Description
Blandford-St-Mary, a parish in Dorsetshire, on the river Stour, 1/2 a mile S of Blandford-Forum. Post town, Blandford, which is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 1895; population of civil parish, 375 ; of the ecclesiastical, 359. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury ; net value, £218 with residence. Patron, Worcester College, Oxford. The church contains a monument erected by Governor Pitt, grandfather of the great Earl of Chatham, to the memory of his father, some time rector of the parish. Dr Brown Willis the antiquary was a native.
Parish Church
The church of St Mary, a building of flint and stone in the Mixed style, consists of chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, north transept, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 3 bells: there are several stained windows: the church was repaired, reseated, a north aisle and vestry erected and an east window inserted in 1862, and the chancel was restored in 1886: in 1909 a new organ chamber and organ were presented, and in 1911 new altar rails were given in memory of Mrs A.C. Woodhouse: the altar panelling was provided in memory of the Rev. W. Chambers M.A. rector 1881-1907: there are 200 sittings.
The register dates from the year 1581.
