Situated on a hilltop overlooking the Stonor Valley and Hamlet of Pishill, a church was first recorded on the site when its benefice was granted to Dorchester Abbey in 1146. Its foundation was most likely Norman, but could be older.[2] Unusually for a Church of England parish church, it does not appear ever to have carried a dedication.[3]
Little outward evidence of the pre-Victorian church remains beyond the baptismal font, which incorporates was is seemingly part of a recycled 14th-century pier.[4] The building was enlarged and remodelled in 1854 by an unidentified builder, probably under the direction of the incumbent vicar, Reverend Benjamin Corrie Ruck-Keene, who funded the work personally.[3] Some heavily modified medieval construction does remain, suggesting that what is now the north transept previously served as a single-aisle nave.[3]
Architecture
The 1854 rebuild added a new nave at right angles to the earlier structure, narrowing into a newchancel beneath a pointed chancel arch. This created an unconventional T-shaped plan quite unlike the Gothic Revival model so widely implemented elsewhere.[4]
The nave retains its Victorian box pews that extend around into what became a single north transept, with a wooden pulpit at the junction. Matching choir stalls were also installed in the chancel.[3]
The Opus sectile altar screen showing the Lamb of God is by James Powell and Sons and was installed in 1871. The same firm also made the triple-lancet east window with the Crucifixion at the centre, and a Last Supper window in the south chancel.[3] A window depicting the Parable of the Good Samaritan is by Cox & Sons, 1874.[4] A 1925 window depicting St Cecilia and St Peter by Arthur Dix is in the nave.[5] In the chancel is John Piper's 1967 Sword and Gospel lancet window, manufactured by Patrick Reyntiens.[4] The most modern window, which depicts a cross and words from the prayer God be in my head, was designed by Jane Gray and installed in the transept in 1985.[5]
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