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St Kenelm's Church, Wimborne, Dorset. - May 2019 | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

St Kenelm's Church, Wimborne, Dorset. - May 2019

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WhatYouAfter

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
So we had a little tip off about this place, and as it was close to home we thought we would check it out! Here's a little bit of history about the place...

In 1860 Sir Richard Glyn took down the old church and replaced it with what is considered to be a fairly typical estate church. Built of stone in the neo-Romanesque style, it retains the Norman chancel arch and consists of chancel, nave, transepts, south porch supporting a spire and a tower containing 4 bells. To celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, stained glass windows, a new font, lectern and chalice were presented by Sir R.G. Glyn. The Rectory, a fine 19th century building with a Sunday School room attached, sits opposite the church on the busy road between Wimborne and Cranborne, for many years the home of Carr John Glyn, England’s longest serving rector. North of St Kenelm’s, are three attractive estate cottages in the same neo-Romanesque style as the church.

Formerly there was a Norman church here, which John Hutchins in his ‘History and Antiquities of Dorset’ described dismissively as “a very small stone building, dedicated to St Kenelm, consisting of one aisle, and having one bell, but containing nothing remarkable.” What is remarkable is the dedication to St Kenelm, a Saxon boy-saint murdered at the age of seven who was venerated throughout England in medieval times and was even mentioned in the Canterbury Tales. There are only seven churches in England dedicated to him. Over the west door of Hinton Parva’s St Kenelm’s is a 12th century sculpture of an angel holding a book to his breast with his right hand, a cross in his left hand and standing next to a giant butterfly. It has been suggested that this is a representation of Kenelm himself. Sadly it cannot be viewed today as the church is locked and abandoned, and parts of the churchyard so overgrown that the monuments beneath have all but been reclaimed by Mother Nature.
http://www.opcdorset.org/HintonParvaFiles/HintonParva.htm


The explore was cool, as we have never been to an abandoned Church before! We are unsure as to how long it has been locked up and abandoned, but it wasn't too much of a struggle to get in. It was nice to see an abandoned place without an awful lot of vandalism, and no graffiti.

The stained glass windows were almost all in perfect order, with the altar and all the church pews still in place. The organ was still in the church, although it didn't work (We had to try it!). The church is quite small, mainly just one room, with a entrance porch, with a little storage room to the side. This had access to the back of the organ. This room was mainly piled high with junk, and almost impossible to get into properly without climbing over old furniture.

The churches spire, although not huge, was pretty cool. We climbed the ladder in the entrance porch, which led us to the first part of the tower. Until we got home and reviewed what we had seen we didn't realize that there was another ladder to actually get into the spire. To be honest I wasnt to bothered by this, as we had managed to get away pretty spider free.

A nice peaceful explore, close to home, and in good condition. You couldn't ask for more! Pictures below!

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The Church from the front, featuring the spire.
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Inside the church.
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One of the stained glass windows.
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The Bible still open on the table.
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The organ was still there!
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Part of the spire tower.
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The fire/log storage for heating the church.

Thank you for reading our report, this is our first however we have many explores on our YouTube channel!

https://www.youtube.com/whatyouafter
 

WhatYouAfter

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice one, but shame about the clickbait title on your video. It's a church, could you please explain what's so CRAZY about it ?
I will admit it is a little clickbait, but it was a crazy explore for us, our first church, and to see it in such good condition was nice... sometimes you have to play with titles to get the videos seen I suppose! Thanks for the feedback!!
 

WS560

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Fascinating, would love to go and see for myself, ive been panning over maps for about an hour now, I just can't locate the bloody thing, I found the area, but can't see the church. Any clues as to where it lies exactly?
 

tigger

mog
Regular User
Fascinating, would love to go and see for myself, ive been panning over maps for about an hour now, I just can't locate the bloody thing, I found the area, but can't see the church. Any clues as to where it lies exactly?

An hour? Really?
Using the name of the dedication and place name from this thread duckduckgo gives plenty of links including an OS map number and grid location in one of the top few results. Took me longer to write this than find the exact location.

821292
 
Last edited:

The Explorer Returns

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Visited today and sadly most had been smashed or destroyed. Ww1 plaques removed, crossed turned upside down and bibles burnt. I’m not religious but found this extremely disrespect
What sick Twats could do that, I’m not religious either but that shit makes me angry.
 

urbandorset

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
yeah it made me sad. Glad I got to go but was disappointed people do that. I understand now why explorers don’t give out a lot of info on other places. An abandoned house nearby had also received the same abuse :-(
Yes, sadly, there are people who trawl these forums looking for places to steal from and trash. That's the problem with naming them, not everyone is honourable.
 

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