Church Services and Regular Events
– See Benefice Diary for more events
Pews NewsSpecial Events
BCP = Book of Common Prayer | S-BCP = No Music -Book of Common Prayer | Celtic = Earthy and poetic with music
Turnworth
Turnworth
St Mary’s
Contacts
John Tory – Churchwarden & Treasurer – 01258 453491 Jenny Tory – PCC Secretary – 01258 453491
– See Benefice Diary for more events in Turnworth
Two Services a month
2nd Sunday – Morning Worship: 10 am
4th Sunday – Holy Communion: 6pm
View Service Details
Facilities
No toilet facilities as yet.
Turnworth Calendar – December 2019
Holy Communion – Christmas Day
Morning Worship
Holy Communion
Morning Worship
About the Village
Church History and Interesting Facts
“Full of Beauty” – Thomas Hardy
In 1086 in the Domesday Book Turnworth was recorded as Torneworde. It had 19 households, was in Pimperne Hundred and the lord and tenant-in-chief was Alfred of ‘Spain’.
The church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt in the 19th century with assistance from Thomas Hardy, who designed the capitals and possibly also the corbels. Hardy described Turnworth’s position as being “stood in a hole, but the hole is full of beauty”, and he used Turnworth House as the inspiration for Hintock House in his novel The Woodlanders.
The carved stone foliage for the church’s pillars were designed by Thomas Hardy (although the work was done later).
The west tower is c. 1500, of greensand and flint, but the rest was rebuilt in 1868-69 by G. R. Crickmay to a design of John Hicks, after his death. The ornately carved capitals were reputedly designed by Thomas Hardy, who worked for both Hicks and Crickmay before he became a well-known poet and novelist. The ‘capitals’ represent various kinds of foliage inhabited by song birds (including a very striking owl) and sand lizards.
In later life, Hardy was well aquainted with the Rector (Thomas Perkins, a regular contributor of guidebooks to Bell’s Cathedral Series) and apparently used to cycle over from Dorchester to read the lesson at evensong.
Sources:
dorset-churches.org
wikipedia
