There had been a substantial number of Roman Catholics in Tisbury since the Reformation,
under the protection of the Arundells of Wardour. It was the largest concentration
in the county and they worshipped at the chapel of All Saints in Wardour Castle.
In 1897 Lady Anne Lucy Arundell gave a site for a church at the lower end of the
High Street and her husband, the 12th Lord Arundell, gave the stone, provided the
parishioners quarried and carted it. Money for the building came from voluntary subscriptions
and gifts, and the foundation stone was laid on 3rd November 1898. It was built as
a chapel of ease for Wardour and was built in a plain Gothic style from a design
by Rev. Canon A.J. Scoles. With a chancel, nave and north Lady Chapel, 200 people
could be accommodated and there is a great richness of interior decoration. In 1934
the house to the south was acquired for use as a presbytery and the church was consecrated
and declared the parish church for the district of Tisbury, remaining a separate
Parish until 1966. From 1934 the church had resident clergy. (‘A HIstory of the Parish
of Tisbury and Wardour’)
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