Listed Building record MDO10336 - HIGHER MELCOMBE HOUSE

A country house and attached chapel. The house is possibly 15th century in origin, though with 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century additions and alterations. The chapel is 17th century in date. Listed. 8th-9th century cross-shaft fragment.

(3) Higher Melcombe (74950240), house, nearly 1 1/2m W of the parish church, is of one and two storeys with attics and cellars. The walls are of banded flint and ashlar; the roofs are slate-covered, with stone-slate verges. Early in the 16th century the property came to the Horsey family by the marriage of John Horsey with Elizabeth Turges; about a century later it passed to the Frekes of Iwerne Courtney. Coker (p81) states that the house was built "in our fathers' days by Sir John Horsey" but as there were three successive generations of Sir Johns between 1531 and 1589 this is not as explicit as it might be nevertheless a large part of the building does indeed appear to be of the mid-16th century. On the other hand, the great thickness of two walls at the S end of the W range suggests the presence of an earlier building, which might be of the 15th century.

In the early part of the 17th century Sir Thomas Freke built the chapel in the N range (Plate 159), as his tomb at Iwerne Courtney (see p 127) attests: 'this church he built at his sole charges, as also the chapel of ease at Melcombe'; Sir Thomas died in 1633. In Hutchins's time the chapel was still a place of worship (lst ed., 1774, II, 425) but later in the 18th century it was divided into two storeys and became a brew-house and a storeroom (3rd ed., IV, 367). The upper floor has now been removed and the building has become a hall.

A drawing of the house from the SE made in 1828 by J Buckler (BM Add MS 36361, f 151), shows the house very much as it is today, but with an attic storey to the W range. Sir Thomas Freke's chapel, illustrating the continuity of Mediaeval forms in the 17th century is of considerable architectural interest.

Preserved in the house is a fragment of 10th or 11th - century Cross Shaft with coarse two-strand interlace work on two opposed faces; the third side is smooth; the fourth side is broken. The fragment, only 6 ins high, is said to have been recovered about twenty-five years ago from a demolished cottage, 300 yds W of the house. Other fragments were also found but are now lost. <2>

Originally a courtyard house dating from 1500 but now much altered. Graded I for Chapel and interior. <3>

ST 74930240 Melcombe Horsey (NR) Chapel (NR). <4>

ST 74930240 Higher Melcombe (name verified), is as described by RCHM <2>.

Locally, an outstanding building; well maintained. The former chapel now serves as an ancillary structure. <5>

Higher Melcombe House, with attached chapel. <6>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

ST 74930239) Higher Melcombe

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 168-170 (Monograph). SDO136.

<3> DOE (HHR), 1951, DOE (HHR) Dorchester 1951, 37 (Scheduling record). SDO17460.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1900, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch two (Map). SDO11594.

<5> Stone, J W, Field Investigators Comments JWS, F1 JWS 06-DEC-78 (Unpublished document). SDO11902.

<6> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 281 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OS55/203/2 (Index). SDO14738.

HIGHER MELCOMBE HOUSE. 14THC WINDOW FROM NORTH EAST.:Photographer: UNKNOWN.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 202073 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 27 2022 1:43PM