Description
Bellchalwell, a parish in Dorsetshire, 3 miles from Shillingstone railway station on the Somerset and Dorset railway. Post town, Blandford; money order office, Okeford Fitzpaine; telegraph office, Shillingstone. Population of the ecclesiastical parish, with Ibberton, 298. The living is a rectory, united with that of Ibberton, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, about £320. The church has a Norman porch and a square tower, and is very good; it was reseated in 1872. The chancel was restored in 1893. The handsome new open roof is a copy of the old one, of which one truss with its mouldings was discovered out of its place within the roof over the nave. The church, like that at Ibberton, is built at one end of the parish on a hill.
Parish Church
The church (not dedicated) is a plain building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, north aisle, and has a fine Norman south porch and a square embattled tower on the south side, containing one bell; it was reseated in 1872, and has subsequently been restored: there are 100 sittings.
With the exception of a few fragments, the early registers were destroyed by fire; the present one dates from 1842.
