Listed Building record MDO27598 - Senior's Farmhouse and attached barn, New Street, Marnhull

House, of about 1500 with eighteenth century and later additions and alterations. Built in coursed rubble and ashlar walls with gable-ended, tiled and stone-slated roof. The barn is eighteenth century with rubble walls and a stone-slate roof.

SENIOR'S FARM (78101873), house, 30 yds. W. of the parish church, is two-storied with attics and has walls of squared and coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, and roofs partly of stone-slate and partly tiled. The main E. range (Plate 56) dates from c. 1500 and retains several original features of high quality; the W. Range is of the 18th century. The E. range is of architectural interest for its rich decorative finish, although its original purpose is uncertain. It may perhaps have originated as a manor house for occasional occupation by monks of Glastonbury Abbey, to which the parish formerly belonged; or, being close to the church, it could have been the residence of a well-endowed chantry priest. <2, 3>

(ST 78101873) 'Senior's Farm', name confirmed, remains as described by RCHM <3> and in an excellent state of preservation. <4>

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1900, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch two (Map). SDO11594.

(ST 78101873) Mansion (NR) (Rems of) (NAT)

<2> DOE (HHR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Sturminster RD (Scheduling record). SDO17410.

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 152-3 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(4) SENIOR'S FARM (78101873), house, 30 yds. W. of the parish church, is two-storied with attics and has walls of squared and coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, and roofs partly of stone-slate and partly tiled. The main E. range (Plate 56) dates from c. 1500 and retains several original features of high quality; the W. range is of the 18th century. The E. range is of architectural interest for its rich decorative finish, although its original purpose is uncertain. It may perhaps have originated as a manor house for occasional occupation by monks of Glastonbury Abbey, to which the parish formerly belonged; or, being close to the church, it could have been the residence of a well-endowed chantry priest.
The E. front of the E. range has four bays. On the ground floor at the N. end is a square-headed window of three lights with moulded four-centred heads and continuous jambs, within a casement-moulded surround under a weathered and hollow-chamfered hood-mould. The second bay has a blocked doorway with a small modern casement window in the blocking. The third bay contains the principal doorway, with a pointed ogee-moulded and hollow-chamfered head, continuous jambs and carved leaf spandrels under a roll-moulded, hollow-chamfered and weathered label; the arch has been mutilated to admit a square-headed 18th-century door. Above the label is a plain recess. S. of the doorway is a small blocked window and next to it is a modern window of three lights with details similar to the window first described. On the first floor the two N. bays have uniform square-headed windows of two chamfered and hollow-chamfered square-headed lights with continuous jambs. The windows of the two S. bays are similar to those of the N. bays except that within the square heads each light has a trefoil ogee tracery head with pierced and cusped spandrels; between these two windows is a small trefoil-headed loop.
The gabled N. wall is of rubble with ashlar quoins to about 1½ ft. above the wall-plates; at that level it is traversed by a weathered and hollow-chamfered string-course, above which the gable is of ashlar, with two square-headed attic windows, perhaps modern. On the first floor near the N.W. corner is a square-headed chamfered and hollow-chamfered window of one light with an ogee tracery head and quatrefoil roundels in the spandrels. The S. wall of the E. range has been rebuilt in recent times; on the ground and first floors are moulded single-light windows with four-centred heads and labels. The W. side of the E. range is of three bays, with two square-headed ground-floor windows, each of three lights with four-centred heads, and a doorway with a moulded and pointed head; as on the E. front the head of the doorway has been marred by the insertion of a square-headed 18th-century door. S. of the doorway is a small square-headed light with chamfered head and jambs. On the first floor the N. and middle windows are each of two square-headed lights while the S. window has two similar lights with cusped ogee tracery heads and trefoil-headed pierced spandrels.
The 18th-century W. range has eaves some 2 ft. lower than the N. range. On the N. side is a square-headed doorway with a chamfered timber surround. To the E. of the doorway the wall is splayed to avoid the window at the S. end of the E. range; to the W. is a square-headed three-light casement window with a moulded timber surround and mullions; similar windows occur on the first floor. The S. front has been rebuilt in recent times. Adjoining the W. end and projecting to the S. is an 18th-century barn with rubble walls and a stone-slated roof.
Inside, the ground-floor room at the N. end of the E. range has deep-chamfered wall-plates around the ceiling. In the N. wall is an original stone fireplace surround with a hollow-chamfered four-centred head under a recessed square surround, with roundels and fern-like carving in the spandrels; the jamb mouldings are continuous and end at moulded stops. In the W. wall a doorway with a chamfered four-centred head gives access to a small recess. The S. wall of the room is an original plank-and-muntin partition; each plank is bordered by continuous chamfers on the sides of the muntins and on the underside of the top rail; the chamfers end in broach stops above the sill. The doorway in the partition has a four-centred head. The partition retains some original painted decorations: chevrons on the chamfers, long-stemmed plants on the muntins and scrolled leafwork with pomegranate heads on the planks. Superimposed on this decoration one plank retains a painting of a crowned figure, in an ermine-edged yellow robe, bearing a sword. In the adjacent room the S. face of the same partition has hollow-chamfers and ogee-mouldings in place of chamfers; the doorway is moulded. This room has been reduced in size by the partitioning-off of a passage on the E., with reset oak panelling, but the moulded ceiling beams continue across the passage to the E. wall of the house; between the beams are 16th-century plaster panels with moulded fleurs-de-lis and leaf sprays. On the S. side of the room is an original fireplace surround with stone jambs and a timber head; the jambs are moulded and also have pilasters which correspond with moulded capitals on the head; the fireplace has been reduced in size by the insertion of a second 16th-century surround taken from a first-floor room; it has a moulded four-centred head and continuous jambs. In the W. wall, to the S. of the window, is a shell-headed ashlar niche, probably of the 18th century.
On the first floor, the chamber at the N. end of the E. range has a four-centred fireplace surround with double hollow-chamfered mouldings and run-out stops. The ogee-headed window W. of the fireplace retains, in the quatrefoil spandrels, some fragments of original coloured glass with the letters I.C. The staircase is modern but the first-floor partition on the S. side of the stair-well is original plank-and-muntin work of exceptionally high quality. On the S. face the muntins are moulded; on the N. face they are carved with narrow trefoil-headed panels in two heights, separated by a double band of quatrefoils (Plate 80). The planks are carved with tracery to correspond with the muntins. A doorway in the partition has a chamfered four-centred head and an old plank door hung on iron strap hinges.
The 18th-century W. range has no noteworthy features.’

<4> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 270-1 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<5> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F1 GB 03-AUG-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 202168 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 11:55AM