Restoration: Church of St. Nicholas, Hilfield, Dorset

The restoration is R J Withers’ first recorded work, the ICBS dates suggesting that he commenced independent practice in Sherborne before 1848. Works included reseating and repairs to floors, roof, walls, etc, together with the addition of a new chancel.

S. NICHOLAS, HILFIELD, DORSET. — This church has been satisfactorily restored and enlarged by Mr. R. J. Withers, of Sherborne. It was nothing but a debased chapelry (30 feet 6 inches by 13 feet), with a west door and a rude west bell-cote. This is now a nave, a better door being inserted, and some buttresses being added, and the bell-cote removed. A simple chancel (15 feet 6inches by 11 feet), in plain Middle-Pointed style, has been added with a good three-light east window, a two- light window on each side, and a door (to open into a "proposed sacristy") on the north. A new bell-gable is added between the chancel and nave, and crosses crown the other gables. The new arrangements comprise simple open seats in the nave, a lectem at the south-east, with a low pulpit on the opposite side, no screen, longitudinal seats in the chancel, a sanctuary fitted with encaustic tiles, and a properly vested altar on a footpace. We regret the position of the door, north-west of the chancel, interrupting the stalls, and still more a west gallery (for which however Mr. Withers is not answerable) entered from the outside. In other respects, this is a pleasing and satisfactory little work, full of promise for the young architect who has accomplished it. [Ecclesiologist 1849 page 207-208]

Parish Church of St. Nicholas, formerly a chapel of Sydling, stands in the south. part of the parish. The walls are of local rubble and flint with freestone dressings; the roofs are covered with stone slates and tiles. The church consisting of chancel and nave was built perhaps late in the 13th or early in the 14th century, but there is little surviving evidence of date. In the 15th century it was much altered and rebuilt. It was in very bad repair when it was extensively restored in 1848 by R. J Withers, architect, of Sherborne. The Chancel (16 feet by 12 feet) has no ancient features and the bell-cote is modern. The Nave, 30 feet 6 inches by 13 feet, has, in the north wall, three windows, the easternmost modern and the others of the 16th or 17th century and of two segmental-headed lights in square outer heads. In the south wall are two similar two-light windows; further W. is a blocked rectangular opening. The early 14th-century W. window is of two pointed lights in a two-centred head; the western doorway is Victorian.

Reference    Ecclesiologist, December 1848 page 207-208
Reference    British History on Line with plan
Reference    An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 1: West 1952