Hanford (Former Church of St. Michael)

Hanford School Chapel, formerly St. Michael's Church, Hanford, Dorset; east end just visible from the main road.

The small village of Hanford can be found on the north bank of the River Stour between the twin hill forts of Hambledon Hill and Hod Hill. Hanford House was built in 1604 by Sir Robert Seymer, whose family lived here for many centuries; the house is now Hanford School, a preparatory school for girls.The small Gothic chapel is also seventeenth-century (1650). A Country Life article of 1905 says that " the chapel is a picturesque building with a high gable, pleasant to look at, and within are several memorials of the Seymers." It is now the chapel of Hanford School and no longer a parish church.

Sources:

• Country Life, "Country homes: Hanford House, Dorsetshire, " Country Life, Vol. XVII, No. 433, 22 April 1905, pp. 558-564.
• Monica Hutchings, Inside Dorset, Sherborne: Abbey Press, 1965, p. 183.
• John Hutchins, The history and antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd ed., edited by William Shipp and James Whitworth Hodson, Westminster: J.B. Nichols and Sons, 1861-1873.
• Arthur Mee, ed., Dorset: Thomas Hardy's country. The King's England. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1939, pp. 224-226.
• John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, The buildings of England: Dorset. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, pp. 225.
• 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. 101-102.

Web site:

Some photographs are available on the Hanford School Web site:
http://www.hanford.dorset.sch.uk/

To Dorset Churches Index Page

Maintained by Michael Day, Last updated: 17 August 2015.