WAR MEMORIAL LANTERN

The wrought iron lantern and supporting arch over the entrance gates on the north side of the churchyard is the Memorial to those who gave their lives for their King and Country in the Great War of 1914-1918 and bears the following inscription:

“1914-1918 – SIT MORTUORUM PIETAS LUCERNA VIVIS”

“Let the devotion of those who died be a lantern unto the living”

The Gallery was erected in 1635, as the date carved on the front shows. It was originally designed for the accommodation of an increased number of worshippers but has for a long time served the purpose of a minstrel’s or musician’s gallery. The choir still occupy the Gallery.

The church organ is a two-manual organ built by Messrs Hele & Co of Plymouth and was erected in 1906.

There is a brass plaque on the organ which reads:

In Treasured and Loving Memory of

KENNETH ARTHUR TOWNSEND

Organist and Choirmaster 1951-60

The Balanced Swell Pedal Was Added

To This Organ in 1964

By His Wife, Father and Relatives

Above: 15th century ceiling

Right. A wall mural

The Font

Just in front of the gallery, on the south side stands the Norman Font, which is an unusual beaker shape with its adornment of a trellis of vine leaves. For seven and a half centuries the children of Puddletown have been baptised in this same font.

The font was sealed up by order of the Pope Innocent III, in 1209, when he laid England under an Interdict.

Affectionate Remembrance of

JAMES LEGG

Who Died At Puddletown

May 19^th 1877

Aged 60 Years

 FAR FROM THIS WORLD OF TOIL AND STRIFE

HE IS PRESENT WITH THE LORD

THE LABOURS OF HIS MORTAL LIFE

END IN A RICH REWARD

Also

JANE His Beloved Wife

Who Died October 2 1893

Aged 73

Here lies an alabaster effigy of Sir William Martyn, Knight Bachelor, resting upon an altar tomb, beneath a canopy of Purbeck stone.

His will, dated 1503, gave directions that his body should be buried ‘ in the Chapel of S Mary Magdalene at Pydelton in a place prepared for that end’