St James Church, West Street, Kingston

Описание: St James's Church, Kingston, Wareham, Purbeck, Dorset.

The Church of St James is the parish church for the village of Kingston, located on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. The church is a notable example of the Gothic Revival style and is a Grade I listed building.

History:

From the 12th century, Kingston was a chapelry of nearby Corfe Castle, served by a chapel of ease in the east of the village. In 1833, John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, demolished the old chapel and rebuilt it, at his own expense, on the same site to become the parish church. The new chapel, dedicated to St James, was designed in the Gothic Revival style by George Stanley Repton and followed the plan of the original chapel.

In 1873, John Scott III, now the 3rd Earl of Eldon, commissioned George Edmund Street to draw up designs for a much larger church (the present building), on a new site in the village, for use as a private chapel for the Eldon estate. Construction commenced the following year, and within only six years, the new church was finished, at a cost of £70,000. This was a massive sum of money for such a tiny village, and according to the National Archives, equivalent to more than £4.3 million in 2017.

The church remained as a private chapel for the Eldon estate until 1921, when the now Lord Eldon conveyed the entire chapel to the Church Commissioners and on October 11 of that year, was consecrated. In January 1922, the Church Commissioners replaced the original chapel as the parish church, substituting it for Street's church. The original 1833 chapel then became the church hall for many years, until it was sold to be converted to a private residence in 1977. The former church remains a private residence to this day.

In the 1980s, serious work was required on the church to prevent further damage and to keep it standing. Due to its prominent and exposed position, located on a limestone escarpment in the Purbeck Hills some 135 metres (443 feet) above sea level, the church suffered extensive weathering and significant erosion from storms. Despite the small congregation, fundraising and repairs were completed by the end of the decade.

More information on wikipedia.