Listed Building record MDO23162 - John of Gaunt's Kitchen, Canford School, Canford Magna

The kitchen block of former medieval manor house, of fifteenth-century date but incorporating fourteenth-century work, altered in the early sixteenth century when sub-divided horizontally, and restored in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1938 (Map). SWX1540.

John O'Gaunt's Kitchen (NR)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 209-210 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘(30) CANFORD MANOR (Plates 137, 156), immediately E. of Canford church, stands on the site of a building referred to in 1221 when it was owned by William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury. The only mediaeval part now remaining is the kitchen wing ('John of Gaunt's kitchen') which dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. According to Hutchins other outbuildings also survived until 1765; these lay immediately N. and E. of the kitchen. The house, which in the 18th century stood to the S., was a gabled structure probably dating from 1611 when the Webb family became owners of the property. This house was completely rebuilt in 1825–36 for the Hon. W. F. Spencer Ponsonby, afterwards Lord de Mauley, who had married the heiress to the Webb property in 1814. The architect for the new work was Edward Blore who designed a larger mansion in the mid-Tudor style, some parts of which remain, particularly in the S. and E. fronts of the present building. In 1846 the property passed by sale to Sir Josiah John Guest, and the following year he called in Charles Barry to make considerable alterations and extensions to the house; much of the present building is of this period. … Architectural Description—The Kitchen Wing (82 ft. by 20 ft. internally) is a single-storey building (Plate 137) with walls of coursed and squared limestone rubble with carstone at head and base, and with ashlar chimneystacks and a tiled roof with a verge of stone slates to the S. The S. wall has a moulded external cornice with 15th-century grotesques. The building is divided into two unequal rooms by a large double chimney-stack in addition to which each room also has a fireplace and chimney-stack in the N. wall. The building was heightened and a first floor inserted in the 16th century, but the floor was later removed. The E. wall, which formed part of an earlier building to the E., is 14th-century and has diagonal buttresses to N. and S., the former now largely cut away. In the middle of the wall is an original doorway, now opening outwards, with a two-centred head in two orders, the outer order chamfered, the inner moulded, and a segmental-pointed rear arch. N. of the doorway at a higher level is a later blocked opening, and, at the top of the wall, a 14th-century window facing W. with ogee trefoiled head and chamfered jambs. The N. wall of the E. room has at the E. end a 15th-century doorway, now converted to a cupboard, with four-centred head, continuously moulded jambs with shaped stops and four-centred rear arch; above it is a 16th-century two-light mullioned and transomed window rebated for shutters. W. of this is a 15th-century fireplace with moulded segmental-pointed head, projecting external chimneybreast and a stack, rebuilt in the early 16th century, with a rectangular shaft and a plain rectangular opening at the top of each face, with moulded and embattled capping. In the S. wall of the E. room are two two-light 16th-century windows originally similar to that in the N. wall but with sills deepened at a later date. The W. wall has a 15th-century fireplace with a moulded segmental-pointed head rounded on to the jambs; S. of this is a contemporary doorway with moulded four-centred head leading to the W. room and above it a rough modern opening. The roof of this room is in two bays with wind-braces and a tie-beam roof-truss with arch-braced collar beam.
The western room is approached from the E. through a vaulted passage to the S. of the fireplace; the passage has a single-light window in the S. wall and at the W. end a four-centred arch. Above the passage is an upper chamber probably of the 16th century entered from the W. through a doorway with four-centred head; in the N. wall is a chamfered square-headed recess with an old lead pipe embedded in the walling and opening out of the bottom of the recess. At a height of about 10 ft. a slight set-back in the wall face marks the line of the former roof.
N. of the passage in the E. wall of the W. room is a fireplace with segmental-pointed head. On the N. side of the fireplace at first-floor level is a small vaulted chamber entered from the W. through a doorway with four-centred head; the chamber is lit by a small square-headed window in the N. wall. The N. wall of the W. room has a fireplace 20 ft. wide with segmental-pointed head; to the W. is a doorway with four-centred head, continuously moulded jambs, and segmental-pointed rear arch, and at the W. end is a 16th-century three-light window above which is a contemporary transomed window of two lights. The S. wall has two two-light windows similar to those in the E. room and W. of them a blocked doorway with segmental-pointed rear arch. At the W. end of the wall at first-floor level is the E. jamb of a blocked 16th-century doorway. In the W. wall is a doorway with four-centred rear arch. The roof of the W. room (Plate 123) is in four bays with a narrow fifth bay at the W. end, with wind-braces and four 15th century roof-trusses with collars and tie beams, and wall posts springing from stone corbels.
About 30 yds. N.E. of the kitchen is a mediaeval drain outflow in the river bank. This is about 3 ft. high and has a two-centred arch. The drain extends about 20 yds. S. and terminates in a blocked round-headed doorway. …’

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1346206 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 14 2025 4:07PM