20 CONTEXT 187 : MARCH 2026 cement. No lime to be used, the salt air appearing to have disintegrating effect on mortar. Point all the lower part of the buttress with the same.’ The repairs were carried out. In 1899 Hardy reported to Thackeray Turner a rumour that the church of St Mary the Virgin in Stratton, near Dorchester, was to be demolished. ‘I am not personally acquainted with the details of the building,’ he wrote, ‘but those who know its features inform me that judicious repair is all that is really necessary. It is a quaint church, and it would be a thousand pities if it were destroyed. Several persons feel as I do on the matter, and they have requested me to drop this line to you.’ A friend of Hardy’s, Horace Moule, provided further information on the proposed repair work, and of the rebuilding of the narrow chancel arch and squints, and a new chancel. The architect, GR Crickmay, explained his proposals to SPAB, but the secretary responded: ‘I am very sorry to say that every member of my Committee who was present at our meeting yesterday expressed regret to see what is proposed and I was desired to ask you whether you think your Client could be persuaded to be satisfied with less alterations?’ The architect replied the same day saying that ‘it is impossible to keep them [the walls] up. The building is positively unsound otherwise you may depend I would not rebuild but this has become a necessity. I dislike being the man to condemn this old building, but the time has arrived when it must be rebuilt, but every feature that it is possible to maintain shall be and I hope we shall be able to reuse the old facing stone.’ Turner suggested that Hardy ‘may be able to put in a word for its retention’. Hardy replied explaining that he had already been invited to attend the rebuilding committee ‘and I gathered from the tone of the meeting at its conclusion that my remarks had had the desired effect. As I thought the matter urgent… I took it upon myself to say that I represented the Society.’ He drafted the text of a long letter which he suggested SPAB could send to the chief subscriber, the Hon Mrs Ashly, and Hardy also wrote to the Bishop of Salisbury. Sadly, Mrs Ashly died shortly after, but another rich parishioner offered to pay for the new chancel and the scheme progressed. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners wrote that ‘it would be a mistake to reinstate the old arch’, saying that it ‘does not appear to be possessed of any special beauty or interest’ and feeling that it would be ‘so inconvenient’. So, as is not infrequently the case when rich benefactors got involved in church repairs, their munificence was too generous for cash-strapped parishes to ignore, and the damaging scheme went ahead. Stratton Church in 1889 before its largescale rebuilding: a detail from a drawing, dated 1900, hanging in the church Stratton Church today, with its rebuilt nave and new chancel (Photo: Duncan McCallum) Stratton Church’s replaced and widened chancel arch of 1892 (Photo: Duncan McCallum)
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