Listed Building record MDO12706 - Ox House, 13 Bimport, Shaftesbury

A two storey house with walls of ashlar and of rubble and tiled roofs. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

Ox House, Shaftesbury, of two storeys with attics and cellars, has walls of ashlar and rubble and dates from the late 16th or early 17th century, although recently modernised. <2>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, 1965 (Map). SDO10373.

(ST 85982292) Ox House (NAT)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 70 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(77) Ox House, of two storeys with attics and cellars, has walls of ashlar and of rubble, and tiled roofs; it is of the late 16th or early 17th century and still retains some original features although recently modernised; the plan is of class T, with a wing at the rear.

The S. front, symmetrical and of three bays, has a chamfered plinth and a weathered and hollow-chamfered first-floor string-course. The porch at the centre is two-storeyed, but the upper storey is probably secondary; the string-course does not continue on the walls of the porch. The windows of the S. front are uniform in both storeys; each now consists of two sashed lights separated by a hollow-chamfered mullion, but it is evident that originally there were four casement lights in each window. The first-floor windows have weathered labels with plain stops. The porch has modern openings in both storeys; a blocked doorway in the E. side may have been the original entrance. The E. and W. walls of the S. range are gabled and at the apex of each gable is an ashlar chimney-stack with a moulded coping. Rubble in the lower part of each E. and W. wall, as opposed to ashlar in the upper part, suggests that originally there were contiguous single-storeyed houses. The N. elevation of the range has stone casement windows with hollow-chamfered surrounds, and a doorway with a moulded four-centred head with continuous jambs. In the E. and W. walls of the N. wing are sashed windows of the late 18th century; adjacent to that on the E. is an original doorway with a moulded four-centred head and continuous jambs. The gabled N. wall of the wing has a two-light stone window on the first floor; in the gable is a similar attic window.

Inside, the doorway within the porch is uniform with that of the N. wing; it has an original door of nail-studded oak planks, divided vertically into two parts, hinged together, and with ornate original wrought-iron fittings. The small inner vestibule has a plank-and-muntin partition with chamfered and beaded muntins; similar partitions separate the staircase from the E. and W. rooms. The kitchen, on the E., has a ceiling beam with ovolo mouldings and a blocked open fireplace with a moulded timber bressummer with a raised centre. The W. room has a similar ceiling beam, resting, at the N. end, on a chamfered and beaded oak post. The oak stairs have closed strings, chamfered and beaded newel-posts with turned finials, turned balusters and moulded handrails. The parlour in the N. wing has a ceiling beam similar to those in the S. range. The stone fireplace surround has a moulded four-centred head and continuous jambs; above is a plain fascia and a moulded stone cornice. The room is lined with early 17th-century oak panelling in five heights, with plain panels, beaded styles and rails, a frieze of carved panels alternating with brackets, and a moulded cornice. On either side of the stone fireplace are fluted oak pilasters with Ionic capitals; the overmantel has panels carved with arabesques alternating with coupled half-columns; at the top of the overmantel is a frieze continuous with that of the wall panelling, but more richly carved.

On the first floor, the partitions generally are of plank-and-muntin construction, chamfered and beaded. The E. chamber has a fireplace with a moulded square-headed stone surround. The chamber in the N. wing has a stone fireplace surround and oak panelling on the walls, both nearly uniform with those of the parlour below. The plaster ceiling has moulded margins and foliate enrichments.

The cellar of the N. wing contains a fireplace. A shallow sinking in the floor may be the blocked opening to a cistern.

(Extensively altered, 1965.)'

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206564 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 3 2022 4:38PM