langton parish predate the foundation of Blandford Forum itself as an urban settlement.

Medieval

The earliest documentary evidence for the town suggests that the church was founded around 1110 by Robert de Beaumont. A market was recorded by the early 13th century and Blandford Bridge and St Leonard’s Hospital were both recorded by the late 13th century. By the 14th century Blandford sent a member to parliament and the town was taxed at the urban rate. The earliest fabric remaining in the church is possibly to be seen in the base of the north aisle walls, where lower courses may be from the foundations of the Medieval church.  The vice to the tower is also thought to be a Medieval survival, perhaps re-located.

Post-Reformation

The 1536-40 Reformation probably entailed the destruction of wall paintings, stained glass etc in the old church. Nothing remains of the furnishings and fittings from before this time, and the earliest and only pre-Fire object appears to be one of the chests, dating from the 17th century. The town’s status as a borough was confirmed by a Charter of Incorporation granted by James I in 1605. By the late 17th century Blandford was a successful market town. As well as being home to several wealthy residents, it had its own grammar school and held assizes.

Blandford suffered from several serious fires, in 1564 and 1677, and again on 9 July 1713 when part of East Street was destroyed. However, Blandford continued to prosper and Defoe, writing in 1724, called it a ‘handsome, well built town, but chiefly famous for making the finest bone lace in England’. The fourth and final ‘Great Fire' of 4th June 1731 destroyed many significant buildings that had survived the preceding fires, including the parish church, the almshouses, the school and the town hall. It left only a few houses, public buildings and business premises standing, including the Old House in The Close, the Ryves Almshouses in Salisbury Street and some of the buildings at the front of Nightingales Court.

Funds to help rebuild the town came in from all over the country including a grant from Parliament and from King George II. Within a few years rebuilding was well under way and by about 1760 the new Blandford was complete. Its special character arises from the fact that the architects, surveyors and principal builders were William and John Bastard who were civil dignitaries of the town, and provided a guiding hand. They designed and supervised the building of the new church, the town hall, grammar school and many of the houses and business premises. The resultant town centre, still largely unchanged today, forms one of the most pleasing and complete Georgian groups anywhere in England. Rebuilt in a single campaign, the town is basically uniform in design yet has individual flourishes.

Gradually life returned to normal in the town, the market continued to prosper and button making, wool spinning and gloving became major industries. Further wealth came with the coaching era, the building of fine hostelries to serve this new trade and an expansion of the town’s brewing industry.

The fitting out of the church seems to have progressed in stages. The present (now changed and cut down) pews in the church seem from their design to have been introduced in the late 18th century, perhaps around 1771 when the activities of a joiner are recorded.The west gallery was inserted in 1794 to house the new organ. It was designed to match the earlier dado and pews, the latter still at their original height, which also tallies with the nave column plinths.

19th century

In 1807 the transepts were blocked up, leaving only doorways into them and a cross aisle between these, formed or maintained with a 3-row gap in the pews.  This was later closed up, requiring re-numbering of some of the pews. In 1819 the west gallery was partly extended across the aisles. In 1837 these galleries were extended along the whole length of the aisles. Clearly space was at a premium at this time. In the 1860s the railway from Bournemouth to Bath came to the town (this was closed in the 1960s by Dr Beeching). In 1864-65 the interior of the church was restored, the chancel decorated, the lead on the roof recast and relaid, the cupola repaired and the organ cleaned and improved by public subscription.

In 1879-83 the church was thoroughly restored, new gas mains and pendants fitted, and a hot water heating system introduced.  The pews were cut down with their lower panel removed, and altered with their backs changed from upright to sloping.  Sixty additional sittings were provided by filling up the transepts and the cross aisle which had connected them, some of the pews were renumbered. The pulpit and reading desk were removed from the centre of the nave and a new pulpit (brought from elsewhere), reading desk and lectern substituted. New tiling was laid at the east end, the organ restored and enlarged, a vestry built, the peal of eight bells recast, a new clock with chimes erected, and the wall on the east and south side of churchyard rebuilt and finished with iron fencing.

In 1895-96 the chancel and organ chamber were erected by public subscription at a cost of £1,600, after the chancel was lengthened by jacking the apse up and moving it 2 bays east under the direction of the architect Charles Hunt. The organ was removed from the west gallery and placed in the new organ chamber.

