Listed Building record MDO13957 - Stepleton House, Iwerne Stepleton

A country house built in the early to mid-seventeenth century with later alterations of late seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century date. Pavilions on each side were added in the eighteenth century. The building has walls of Greensand and limestone ashlar and a stone slate roof with brick chimney stacks. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

(ST 86331129) Stepleton House (NR) <1>

Stepleton House, has ashlar walls of Greensand and limestone, and stone-slated roofs with lead ridges. A rectangular central block of two main storeys with basement and attics is symmetrically flanked to E. and W. by smaller two-storied pavilions, isolated but joined to the main block by linking passages of one storey. In conformity with the fall of the land the W. pavilion has also a basement storey, and on the W. front of the main block the basement stands wholly above ground. The central block dates substantially from the first quarter of the 17th century. It is nearly square in plan and originally had a small central courtyard; the main entrance was probably on the E. From 1654 to 1745 the house belonged to the Fownes family who made numerous improvements, including the transfer of the main entrance from the E.front to the S.front, and the building of pedimented central features on those two fronts. In 1745 Julines Beckford acquired the house and soon afterwards the courtyard was roofed over to accomodate a new staircase and vestibule. The flanking pavilions appear to have been built in 1758, the date inscribed with Beckford's crest on the lead rainwater heads. Although of two periods, the house in its present form is a harmonious and well-proportioned example of English domestic architecture. <2>

Stepleton House. Grade I. <4>

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

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 132-135 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(2) Stepleton House (86331129), 50 yds. N.E. of the church, has ashlar walls of Greensand and limestone, and stone-slated roofs with lead ridges (Plate 148). A rectangular central block of two main storeys with basement ant attics is symmetrically flanked to E. and W. by smaller two-storeyed pavilions, isolated but joined to the main block by linking passages of one storey. In conformity with the fall of the land the W. pavilion also has a basement storey, and on the W. front of the main block the basement stands wholly above ground. The central block dates substantially from the first quarter of the 17th century. It is nearly square in plan and originally had a small central courtyard; the main entrance was probably on the E. From 1654 to 1745 the house belonged to the Fownes family who made numerous improvements, including the transfer of the main entrance from the E. front to the S. front, and the building of pedimented central features on those two fronts. In 1745 Julines Beckford acquired the house and soon afterwards the courtyard was roofed over to accommodate a new staircase and vestibule. The flanking pavilions appear to have been built in 1758, the date inscribed with Beckford’s crest on the lead rainwater heads.

Although of two periods, the house in its present form is a harmonious and wel-proportioned example of English domestic architecture. The 17th-century building is of interest when compared with Hanford House (p. 102), which is nearly contemporary and similar in ground-plan; the cylindrical chimneystacks also find parallels at Hanford...'

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 240-41 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> DOE (HHR), 1985, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: North Dorset District, January 1985, 58-9 (Scheduling record). SDO17732.

<5> English Heritage, 1984-1987, Register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in England: Dorset (Monograph). SWX1383.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206125 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 14 2022 1:25PM