Listed Building record MDO27513 - Church House, Stour Provost

ST 79352157. Church House, Stour Provost, of two storeys with attics, has walls of rubble with ashlar dressings and dates
from the early 17th century with modern additions and restoration. Listed by DOE as "House 30 yds NW of church, on turning to church from west". <1> <2>

<1> DOE (HHR), Oct 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Shaftesbury RD (Scheduling record). SDO17584.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 81 (Monograph). SDO99.

‘(4) CHURCH HOUSE (79352157), some 50 yds. W. of the church, is of two storeys with attics and has walls of rubble with ashlar dressings; the roofs are covered with modern tiles. The house is of the early 17th century with modern additions and restoration.
The W. front is of four bays; the two middle bays have a N.—S. roof and the projecting end bays are gabled. The middle bays and the southern bay have a continuous weathered string-course at first-floor level. The northern bay has a small square-headed loop, probably to light a former stair; a similar loop at first-floor level has been blocked, but is seen internally. Adjacent is a large original chimneybreast, to the S. of which, on each floor, is a modern casement window. The second bay contains the front doorway, with a moulded four-centred head and continuous jambs with run-out stops; above, on the first floor, is an original square-headed stone window of three lights with hollow-chamfered surrounds. The third bay has a four-light window on the ground floor and a three-light window above, both with details as described. The southern bay has a four-light ground-floor window, as described, a window of three lights on the first floor and one of two lights in the gable; the first-floor and the gable windows have moulded labels. The S. elevation is gabled, with a chimney-stack on the apex; on the first floor, immediately W. of the chimneybreast, is a stone window of one square-headed light. The E. elevation has a three-light stone window with a label in the lower storey of the third bay, a similar two-light window in the southern bay and, between them, a square-headed loop; the other E. openings are modern. The N. front has no noteworthy features.
The front doorway opens into a through-passage, to the S. of which is a hall with deeply chamfered ceiling beams intersecting to form nine panels; the open fireplace on the N. has a cambered and chamfered timber bressummer and chamfered stone jambs; on the S. side of the room is a reset plank-and-muntin partition with moulded muntins and top rail. The parlour has 17th-century oak panelling, perhaps reset. The kitchen on the N. of the through-passage, now used as a dining-room, has a large open fireplace with a timber bressummer; beside it is a circular recess, probably for a former newel stair. On the first floor, the S. chamber has a fireplace of c. 1600 with a stone surround with a hollow-chamfered and ovolo-moulded four-centred head, continuous jambs and pedestal stops. The chamber over the hall has a stone fireplace with a chamfered four-centred head.’

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 402 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 202453 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 1:27PM