20th century

In 1916 the new High Altar was installed.  It is thought that the railings were removed for the war effort at some point. In 1925 an altar was installed next to the war memorial in the north aisle. During 1954-62 the roof timbers of chancel and apse were restored, lead replaced and the interior of the church was decorated throughout at a cost of £5,000 raised by public appeal and an ICBS grant, the architects being Allner, Morley & Bolton.

The church was restored in the late 1960s, when the Victorian aisle galleries were removed.  The organ was removed from the chancel and returned to its original siting at the west end, thus restoring the church almost to its original Georgian layout.

In 1975-88 grant aid from English Heritage helped to raise £133,000 for the repair of the church’s external stonework, using concrete blocks as Greensand stone could not be sourced. 2005 saw the restoration of the sundial and reinstatement of the urn over the south porch by the Blandford and District Civic Society. In 2010 Leslie House (the old Curate’s House) was sold to provide the finance for the outfitting of the Parish Rooms. During 2012 Repairs of bells and bell frame were undertaken with HLF and CBC grants. In 2013-14 a programme of repairs of cupola and tower roof was proposed with HLF grant aid, now secured.

The church is part of a greater group formed by buildings in Market Place, East Street and West Street. The church is the shape of a Latin cross, with shallow transepts and originally a one-bay apse, now a 2-bay chancel with apsidal sanctuary after the apse was moved east. An organ chamber (now a vestry) was also added. The large vestry on the north side is now the Julian chapel. 

These additions were in the same style as the rest of the building, which is Classical in inspiration with Doric and Ionic detailing, seen respectively in the volutes and aisle column capitals; but very “British” and Georgian in its interpretation of these idioms.

The Nave and Aisles

The nave and aisles are combined in a rectangular structure of Greensand ashlar with Portland stone dressings, defined at the four corners by quoins and capped by a cornice and parapet. The windows are round-headed, with moulded Portland stone architraves, impost blocks and keystones.

Immediately above each window is an oblong panel of knapped flint on the north and of Ham Hill stone on the other three sides; two panels to the south-east are enriched with carved fleurs-de-lis. Above the cornice the parapets are interrupted at intervals by Bath and Portland stone balustrading.

The West Front

The west front is broken at the centre by a projecting pedimented bay some 10 ft. higher than the main cornice. In the lower part of the bay is the west doorway, a round-headed opening with Tuscan pilasters and a horizontal entablature; over this rises a tall west window with scrolled sides and a segmental hood on scrolled brackets, all of Portland stone.

The pediment of the west front has a bold and simple cornice, the horizontal member being interrupted to make room for a clock-face. Above the central bay of the west front rises the tower, square on plan, with rusticated quoins and with a single round-headed and pedimented belfry window in each side; the triple keystones of the belfry window heads extend into the open pediments. The tower entablature is enriched with a heavy modillion frieze; over it is a parapet, lightened with balustrades in the middle of each side and thickened at each corner to form the pedestal of an urn finial. Quoins, cornices, balustrades and urns are of Portland stone.

Above the balustrades is a wooden bell-cote, square at the base, with large scrolls set diagonally at the four corners; the scrolls were perhaps intended for the base of the projected spire. Over them rises an octagonal aedicule with round-headed openings on the four major sides and, above, a lead cupola with a weather-vane finial. The apprentice bell once hung here. See Appendix 5 for a detailed description of this and its condition.

The South Front

In the south front a projecting central transept is flanked symmetrically by six bays of round-headed windows as described above. The Transept has colossal Portland stone pilasters at the angles and a pedimented Doric entablature with a triglyph frieze; the tympanum contains a sundial and at the apex of the pediment is an urn.

The south doorway, in the centre of the south front of the transept, has a moulded Portland stone architrave and a horizontal stone hood on console brackets; above, an apron flanked by scrolls forms the base of a rectangular central window with an eared architrave and a keystone that touches the soffit of the Doric entablature.

The East End

Above the chancel roof the east wall of the nave is capped by a closed pediment, some 4 ft. higher than the balustraded parapets of the aisle walls and joined by carved stone scrolls which mask the nave roof. The apse now stands 25 ft. to the east of its original position; it is flanked by the angle quoins of the Victorian chancel, which repeat those of the aisles. The apse windows are similar to those of the south front but smaller.

The North Front

The north front repeats that to the south except for simpler treatment of the transept; instead of the Doric order the projection is capped by a return of the north aisle cornice and parapet; the central doorway and window have relatively plain architraves and keystones; above rises a pedimented attic with a round window at the centre.

