xlvii. 



these we may add the oldest bell, which dates from 1594. There was a 

 gallery on the north and west sides of the church, and the old south 

 transept of the former Early English church was used for a vestry on 

 the upper floor level with the old three-decker pulpit, which stood 

 against the south wall of the church. The lower floor was a baptistry, 

 where the old font now in St. Mark's, Herston, of Purbeck marble, 

 stood. The church consisted then only of a nave and aisles with this old 

 transept. The three-decker pulpit had a sound board above, on which 

 was a dove with a holly leaf, and there were good old-fashioned pews 

 where mind and body alike might repose during the service. No such 

 fortune is allowed to the modern visitor to Swanage. The restoration 

 of the church, if such a name can be properly used, took place in 1860, 

 and was carried out by Mr. T. H. Wyatt, under the direction of the late 

 Hector, the Rev. K. D. Travers. The interior of the tower was 

 thoroughly restored in 1888 by the Church Lands Trustees, a local 

 ecclesiastical charity. The present floors were put in and the old oak 

 framework of the bells, which was very rotten, was removed, and the 

 bells rehung by Messrs. Taylor, of Lough bo rough. The present frame- 

 work is of iron and A shaped. At the same time four new bells were 

 added as a gift from Mr. George Burt to the memory of his wife. The 

 inscriptions on the old bells are : ' Thinke on God, I.W., 1594,' ' Fear 

 God, I.W., 1612,' ' Honour the King, I.W., 1621,' ' Lester and Pack of 

 London fecit, 1764.' It seems likely that the original approach to 

 Swanage from Corfe was along the valley, entering the village from 

 Church Bridge, the little bridge just north of the church. If this be so, 

 and there are signs of such a road up the valley for some distance, then 

 the church occupies a similar position to St. Martin's, Wareham, at the 

 entrance to the towji. This would be the junction of roads from 

 Godlingstone, Corfe, Studland, and Goathorn. This was then the only 

 bridge across the stream. We may, perhaps, go further and connect this 

 fact with St. Aldhelm as its original founder, inasmuch as such a rule 

 was largely adopted in Saxon times. In the church you will find several 

 monuments bearing quaint inscriptions. One stone to a member of the 

 Clavell family dates from 1470. This is an ancestor to the Clavell of 

 whom we read in the curious old rhyme in Kimmeridge church. It had 

 three effigies in brass, one male and two female figures. Our parish 

 registers date from 1563. They contain some curious entries. Amongst 

 the most noteworthy parochial entries in the paiish accounts are the 

 entries of the charges for French prisoners quartered on the parish during 

 the great war, who, alas, never saw the dear shores of sunny France 

 again, for the last of a long series stretching over several years are the 





