Listed Building: KINGSTON RUSSELL HOUSE (105242)

SY 58 NE KINGSTON RUSSELL LOWER KINGSTON RUSSELL 3/123 Kingston Russell House 26,1.56 GV I Country House in formal-garden. Late C17 for John Michel III, and early C18 west front remodelled, perhaps by Francis Cartwright of Blandford for John Michel IV. North and south wings built from 1913 by Philip Tilden for George Gribble. North-east wing demolished late C19. Portland ashlar stone walls, with a balustraded stone parapet (C18). Lead roofs. Stone stacks. East front, 2 storeys and cellars, original house is 9 bays wide. Large 2-light mullion windows with double transoms, all hollow-chamfered. Fixed lead lights, and some opening metal casements. Bays 7 and 8 have inserted single-light windows. Moulded cornice over ground and first floor windows. Doorway at centre with moulded stone architrave and large stone volute brackets with foliage feet. Swan-necked open pediment with scroll terminals. 2-leaf door with fielded panels at bottom and fully glazed above, C19. Interrupted fenestration at north end, inserted after east wing demolished. West front: remodelled in 7 bays, with central 3 contained within a giant Ionic pilaster order with entablature and pediment. Round-headed sashes, set deep in wall face, with stone cills on volute brackets. Outer sashes, with glazing-bars, segmental heads with square stone architraves, stone cills, bracketed. Front doorway at centre, with moulded eared architrave, plain frieze and pediment carried on scroll brackets. Fielded-panel doorway, 10 panels. 8 stone steps up to front door with stone sides and fielded- panel corner piers. Ball-finials. Extension to house at north and south end, C20. One bay, though 3 storeys under same parapet level in coursed dressed stone. Sashes with glazing-bars, in ascending order, square-headed, segment-headed and round- headed. Mullion-and-transom on end walls. Canted bay at north end with stone cap, containing 2 storeys. South end wall has a stone-framed doorway with a central volute bracket supporting a cornice. Interior: Single-depth house with rear corridor. Entrance hall totally re-decorated in manner of William Kent, by Mrs Vestey 1939, including fireplace and overmantel, moulded overmantel with swan-necked open pediment and urn at centre. Dining Room with early C19 scenic Chinese wallpaper, installed C20. Rear corridor, with slender reeded pilasters, becoming fronds in stucco under the coving. C18 fielded panelling survives in Drawing Room and upstairs bedrooms. Thomas Masterman Hardy born here in 1759. J L Motley, American Ambassador died here in 1877. (RCHM Dorset I, p.127 (1). A Oswald, Kingston Russell House, in Country Life, November 1951). Listing NGR: SY5719089549

Record last edited

Dec 17 2018 9:50AM