The interior of the church is plastered and painted in muted colours. The ceiling is a pale duck egg blue, the walls, columns and cornices whitewashed. Plaster vaulted ceiling to the nave, coffered domed apse with water and mould staining in many place.  The aisles are carried by fine Portland stone columns with Doric capitals to aisles with square piers below. 18th-century lowered dado with fielded panelling around the aisle walls, with newer sections across the transepts.  In the apse, oak dado with fielded panels with enriched borders and enriched cornice; 18th century.

The West End

The west doorway opens into a square vestibule in the base of the tower; from it arched openings lead into the nave and aisles. The vestibule is ceiled below the level of the west window and the latter illuminates an upper chamber, with arched recesses to north. and south and a round-headed window to the east through which light from the west window finds its way to the nave.

Across the west end is the west gallery, added in 1794, and extended across the aisle bays in 1819. It has a bow-fronted oak-panelled parapet, supported on small wooden Ionic columns with iron cores; parapet with moulded capping set forward at centre to accommodate the painted Royal Arms.

The Nave and Aisles

The nave aisles are carried by Ionic colonnades raised on high pedestals, now plastered above the level of the box pews from their original height. On each side are an east end pilaster, five columns with cylindrical stone shafts, and one with a rectangular shaft, the latter engaged in the tower. The fourth bay from the east is wider than the others and corresponds with the north and south transepts which, although now partitioned off at ground level, formerly opened into the aisles and constituted a cross-axis. The column shafts, each of three stone drums as old photographs show, have capitals with canted volutes; they support entablatures with architraves of two fasciae, plain friezes and modillion cornices.

At the west end of the nave, the window to the upper tower chamber culminates in a keystone enriched with cherubs' heads. At the east end the pilaster responds are coupled with square columns which support the wide arch at the entry to the chancel, formerly the front of the apse; the intrados is enriched with square coffers enclosing rosettes. Above the cornices of the colonnades the nave has a vaulted plaster ceiling of elliptical cross-section, each bay having a cross-vault which terminates laterally in lunettes. The vault ribs have oak-leaf wreaths and egg-and-dart mouldings, with acanthus bosses at the intersections; that of the fourth bay is larger and richer than the others. The aisles are lit by the six windows of the north and south walls.   The transepts have a window in each end wall.

The Galleries and Transepts

Below gallery level the north and south transepts were walled off and the cross-axis formed by the widened central intercolumniation was to a large extent nullified; however, the transepts remain open in the upper storey and the small galleries which they originally contained are still there. The original galleries are approached by stone stairs beside the north and south doorways. The aisle ceilings are plaster cross-vaults similar to those of the nave but of shallower elliptical cross-section; they spring from the Ionic architraves, the upper orders of the entablature being omitted on the reverse of the trabeation. The architrave mouldings continue on all four sides of each aisle and also on the east and west walls of the transepts but they do not return across the north and south sides of the transepts. The ribs of the aisle vaults have mouldings similar to those of the nave.

The Chancel

The Chancel of 1895 has, to the north, a wide opening to the vestry; to the south are two round-headed windows similar to those of the aisles but slightly smaller, these contain the glass previously in the apse windows.. In general the architectural ornament of the walls is uniform with that of the apse. The barrel-vaulted roof is decorated with square coffering, each coffer having a central acanthus boss and four angle paterae.

The apse is lit by two round-headed windows with splayed reveals, outlined by enriched and gilded plaster architrave mouldings rising from sill fasciae with wave-spiral ornament; the impost moulding at the springing of each window-head has Greek-key decoration and the apex has a foliate spray; the window reveals are coffered, each coffer enclosing a rosette.

The apse vault, jacked up and moved east from its original position in 1895, is ornamented with octagonal coffering outlined in egg-and-dart enrichment, and filled with various ornaments such as cherubs' heads and conventional flowers; similar ornaments fill the small lozenge-shaped panels between the octagons. At the apex of the dome is a band of wave spiral ornament and a central sunburst; the keystone of the archivolt is decorated with a trinity of cherub heads.

Other Elements

The seating consists of a set of altered 18th-century oak-panelled box pews to nave, aisles and transepts, with some areas cleared, particularly the west end of the north aisle.

Stone floors with 18th-century ledger slabs set into it. At least one vault is known to exist under the floors.  19th-century tiled floor in the chancel and sanctuary. There is a carpeted central dais with nave altar.

The 19th-century heating units survive and are of some interest in themselves. The units are signed J Balls of Bryanstone.