Listed Building record MDO11276 - 26 Market Place, Blandford Forum

One house divided into two, designed by the Bastards of Blandford, the easternmost part of the building formerly the architects' own house. Built between 1731 and 1750 with a stone ground floor and red brick with stone dressings above.

(ST 88550628) Nos. 26 The Market Place and 75 East Street were originally three houses. No.75 was John Bastard's own house, which he rebuilt for #704 10s. after the fire. No. 26 was two houses, built by Bastard for #420 and leased to Mr. Price, apothecary, and Mr. Morgan, brazier; the ground belonged to William's Charity. These facts are confirmed in the Survey Book: '...the house they lived in, which was the house belonging to Mr. Williamses charoty on the south side the street opposet the church'; and later in the same book: 'Memorandum. Before the fier we had but one of the houses on Williamses charoty land...that on the east side of the gate, where we lived....To incurage us to build the other two houses they gave us a lease for 90 years....'

The three houses almost certainly date from the 1730s. They resemble the nearby Red Lion Inn in having a central carriage-way leading through to a back yard and, in the upper storeys of the N. front, two ornamental pilasters rising above the carriage-way to support an open pediment. Today there are shop fronts on each side of the archway. The W. shop is of the late 19th century; that to the E. is modern. Photographs taken before 1937 show the E. part of the N. front with a rendered ground storey with two sashed windows on the left and, next to the carriage-way, an 18th-century doorway, with pediment, pilasters and panelled reveals. In the upper part of the facade red bricks in Flemish bond are used for the lateral wings while the central feature, between the pilasters, is of blue headers. The ends of the facade have rusticated quoins of painted plaster. The Corinthian caps of the two pilasters have a single tier of acanthus leaves and up-growing corner volutes, in-turned and joined together by delicately moulded, individually designed swags of fruit and flowers. The rear of the building has no formal design; most of the window openings have segmental brick heads and the walls are capped by brick dentil cornices. The carriage-way, about 21 ft. long, leads to an irregular yard flanked by the rear wings of the building. <1>

No 26 Market Place with No 73 East Street, grade 1. The easternmost part of the building was formerly the home of the Bastards (shown on OS 1:2500 1971 as Nos 26 and 28 Market Place, and No 73 East Street). <2>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 31 (Monograph). SDO146.

<2> DOE (HHR), 1973, DOE (HHR) Blandford Forum RD Dorset September 1973, 34 (Scheduling record). SDO17703.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205520 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 24 2022 1:59PM