Description
Worth Matravers, a parish in Dorsetshire, on the coast, 4 miles from Corfe Castle station on the L. & S.W.R. It has a post office under Wareham; money order office, Langton Matravers; telegraph office, Corfe Castle. Acreage, 2712; population, 229. Purbeck stone and green marble are quarried. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £96 with residence. Patron, the Rector of Swanage. The church, dedicated to St Nicholas, is a very ancient building of Purbeck stone, chiefly in the Norman style, and has been well restored. There is also an ancient chantry dedicated to St Aldhelm. There is a Wesleyan chapel.
Parish Church
The church of St. Nicholas is a building of Purbeck stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, and a tower containing 3 bells: the nave and west tower are Norman and the chancel Norman and Early English: a heavy projecting eaves-course runs the whole length of both nave and chancel, and is supported by rude grotesque blocks and heads: the entrance doorway is surmounted by an ornamental semicircular arch, inclosing a tympanum on which are remains of rude and very ancient sculpture: the chancel arch is an interesting example of Early Norman work, and on the west side consists of three orders, the two outer ones having bold zigzag moulding: the east window is late Decorated, with reticulated tracery: the other chancel windows are lancets, widely splayed: there is a trefoil-headed piscina, with a cinquefoil-headed niche above it; the font is good Perpendicular: here is the tombstone of Benjamin Jesty, noted for having been the first person known who introduced the cowpox by inoculation: the whole fabric has been restored and refitted, chiefly at the cost of the Earl of Eldon: there are 200 sittings.
The register dates from the year 1584.
Villages, Hamlets, &c.
Downshay, a village in Worth-Matravers parish, Dorsetshire, 1 mile SE of Corfe Castle.
Eastington, a village in Worth Matravers parish, Dorsetshire, near the coast, 4 1/2 miles SSE of Corfe Castle.
Haycrof, a village in Worth Matravers parish, Dorsetshire, 3 1/2 miles S of Corfe Castle.
Quar, a village in Worth Matravers parish, Dorsetshire, 3 1/2 miles S of Corfe Castle.
Rentscombe, a village in Worth Matravers parish, Dorsetshire, 3 1/2 miles S of Corfe Castle.
