Dorchester Abbey

Our View

The abbey in this small village dates to Norman times, with decorative additions including the chancel added in the 14th century, but the site has older links to the earliest Christians. In AD 635 Cynegils, the Saxon King of Wessex, was baptised here by the missionary bishop Birinus. The bishop’s remains were interred here in a wooden church, but later moved to Winchester for safe-keeping. An Augustinian abbey was established in the 12th century, with supposed relics of Birinus making it a popular pilgrimage site. The remarkable Tree of Jesse window, with its ‘bent’ stone mullions, on the chancel’s north wall dates from this wealthy time. After the Dissolution, the building remained as a parish church, gaining a tower in 1602, and then undergoing restoration by William Butterfield in the 19th century. Further notable features include the Norman lead font, the 14th-century frescoes, and the Victorian Great East Window with its medieval glass. You can find out more about the history of the building in the Cloister Gallery, a modern extension constructed in 2001. The church celebrates its US connections, and owes much of its 20th-century restoration to the efforts of Edith Gratia Stedman and the American Friends of Dorchester Abbey. A museum in the Cloister Gallery tells the history of the church through its carved stonework (free, open daily May–Sep, 2–5).