St. Lawrence
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The church stands all by itself, but within sight of a truly magnificent Jacobean manor house. It is certainly rather plain with a single bell turret, although hardly deserving to be described as "a modern building of daring ugliness", which was the opinion of Sir Frederick Treves, the eminent Victorian surgeon and writer, who would have seen it towards the end of the nineteenth century.
The structure is by G & H Osborn of 1842 and replaced a much earlier building. Of huge importance is the Norman tympanun, which was probably rescued from the earlier church. It sits adjacent to the entrance door and depicts two angry beasts with no hind legs. (Treves suggests they were wyverns.)
The manor house nearby is certainly worthy of comment because it was once the home of the Sydenham family, whose most noteworthy son was Thomas Sydenham (1624-89). Frederick Treves says he was the father of modern clinical medicine. Unfortunately, such excellence had run out by the time William Sydenham had control of the estate. His financial troubles were acute, so he set about organising a gambling scam involving a young lady who was supposed to return the estate to him, minus a small sum for her trouble. She did indeed win, but choosing not to honour the deal, sold the estate and the luckless William was thrown into Dorchester prison, where he languished for nine years until his death in 1709.
