Listed Building record MDO16833 - Godlingston Manor, Washpond Lane, Godlingston, Swanage

An important medieval house, incorporating a circular tower, probably defensive in origin. Purbeck Stone walls and roof with stone chimney stacks.

At a very early period Godlingston became the property and seat of the family of Talbots, who afterwards owned it for several generations. There are considerable remains of an old mansion still standing, the house is low and meanly built of rubble stone with scarcely any ornament, but it's antiquity gives it some interest.
Hutchins tells us there was anciently a chapel here, which in his time made part of it, but if such was the case it has been wholly destroyed. <2>

Now known as Godlingston Manor (a). The front door may be 13th century and the main part of the southern wall, the back (north) is probably 14th century. The oldest part is probably the tower in the west and the latest part is a slight extension on the east which was added in the 17th century. No information was obtained upon the site of the chapel. <3>

SZ 015802. Godlingston Manor, of one storey and attics and two storeys, was built probably circa 1300 on a rectangular plan with a rounded tower at the west end presumably as a defensive place. In the early 17th century the main part of the house was drastically altered and in the mid 18th century a kitchen wing was added to the north. The cross wing was rebuilt after a fire in the late 19th century. <4>

Godlingston Manor incorporates some remains of a semi-fortified stone house of circa 1300. <5>

Listed as a strong house by Cathcart King. <6>

Godlingston Manor (name confirmed in very good condition. <7>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Various, Ordnance Survey Map 6in. Prov. Ed (Map). SWX2257.

(SZ 01498021) Godlingston Farm formerly (NAT) Manor House (NR)

<2> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1861, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 1, 669 (Monograph). SWX4496.

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 09-AUG-52 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3.1> Bowerman, Mrs, Oral: Mrs Bowerman, Godlingston Manor (Verbal communication). SDO19736.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 294-295 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(12) GODLINGSTON MANOR (015802), of one storey and attics and two storeys, was built probably c. 1300 on a rectangular plan with a rounded tower at the W. end (Plate 157), presumably as a defensible place. In the early 17th century the main part of the house was drastically altered: the N. wall was rebuilt and a turret staircase added to provide access to an upper floor then inserted over the hall, and an E. cross wing was built. In the mid 18th century a kitchen wing was added to the N.; this was extended W. later in the same century. In the late 19th century the cross wing was rebuilt after a fire and the mediaeval building was remodelled inside.

The main S. front has a doorway of c. 1300 with chamfered and trefoiled two-centred head and continuous jambs with shaped stops; Hutchins (I, 669) records a similar doorway, without trefoiling, opposite in the N. wall. The square-headed windows with stone mullions are mainly of the early 17th century. The W. tower, of two storeys with a conical roof, is lit through loops; a doorway to the S. has been blocked and the N. doorway inserted or altered. The tower has stone nesting boxes above the level of the former first-floor ceiling.'

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

<6> Cathcart-King, D J, 1983, Castellarium anglicanum: an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands (Monograph). SDO16340.

<7> Wardale, C F, Various, Field Investigators Comments CFW, F2 CFW 13-SEP-85 (Unpublished document). SWX2704.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457560 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 15 2023 8:00AM