Listed Building record MDO14036 - Abbey Dairy House, Church Street, Abbotsbury

Monastic gatehouse, now private house. Late fourteenth century, converted and extended in seventeenth century at rear and extended to north in nineteenth century. Ashlar stone walls, with ashlar buttress at left hand corner, and on end wall. Rubble blocking of seventeenth century to the main 4- centred gateway. Slate roofs with stone gable-copings to the main range.

Dairy House. A blocked up archway in front of the house has given rise to the suggestion that here was a gatehouse leading to the pasture and gardens at the back known as Broad Gardens. The south gable end of the house is of the same date as the west gable of the Barn. <1>

Additonal Reference) <2>

The Inner Gatehouse of the abbey stands on the west side of the roadway and is now adapted as a house. It appears to be of the 14th century and is a rectangular building gabled to the north and south. The gatehouse itself occupied the south part with the porter's lodge to the north. the east face retains a number of original features, but a 17th century wing blocks the west archway. <4>

Known as Abbey Dairy House. Description in Authy 1 correct. The east front has a large blocked up archway and a small window which retains some tracery. See ground photograph. The west wing conceals the archway on that side. <5>

Abbey Dairy. This house incorporates one of the Abbey gatehouses of early 15th century date with 17th century west wing and 18th century addition on north. The main archway with smaller doorway are visible on east but now blocked. Coped gables. Stone and brick stacks. A two-light medieval window on east. <6>

<1> Moule, Rev W S, 1946, Abbotsbury The Church Abbey and Other Points of Interest, 21 (Monograph). SWX1589.

<2> Oliver, V, Undated, Miscellaneous Notes Undated (V Oliver) (Box File DCM) (Unpublished document). SWX1588.

<3> DOE (HRR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Dorchester Rural District 1951 (Scheduling record). SWX2329.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 7 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(3) ABBOTSBURY ABBEY, remains of church, out-buildings, gatehouses, barn, pigeonhouse, etc., stood mostly to the S. of the church (1). The surviving walls are of local rubble with ashlar and dressings of the same materials. The Abbey was founded by Orc in the time of Edward the Confessor for Benedictine monks. No remains seem to have survived of any building of this period, but there are remains of late 12th-century carved decoration and of architectural features of the 13th century built into walls on the site. The N.E. outbuilding is partly of early 14th-century date and the E. outbuilding was built later in the same century. The Gatehouses are also of the 14th century and the Great Barn of c. 1400. The surviving remains of the church appear to be part of a 15th-century reconstruction of the N. aisle of the nave. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the site was bought by Sir Giles Strangways in 1543, who built or adapted a house out of part of the monastic buildings. This was besieged and largely destroyed in 1644 by the Parliamentary party. Some excavations were made in 1871 and subsequently on part of the site of the church which at that time lay immediately to the S. of the parish churchyard; the churchyard has now been extended over most of the site of the nave. … The Precinct of the abbey was entered by an Outer and Inner Gatehouse, the former to the W. of the site of the abbey-church and the latter some 80 yards further S. The Outer Gatehouse stood across the road but is now reduced to fragments on both sides (Plate 62). It is perhaps of the 14th century. Of the outer archway the W. jamb and springing of the main segmental arch survive; within it is the springer of the arch of the small side doorway, the head of which was two-centred; the foundation of the opposite respond of the main arch survives on the E. side of the roadway. The N. wall extends W. of this opening for about 17ft. and terminates in a diagonal buttress. The inner archway of the gatehouse is represented by the lower part of its E. chamfered jamb, the interval between the two arches being about 8½ ft.

The Inner Gatehouse (Plate 62) stands on the W. side of the roadway and is now adapted as a house and a 17th century wing now blocks the W. archway. It appears to be of the 14th century and is a rectangular building gabled to the N. and S. The gatehouse itself occupied the S. part with the porter's lodge to the N. The S. wall has three buttresses, the angle ones of two stages and the middle buttress carried up higher. The W. face was formerly divided into two bays by buttresses; in the S. bay is a wide archway with the springers of a chamfered segmental arch; it is now blocked and covered by the added wing. The E. face has a main and subsidiary doorway both with chamfered jambs and four-centred head and the larger one now blocked; further N. are remains of a mediæval doorway, enlarged and altered. On the first floor are two windows, one original and of two trefoiled ogee lights in a square head with a label; the other has a four-centred head and is now blocked. The position of this gatehouse is unusual, the face with the main and subsidiary entrances being towards the abbey-buildings. The Precinct Wall of the abbey is perhaps represented by two stretches on the E. and W. sides of the site. The former runs N. and S. about 80 yards E. of the E. outbuilding; it is partly built of ashlar. The western stretch is represented by a substantial rubble wall on the E. side of Chapel Lane and Rope Walk; this wall returns eastwards at the N. end of the large meadow (Broad Garden) forming the W. part of the site. … ‘

<5> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 22/03/1955 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<5.1> Hutchings, C D, Oral: C D Hutchings, Clerk of Works, Strangways Estates Ltd, Abbotsbury (Verbal communication). SDO19778.

<6> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F2 JR 15/04/1955 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AO/55/88/6 (7) (Index). SDO14738.

Dairy House 17th cent and remains of 14th cent Gatehouse from SE.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450441 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 2:40PM