Listed Building record MDO13746 - Fontmell Parva House, Child Okeford

A country house thought to have been built by by Edward St Loe of Knighton, who was buried in Child Okeford in 1686. The house was bought by the Bower family in 1864. The house was enlarged in the nineteenth century, but the original building can be seen in the middle of the east front.

<1> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1870, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 4 (Monograph). SDO17392.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey map 1:10,560, 1962 (Map). SDO18658.

(ST 82701454) Fontmell Parva (NAT)

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 80 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(2) Fontmell Parva House (82701454) stands in a park 1¼ m. N. of the church. It is of brick with ashlar dressings and has two main storeys with basements and attics. The original parts of the roof are stone-slated with lead ridges. The house was probably built by Edward St. Loe of Knighton, who was buried in Child Okeford in 1686, (and not by his grandson, as stated in Hutchins IV, 80); it remained with his descendants until 1864 when it was bought by the Bower family. In the 19th century the house was enlarged to N., W. and S., but the original structure is seen in the five middle bays of the E. front (Plate 54).

The original façade is a pleasing example of Restoration architecture, probably of c. 1665; the original ground-floor rooms contain 18th-century panelling, partly of mahogany.

The centre bay of the E. front projects to form a two-storied porch, now crowned with a gabled attic window but originally hip-roofed. The basement storey is of coursed rubble capped by a chamfered ashlar plinth. Above, the walls are of small bricks laid in English bond, with stone quoins; a stone plat-band marks the level of the first floor and the eaves have a moulded stone cornice surmounted by a deep plaster cove. The cove formerly crossed the middle bay but was cut away when the gable was built, after 1864, as corbel-stones bearing the Bower crest indicate. The doorway, approached by a flight of stone steps flanked by parapets with ball finials, has a moulded stone architrave with a pulvinated frieze and a steep broken pediment; the central cartouche is of 1864 or later. The basement is lit by square-headed two-light hollow-chamfered mullioned windows which occur in the sides of the porch as well as on the four flanking bays of the E. front. The ground and first floors have two two-light windows on either side of the porch, with moulded ashlar architraves, central keystones and grooved and hollow-chamfered mullions; in both storeys the sides of the porch are pierced by small bull's-eye windows with moulded brick surrounds. A large brick chimney-stack at the centre of the roof ridge has the sides decorated with arcaded panels of brickwork. On all sides other than the E. front the walls of the original house are concealed by the 19th-century additions.

Inside, the front doorway leads into a small vestibule, bounded to N. and S. by the side walls of the porch and to the W. by a panelled niche (Plate 79). Doors to N. and S. open into the hall and dining room. Hall, vestibule and dining room are lined with 18th-century panelling in which stiles, rails and cornices are of oak while the fielded panels, except in the dining room, are of Honduras mahogany which is supposed to have been imported by Admiral Edward St. Loe (d. 1729). The bedrooms over these rooms have 17th-century oak panelling.

The garden to the W. of the house is walled in brick, except on the E. side where there is an ornamental wrought-iron railing with a central gate embellished with the St. Loe arms (Plate 62).'

<4> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 154-5 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206295 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 21 2022 5:10PM