Charborough (Former Church of St. Mary)

St Mary's Church, Almer, Dorset: stained-glass window depicting the former Parish Church of St. Mary', Charborough Park

As Pevsner wrote:

A Gothick toy behind ... [Charborough] house, at the foot of a staircase up to a terrace. The church was built by Thomas Erle Drax in 1775. Two bays only, an obelisk bell-turret and obelisk pinnacles. Unmedieval angle pilasters, windows with cusped Y-tracery, and a cottagey open W porch. Before entering one expects a dainty white stucco interior. Instead one is stunned by big dark wooden spoils from Continental countries everywhere. They hardly leave you enough space to take them in individually. The transormation was made in 1837 by John Sawbridge Erle Drax.

St Mary's is no longer a parish church; it now seems to be a private chapel belonging to Charborough House and is not open to the public.

Sources:

• John Hutchins, The history and antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd ed., edited by William Shipp and J.W. Hodson, Westminster: J.B. Nichols, 1861-1873, Vol. x, pp. x.
• John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, The buildings of England: Dorset. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 140.
• F.P. Pitfield, Dorset parish churches, A-D. Milborne Port: Dorset Publishing Company, 1981, pp. 164-165.
• Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset, Vol. 2, Central Dorset. London: HMSO, 1970, pt. 1, pp. 161-163: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=127533

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Maintained by Michael Day, Last updated: 2 January 2014.