Welcome to St. Mary Magdalene's, Fifehead Magdalen
Welcome to St. Mary Magdalene Church, Fifehead Magdalen, Dorset. Local or visitor, we hope you find the information you seek here. You will be welcome at any of our services (see below for upcoming services) and other events, whether or not you are a regular church goer, and irrespective of whether you are a committed Christian or enquirer. (Although St. Mary Magdalene’s is a Church of England Church, you don’t have to be a member of the C of E to worship with us).
See our Safeguarding page for full Safeguarding information, or click here for our Safeguarding policy.
Life Events
The Parish Church of Fifehead Magdalen is here for all who live in the parish and may be able to help others with connections to the village too. If you are looking to arrange a baptism or wedding, or if you are interested in being confirmed, please contact the Benefice Administrator who will be happy to provide the information you need.
Funerals are usually arranged by the Funeral Director, but we do have more information about church funerals on our Funerals page to help you think about what you would like.
Visiting Us
The map of the Benefice on the Home Page shows the location of Fifehead Magdalen Church. There is some parking alongside the churchyard. Our church is usually open during the day, for those seeking a quiet space to prayer and reflect, or to look around the building.
The Church of St. Mary Magdalene,
Fifehead Magdalen,
Dorset,
SP8 5RT.
Services & Celebrations
Giving
It is wonderful to be able to worship where God has been praised since Saxon times, and in a building with beautiful stained glass to inspire us, and a Norman font to remind us of former generations.
However, an old building also brings a not-insignificant task of maintenance, and we are constantly having to raise money. If you would like to make a donation please contact our Churchwarden or donate directly by clicking the donate button below.
St. Mary Magdalene’s Church & Churchyard
Our church is small but full of character. We are lucky that it was restored and reordered early in the twentieth century rather than the nineteenth, by which time more sensitivity was shown to retaining as much as possible of the structure and character of the old building as well as monuments, features and fittings. Thus we have a building largely dating from the fourteenth century, with artifacts to remind us of those who have worshipped here in the intervening centuries.
The churchyard is also of interest – not just for the gravestones and “cross”, but also for its being a small haven for wildlife. We have in the past been awarded the Bishop’s Prize in the Dorset Nature in Churchyards competition.
If your ancestors came from here this page may help you (nb we don’t hold old parish registers in the church – they are in the County Record Office)
St. Mary Magdalene's historic sculpture
I wonder how many people in the Benefice know that one of our churches houses a magnificent sculpture by a renowned English sculptor and monumental mason of the 18th century who has numerous pieces of work in Westminster Abbey and the V. & A.?
This is the case in Fifehead Magdalen where Sir Henry Cheere, sometime between 1747 and 1763, was responsible for the Newman monument – a huge monument consisting of three well executed busts of Sir Richard, Sir Samwell (his son) and Lady Newman (his wife). Beneath them are three female heads in high relief of white statuary marble of his daughters Frances and Barbara Newman and Elizabeth Kitchen. The monument was placed on the north wall of a funereal chapel (just to the left of the altar) built to cover the Newman family vault.