RAMPISHAM

St Michael & All Angels

Rampisham is a really delightful little village hidden in a fold in the chalk upland.  Romans must also have appreciated its attractions because they built a villa, whose pavement was discovered (and desecrated) in 1799.

The exact origins of the church are uncertain, but there has been a parish church on this site for over 700 years. In 1291 the rector earned £5 pa. The oldest part remaining today is the splendid tower. It has no buttresses, and unusually is built on the south side of the church rather than on its central axis. Recent research shows that its first two storeys were built in 1326 to house a chantry chapel in the base, in memory of the son of the Lady of the Manor who had died in his twenties. The base, which is now the vestry, contained an altar, and retains a rare small stone carving of a kneeling ox. The tower’s third storey was added in the C15th in the Perpendicular style, and houses a fine large peal of five bells as it has for five hundred years. Four of the bells are original, dated to the C15th, the C16th and the early C17th; the fifth was recast in 1937.

The church was restored in the middle of the C19th, in the Decorated style of the C14th. The large and impressive font was installed in 1844, and is believed to have been designed by the great Victorian architect Augustus Pugin. Pugin designed the chancel of 1846-7, incorporating the old C14th priests’ seats (sedilia) and basin (piscina) into his design. Pugin also designed the wonderful east window of the chancel, which was made by John Hardman of Birmingham. It cost £70 (approaching £7,000 in today's money), of which Pugin received £20 as design fee (c.£2,000 today). He also designed the two side windows adjacent to it for a fee of £5 (c.£500 today).

The nave was rebuilt and expanded by John Hicks of Dorchester in 1858-9 in the same C14th decorated style as the chancel, giving the building a remarkably unified and consistent style for a parish church. The windows in the nave were made by Lavers and Barraud of London. On his team was the 18yr-old trainee architect Thomas Hardy, starting the third year of his apprenticeship. Hardy was so taken with what he saw that later he incorporated Pugin into at least three of his novels, and the kneeling ox into one novel and his poem “The Oxen” (1915). (Please click here to visit the Kneeling Ox photographs) At the age of 33 this was Hicks’ first major church job (he was to be responsible for at least 27 more in the county), although he had altered Piddletrenthide in 1852 where his brother was vicar.

The Rev. Frederick John Rooke was the incumbent during all these alterations, serving a magnificent total of 51 years (1843-94).

Outside, there are the remains of what must once have been a magnificent preaching cross.  It has been dated at 1516, although the platform is given as 1606.  The carving on the base is said to depict the martyrdom of St Thomas à Becket on one side and the chastening of King Henry II on the other.  Although time and the weather have disfigured the work, it is still just possible to see bits of the images.

According to Sir Frederick Treves in his superb 'Highways and Byeways in Dorset' (1906), “Rampisham is one of the most beautiful villages in Dorset. It stands in a valley of trees through which runs a stream. It is a place of old thatched cottages ...” He notes that Rampisham's most famous son was a distinguished physician called Francis Glisson, who was born in 1597. He studied at Cambridge where he eventually rose to become Professor of Physic and after moving to London, a founder member of the Royal Society. He wrote many learned papers, amongst which a series on rickets (partly observed in Dorset) and most famously of all, his description of the anatomy of the liver and in particular the fibrous sheath, known to this day as Glisson's Capsule. He died in October 1677.

The Dorset Historic Churches Trust gratefully acknowledges the contribution to these notes made by Michael Nisbet.