Front entrance All Saints Church

This is the front porch entrance to the church of All Saints in West Parley, Dorset in Bournemouth. It is a Grade II listed building.

West Parley is much older than Bournemouthi, and has deeper roots than most of the settlements in South East Dorset. West Parley figures in the Domesday Book (1086) when it had some 60 inhabitants. At that time it had a Saxon Church, replaced by the present All Saints Church in the 12th century.

The porch dates back to the 14th Century and was restored in 1900. Note the interesting carving over the entrance.

The doorway, barely seen here is possibly Saxon.

The sun bleached gates appealed to me.

While I find wandering around ancient (and modern) gravestones intensely sad, I could not help reading one particularly imposing, granite memorial to Mary Ecclesia Chudleigh (born 1795) and family. Daughter of a vicar, married to a vicar, her son was a vicar and her middle name is so appropriate.