Dorchester Abbey is a Church of England parish church in Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire, about southeast of Oxford. It was formerly a Norman abbey church and was built on the site of a Saxon cathedral.

History

Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln founded Dorchester Abbey in 1140 for the Arrouaisian Order of Augustinian canons who, unlike most Augustinians, wore white instead of black). Dorchester had been a Roman and was later adopted by the Mercians. It had been the seat of a bishopric from AD 634 when Pope Honorius I had sent Saint Birinus, its first bishop, to that district, until 1085 when the See of Mercia was transferred to Lincoln.

The abbey, founded fifty-five years later, was dedicated in honour of Saints Peter and Paul and Birinus. It was richly endowed out of the lands and tithes of the former bishopric, and had twelve parishes subject to it, being included in the Peculier of Dorchester, until the suppression of peculiers. The first abbot appears to have been Alured, whose name occurs in records from in 1146 and again in 1163. The last was John Mershe, who was elected in 1533, and in the following year subscribed to the king's supremacy, with five of his canons, and was given a pension of £22 a year. The revenues of the abbey were valued at the time of its suppression at about £220. Henry VIII reserved the greater part of the property of the house for a college, erected by him in honour of the Holy Trinity, for a dean and prebendaries; but this was dissolved in the first year of his successor.

No register or cartulary of Dorchester Abbey is now known to exist, and only a single charter, confirming the donation of a church by King John, is given by Dugdale. Edmund Ashefeld was the first impropriator of the abbey site and precincts, which afterwards passed through various hands.

Church

The stately church of Dorchester Abbey, as it stands today, was built entirely by the Augustinian Canons, although there are traces on the north side of Saxon masonry, probably part of the ancient cathedral. The whole length of the church is 230 feet, its width 70 feet and its height 55 feet. The north transept with its doorway is of the Norman period. The north side of the nave and chancel arch, Early English, the choir, south side of nave, south aisle areDecorated Gothic. The south porch is late Perpendicular. The extraordinarily rich sanctuary, with its highly decorated windows (including the famous northern one known as the Jesse Tree window) and beautifully carved sedilia and piscina, dates from 1330. Other fittings include one of the few surviving lead fonts in England, beautiful frescoes of 1340 and several good monuments, especially the well-known 'swaggering knight' effigy (possibly of Sir John Holcombe who died in 1270).

Burials

• Saint Birinus

• Fred Karno

• Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet

Present use

Besides being a parish church, the abbey church is a venue for concerts and cultural events of all kinds. Between 1998 and 2006 the Dorchester Abbey Campaign Committee raised £4,000,000 and this has enabled the Church Council and the Dorchester Abbey Preservation Trust to undertake significant works in the abbey. These include the impressive Cloister Gallery managed by the Dorchester Museum Committee and restoration of medieval and Victorian wall paintings. Dorchester Abbey Museum was longlisted for the Gulbenkian Prize in 2006. The Abbey has an improved heating system and a modern kitchen and servery in the Tower room.

The Abbey is open every day from 8 a.m. until dusk.

Sources