Charlton Marshall (St. Mary)

St. Mary's Church, Charlton Marshall, Dorset

The village of Charlton Marshall can be found a few miles south of Blandford Forum on the busy road to Poole that follows the valley of the River Stour (A350) . Until closure in September 1956, the village was also served by a halt on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (SDJR). The Church of St. Mary is on the east side of the A350 close to a long meander in the river; the churchyard leading eventually down to the shore of the river. The tower (excepting the pinnacles and pediments) and north aisle arcade are mostly mediaeval, but much of the rest was rebuilt in the early 18th century at the expense of Dr. Charles Sloper (whose memorial is inside). Newman and Pevsner say that, as architects, he most likely used the brothers William and John Bastard of Blandford, whose most well-known other work is the Church of SS. Peter and Paul at Blandford Forum. The interior is a very rare example of rural Georgian church architecture in Dorset, including a fine reredos that contains the texts of the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed and the Ten Commandments.

Sources:

• H. M. Colvin, The Bastards of Blandford: architects and master-builders. Archaeological Journal, CIV, 1947, pp. 178-195.
• 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.
• Simon Jenkins, England's thousand best churches. London: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999, pp. 152, 153.
• E. T. Long, Dorset. In Sir John Betjeman's guide to English parish churches, revised and updated by Nigel Kerr. London: HarperCollins, 1993, p. 181.
• Arthur Mee, ed., Dorset: Thomas Hardy's country. The King's England. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1939, p. 60.
• Owen Morshead, Dorset Churches. [Dorchester]: Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 1988, p. 19.
• John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, The buildings of England: Dorset. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, pp. 141-142.
• F.P. Pitfield, Dorset parish churches, A-D. Milborne Port: Dorset Publishing Company, 1981, pp. 166-167.
• Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset, Vol. 3, Central Dorset. London: HMSO, 1970, pt. 1, pp. 57-58.
• Terence and Eliza Sackett, Francis Frith's Dorset Churches. Salisbury: Frith Book Co., 2000, p. 100.

Bells:

4, 8-3-9 in G# (unringable).

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Maintained by Michael Day, Last updated: 11 March 2016.