Listed Building record MDO16070 - Abbey House, Horton

A building consisting of an 18th-century brick frontage concealing a timber-framed building built around 1500. This older building may have been part of a monastic cell associated with Sherborne Abbey that it known to have been at Horton. The manor was bought by Sir Anthony Sturt from the Uvedale family at the end of the 17th century, and this house is thought to have been the manor house. It served as the vicarage from 1920 to 1961.

Abbey House (formerly listed as `The Vicarage'). <1>

(6) ABBEY HOUSE (03030739), the Vicarage from 1920 to 1961, is of two storeys and has brick walls and tiled roofs. The history of the house is uncertain. It is said that it was formerly a range of stables associated with the manor house, but if this is true the house has disappeared without trace; it is perhaps more
likely that it was itself the manor house which Sir Anthony Sturt bought from the Uvedales. Edward Gibbon was there in 1762 (Journals, ed. Low, 78) and noted the lake (16) and the tower (7); he says nothing of the house. The symmetrical 18th-century E. front masks a timber-frame structure of c. 1500, probably associated with the monastic cell (SU 00 NW 9). <2>

<1> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 235 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 36-37 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(6) ABBEY HOUSE (03030739), the Vicarage from 1920 to 1961, is of two storeys and has brick walls and tiled roofs. The history of the house is uncertain. It is said that it was formerly a range of stables associated with the manor house, but if this is true the house has disappeared without trace; it is perhaps more likely that it was itself the manor house which Sir Anthony Sturt bought from the Uvedales. Edward Gibbon was there in 1762 (Journals, ed. Low, 78) and noted the late (16) [sic (14)] and the tower (7); he says nothing of the house. The symmetrical 18th-century E. front masks a timber-frame structure of c. 1500, probably associated with the monastic cell mentioned above (1).
The E. front (Plate 50) is approximately symmetrical and of seven bays with the three middle bays set slightly forward to form a two-storeyed pavilion in which a central doorway is flanked by square-headed sashed windows. The brick cornice is capped by a plain parapet. The lateral bays adjacent to the pavilion have sashed windows in two storeys; the terminal bays have single round-headed mezzanine window. Further S. is an asymmetrical bay with an archway, now walled up, with jambs and archivolt of rusticated ashlar. The foundations of a corresponding bay at the N. end of the range have recently been discovered. The W. elevation of the range is single-storeyed and makes no pretence at symmetry.
Inside, the roof of c. 1500 comprises four main bays with a narrow bay at the centre. In the two N. bays oak tie-beam trusses with chamfered and cambered collars support two purlins on each side, with curved windbracing. The two S. bays have similar trusses with three purlins and curved windbracing. In the S. bays the tie-beams rest on and formerly were braced to shouldered wall-posts. The purlins of the S. bays extend across the central bay. There is no sign of smoke-blackening on the roof-timbers.
The mezzanine room on the N. has elegant 18th-century joinery and plasterwork; the other rooms have no noteworthy features.’

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213067 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 11:12AM