St John's Church is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

church in

Tincleton Tincleton is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is situated near the River Frome, approximately east of the county town Dorchester. The name of the village comes from the Old English "Tin la Ton", or "f ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, England. It was designed by

Benjamin Ferrey Benjamin Ferrey FSA FRIBA (1 April 1810–22 August 1880) was an English architect who worked mostly in the Gothic Revival. Family Benjamin Ferrey was the youngest son of Benjamin Ferrey Snr (1779–1847), a draper who became Mayor of Christc ...

and built in 1849–50. The church has been a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since 1956.

History

St John's was built to replace an earlier church which was considered "unsightly and inconvenient". The decision to replace the old church was made by the end of 1847, with drawings for a "chaste and handsome" new church having been made by

. A plot of land for the new church was given by Charles Sturt of

Crichel House Crichel House is a Grade I listed, Classical Revival country house near the village of Moor Crichel in Dorset, England. The house has an entrance designed by Thomas Hopper and interiors by James Wyatt. It is surrounded by of parkland, which ...

and Charles Porcher of Clyffe House paid for its construction. Construction of the new church began in 1849 and the parish's services were temporarily moved to the nearby schoolroom. St John's and its burial ground was consecrated by the

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...

, the Right Rev. Edward Denison, on 1 November 1850.

Architecture

St John's is built of squared and coursed rubble, with

Hamstone Hamstone is the name given to a honey-coloured building stone from Ham Hill, Somerset, England. It is a well-cemented medium to coarse grained limestone characterised by marked bedding planes of clay inclusions and less well-cemented material w ...

dressings and tiled roofs. It is made up of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

and north porch. The church has a west

bell-cot A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

containing two bells, with a clock below. Some of the old church's fittings and memorials were transferred to the new church. The font is made from

Purbeck stone Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck M ...

and has been dated to the 12th-century, although it has since been reshaped. The stem and base of the font is of 19th or 20th-century date. On the north wall of the chancel is a monument to Anne Seymour, dated 1844, along with two marble tablets made by Lester of Dorchester; one to Rev. Thomas Seymour, dated 1849, and the other to Jane Seymour, dated 1850. On the north wall of the nave is a marble monument to Rachel Baynard, dated 1667, and another to George Baynard, dated 1693. The south wall has a monument to Maria White, dated 1718. The nave contains two floor slabs to Thomas Baynard, dated 1683, and Radolphus Baynard, dated 1695. The church's organ was built in 1885 by Maley, Young & Oldknow of London. It was first used in the church on 6 December 1885 and was later restored by Geo. Osmond & Co of

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

in 1969. In 1889, Mrs. Porcher had a

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

erected in the church in memory of Charles Porcher. The chancel has a memorial window to Vice-Chancellor Sir

Richard Torin Kindersley Sir Richard Torin Kindersley (1792–1879) was an English lawyer and judge. He was born, the eldest son of Nathaniel Edward Kindersley, at Madras, India, in 1792, and educated at Haileybury and Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a fellow i ...

, who died in 1879. It was placed by E. L. Kindersley of Clyffe House.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Church, Tincleton Church of England church buildings in Dorset 1850 establishments in England Grade II listed churches in Dorset