Creech (Creech Grange Chapel)

Creech Grange chapel (former Church of St John), Dorset

Creech Grange chapel, the former Church of St. John the Evangelist, can be found down a drive just to the north of Creech Grange House. Pevsner notes that a chapel was built here in 1746 to house the c. 12th century Norman chancel arch of the former Holme Priory (East Holme). The current church was added between 1849-68 in a general Norman style, but with an Italianate tower. In its original form, the church was a chapel of ease to the parish of Steeple. The church was declared redundant in 1983 and is now privately owned.

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. 1, 1861, pp. 605-606.
• Arthur Mee, ed., Dorset: Thomas Hardy's country. The King's England. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1939, pp. 80-81.
• John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, The buildings of England: Dorset. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 175.
• F.P. Pitfield, Dorset parish churches, A-D. Milborne Port: Dorset Publishing Company, 1981, pp. 216-217.
• F.P. Pitfield, Purbeck parish churches. Milborne Port: Dorset Publishing Company, 1985, pp. 24-26.

Bells:

Raven (1904, p. 122) merely notes that there was one small modern bell, "of no interest." Dalton (2000, p. 235) elaborates and notes that it has the inscription: "C & G MEARS FOUNDERS LONDON 1849," that it has a diameter of 19", weighs 1-1-25, and has a note of D. He points out that expansion in the surrounding iron apparatus has broken two cannons off the bell.

• Raven, J.J., 1904, The church bells of Dorset. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, Vol. 25, pp. 33-128.
• Dalton, C., 2000, Bells and belfries of Dorset, Pt. 1. Ullingswick: Upper Court Press.

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Maintained by Michael Day, Last updated: 27 May 2014.