124 THE NORMANS IN DORSET. 



new chisel-worked masonry, should be impatient of the old 

 rough walls he found here. 



In Dorset, as elsewhere, the monastic and collegiate bodies 

 took a leading part in the building operations of the time, 

 although it is often a difficult problem to decide by whom 

 churches were built, for documentary evidence is very scarce. 

 Charminster being one of the Episcopal manors, we may 

 perhaps attribute the present nave to Bishop Roger himself 

 the pointed arch having been introduced about seven years 

 before his death in 1142.* 



A Romanesque church in the Bishop's manor of 

 Alton Pancras, finally demolished in 1875, was probably 

 Roger's work. Turning to the parishes owned by monas- 

 teries, we find evidence of the care of these bodies for 

 providing places of worship for their tenants. Thus, the 

 church at Iwerne Minster, belonging to the Abbey of Shaftes- 

 bury, had its fine Romanesque nave rebuilt. The church 

 of Wimborne Minster, which place was given by King William 

 I. to his chaplain Maurice, Bishop of London, also Dean of 

 the College owes its nave and tower "to this period. " For 

 love of " another chaplain, a monk of St. Wandrille, the 

 same King bestowed the churches of our Lady at Wareham, 

 of St. Wita at Whitechurch Caiionicorum, and others, upon 

 that Norman Abbey, which now happens to be the workshop 

 of M. Maeterlinck. The walls of Wareham parish church 

 are probably the original Norman work of Bishop Roger's 

 time. At Whitechurch, building operations were commenced 

 by its new owners, as testified by two bays of the nave and a 

 Romanesque door still standing. In the year 1200, however, 

 the parish was given back to Sarum, and the rebuilding 

 shows a sudden transition to Early English. 



St. Martin's at Wareham owes its building (perhaps of 

 pre-Norman date) to the Abbots of Horton, who also in J.085 



* Bere Regis Church shows some remarkably similar characteristic^/but 

 is probably a few years later in date. 



