Description
Loders, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands on a small affluent of the river Brit, 2 miles NE of Bridport station on the G.W.R., and has a post office under Bridport; money order and telegraph office, Bridport. Acreage of the civil parish, 2279 ; population, 672; of the ecclesiastical, 880. Loders Court is the seat of the Nepean family. A priory, subordinate to Montsburgh Abbey in Normandy, was founded, here in the time of Henry II., and was given by Henry V. to the Sion Abbey. Building stone is quarried. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £70 with residence. The church has a low massive W tower, and is good. There is a Wesleyan chapel.
Parish Church
The church of St. Mary Magdalene is an ancient edifice of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 6 bells: on the base of the tower is an ancient stone, carved with a representation of "The Crucifixion": the font has a square Norman bowl of Purbeck marble: the east window and two others are stained: in 1897 Mrs. Beamish presented a handsome brass cross and ornaments for the communion table: the church was completely restored during 1901 at a cost of £1,000: during the course of the work a Norman window and doorway, in the chancel, were re-opened; an Easter sepulchre and a hagioscope uncovered, the western gallery removed, and the west window restored: above the porch is a priest's chamber, with a stairway leading to it: there are 450 sittings : in the churchyard is a quaint epitaph to one Cox, a blacksmith. who died in 1823. The register dates from the year 1636.
