Lady St. Mary Church, Wareham

Lady St Mary Church stands in the market town of Wareham, Dorset, on ground once held by a nunnery destroyed by Vikings. Built of Purbeck limestone, the church has a long chancel, a four-bay nave with aisles, and a four-stage tower with diagonal buttresses. A hexagonal lead font from about 1200 and windows by Clayton & Bell from the 1880s–90s are among its notable features. The church is linked to early West Saxon history. St Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne in the early 8th century, founded a church here. Alfred the Great’s daughter rebuilt the nunnery after a Danish raid in 876. King Beorhtric of Wessex may lie buried here from 802, and Edward the Martyr’s body was brought here in 978 after his murder at Corfe Castle. Inside, the nave and chancel show work from the 8th, 12th, 14th and early 16th centuries. The south chapel once held a treasury above it. The west-end tower rises in four stages, and the east window was installed between 1886 and 1890. The church became Grade I listed in 1952 and still holds its ancient stones with Brittonic inscriptions from the 7th to 9th centuries.