BUCKLAND NEWTON

The Holy Rood

The church rests on the edge of the village near an early 19c manor house.  The building is unique in Dorset because it is the only church to be completely rendered externally.

The nave is essentially 15c and very light and airy, but the chancel, originally 13c, was 'improved' several times by the Victorians and the final result is gloomy, despite triple lancet windows and some marble shafting.  The reredos in the sanctuary is brilliantly coloured and by a Mr. Tolhurst of Mowbrays 1927.  Two squints and an aperture high up on the left side, which once led to a rood screen, makes the chancel arch particularly interesting.  There is a 15c font and an intriguing Elizabethan alms box, heavily carved from a single piece of oak.

Above the splendid south porch, with its vaulted ceiling, is a priest's room where once, before the days of vicarages, visiting monks would have been expected to spend the night.  Note, above the door, the small Norman seated Christ.