Listed Building record MDO12652 - The Abbey House, Abbey Walk, Shaftesbury

The house dates from the sixteenth century to early seventeenth century, and was more or less rebuilt in the eighteenth century. North-West front of ashlar is of two storeys with basement and attic, the entrance in the eighteenth century was on this side. The present entrance in the south-east front has an early twentieth century castellated stone porch built up over earlier foundations, this incorporates fragments of medieval sculpture possibly from the medieval abbey of Shaftesbury. The foundations of the west end of the Abbey Church lie in the garden. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

(ST 8611 2288) Hotel [NAT]. <1>

Abbey House, ST 8611 2288. Two-storeyed with attic and cellar, has walls of ashlar and squared rubble and slate-covered roofs. It incorporates elements of an early C17th building, but appears to be largely of the C18th and later. <2>

Abbey House. The basement may incorporate remains of Abbey buildings. Grade 2. <3-4>

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1:2500 scale, 1965 (Map). SWX1197.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 71-72 (Monograph). SDO99.

(89) Abbey House, of two storeys with attics and cellars, has walls of ashlar and squared rubble, and slate-covered roofs. It incorporates elements of an early 17th-century building, but in its present state appears to be largely of the 18th century and later. The N. front, originally the entrance front, is of five bays and was formerly symmetrical, with a central doorway and with large sashed windows in both storeys; some of the windows have now been blocked and the former doorway has become a window. The level of the first floor is marked by a plat-band and the top of the façade has a modillion cornice and a parapet. The former E. elevation is masked by a two-storeyed 19th-century extension, polygonal in plan. The S. elevation has a large projecting bay containing the stairs; the lower part probably is of the early 17th century. Further W. is a small 17th-century basement window.

Inside, the W. room of the main range has a modelled plaster ceiling of uncertain date, with four segmental panels surrounding a circular centre panel. The segmental panels are enriched with fruit, flowers and leaves growing out of sinuous tendrils, in the style of the 17th century; the centre panel has an 18th-century flavour. The E. room has an open fireplace with a moulded square-headed stone surround. The staircase is of the early 18th century and has cut strings, scroll spandrels, vase-and-column balusters and column-shaped newel-posts. The plaster ceiling of the staircase hall has a rich cornice with dentil and egg-anddart mouldings.

Built into the walls of the house and garden are numerous carved stones, some probably from the nearby abbey church (1) and others from mediaeval tombs; noteworthy is a late 13th-century stone coffin-lid with a moulded and hollow-chamfered margin, and a raised cross composed of intersecting circles.

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 366 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> DOE (HHR), 1973, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: North Dorset District, 1-2 (Scheduling record). SDO18623.

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 2018, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 2017 (Serial). SDO16469.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 913748 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 27 2023 2:56PM