Listed Building record MDO1121 - Folke Manor House, Folke

A two-storey building with walls of stone rubble and slate-covered roofs. The building has an L-shaped plan; the east wing was built late in the 15th or early 16th century, and the south wing added early in the 17th century. At the same time, the east wing was altered, so the external features of the house are of 17th-century or later date.

An L-shaped manor house built of rubble with slated roofs. The east wing is later 15th or early 16th century and the south wing is 17th century. In a field north east of the house is a small round moat enclosing an island about 25 m in diameter. Some ponds and banks suggest an earlier manorial site. <1>

'Folke Manor House', name confirmed by the owner, Commander Mitchell, a large plain-looking farmhouse built of rubble with stone dressings. Grey slate roofs and brick-built chimneys are modern. Interior fittings confirm the datings by RCHM <1>. In fair condition but not outstanding.

A disturbed area, ST 65971331, in the pasture field, east of the house, is known according to the owner, as "The Old Manorial Site" and comprises some low, lynchet-like banks and some shapeless mounds, probably the site of a building and out- building, though no building material is visible. Immediately to the north is a circuled waterfilled moat-like feature, 40.0m across, with an island 28.0m in diameter, and east of it, two ponds, one 30.0 m long, 6.0 to 8.0 m wide, the other, 48.0 m long and 8.0m wide. They have more the appearance of old waterfilled pits than of constructed fish ponds.

Enclosing the above features is an old boundary bank on the north, 5.0 m wide, 0.8 m high which is broken through in many places by cattle tracks, and on the east, a trackway 6.0 m wide with banks, 3.0 to 5.0 m wide, 0.7 m to 1.2 m high, which turns south-westwards to enclose the Medieval church of St Lawrence. <5>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 111-112 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(2) Folke Manor House (Plate 118), immediately W. of the church, is of two storeys with attics; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. The general plan of the house is L-shaped with the wings extending towards the E. and S. The E. wing was built late in the 15th or early in the 16th century. The S. wing with its porch and staircase was built early in the 17th century and at the same period the W. end of the E. wing was rebuilt and a low N.E. wing added. This last has been heightened. The external features of the house are nearly all of 17th-century or later date; the windows are of one, two or three lights and most of the larger windows are transomed. The reset doorway on the E. front has a four-centred head and above it is a late 15th-century window of two pointed lights removed from the older E. wing. The porch, on this side, has a round-headed doorway in the S. wall with a carved keystone. At the S. end of the S. wing is a doorway with a four-centred head and a two-storeyed bay window; the upper window has three transomed lights on the face and one on each return; the lower window has been altered. Inside the building, the Hall in the S. wing has a 17th-century fireplace with moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head; in the S.W. angle are two doorways with oak frames and triangular heads. The drawing-room, to the S., is lined with 17th-century panelling and has a fireplace of the same period; this has moulded jambs and flat four-centred arch in a square head and is flanked by fluted stone pilasters supporting a continuous entablature. The room over has a smaller but similar fireplace and there are fireplaces with four-centred heads in other rooms. The 17th-century staircase (Plate 119) has heavy turned balusters, moulded hand-rails and square newels carried up as round posts. The E. wing would appear to have formed the late medieval house. On the ground floor the middle part of the ceiling is rather higher than the rest and presumably represents the hall; the ceiling-beams are moulded and form sixteen panels. The slightly lower eastern part of the wing seems to have been the solar and also has moulded beams, that between the two portions has carved paterae towards the former hall and no doubt formed the head-beam of the partition. The corresponding beam on the W. of the former hall is moulded towards the W. and chamfered towards the E.; this end was presumably the kitchen and a partition is probably that at the back of the former screens; beyond this the beams are chamfered; a doorway in the partition has a flat triangular head and is fitted with an old door. The roof retains five original trusses with curved braces under the collars; there are curved wind-braces to the purlins.

In a field, N.E. of the house, is a small round Moat enclosing an island about 25 yards in diameter. Some ponds and banks suggest that this was a manorial site before the present one.'

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

ST 65921329 Folke Manor House (NR)

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 206 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> Upton, K L, 1978, The Moated Sites of Dorset, 19 (Unpublished document). SDO14051.

<5> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 24-NOV-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199521 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 17 2022 4:24PM