Listed Building record MDO28483 - Cedar Court, formerly Johns House, Bournemouth Road, Spetisbury

A two-storey house with attics and basements built in 1716 by Dr Charles Sloper and formerly the rectory. The walls of the building are mainly of brick and it has tiled roofs. Minor alterations were made around 1800 and in the middle of the 19th century. A noted occupant of this house was Thomas Rackett (1757-1841), a distinguished antiquarian and naturalist, who was Rector of Spetisbury from 1781 to 1804.

Johns House, formerly the Rectory, was built in 1716 and is of two storeys with attics and basements, the latter above ground on the north east side. The walls are mainly of brick and the roof is tiled. It is a good and well-documented specimen of early 18th century domestic architecture, with graceful facades and a fine staircase. <1>

Cedar house, formerly Johns House. <2>

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 244 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(3) JOHNS HOUSE, formerly the Rectory, 130 yds. S.E. of the church, is of two storeys with attics and basements, the latter above ground on the N.E. side; the walls are mainly of brick and the roofs are tiled. The house was built in 1716 by Dr. Charles Sloper (Hutchins III, 529). Minor alterations were made c. 1800 by the Rev. Thomas Rackett, and in the middle of the 19th century by the Rev. Henry Vizard. Rackett was a noted naturalist and the garden contains exotic trees that were planted by him.
The house is a good and well-documented specimen of early 18th-century domestic architecture; it has two graceful façades and a fine staircase.
The S.W. front (Plate 197) is two-storied and of five symmetrical bays with the three middle bays slightly projecting and accentuated by a pediment. The windows are sashed and have thin glazing bars and large panes, probably of the early 19th century. The round-headed central doorway has panelled reveals and a decorated fanlight; it is sheltered by a flat hood with a carved wooden frieze and cornice supported on two free-standing Corinthian columns and corresponding pilasters. Above the first-floor windows is a plat-band and a parapet wall with a moulded stone coping. The coping continues at the base of the pediment but is interrupted over the middle bay by a garlanded roundel with a central mask and radial fluting. The falling ground causes the N.E. front (Plate 191) to be three-storied; it is of five bays, but not perfectly symmetrical since the windows to the right of the central openings are narrower than the others, and those of the lowest storey do not exactly correspond with the windows above. The basement storey is of banded brick and flint; it has four square-headed casement windows, each of two leaded lights. On the ground floor, to the left of the centre bay, are two sashed windows of the kind noted on the S.W. front and presumably of the early 19th century; all the other windows are original fittings of the early 18th century, with small panes and thick glazing bars. Every window opening has a recessed apron. At the centre, a little below ground-floor level, is a doorway with an eight-panel door and a flat hood with a Doric entablature supported on free-standing columns. A flight of stone steps with brick parapets leads down from the doorway to the garden. Above the doorway a large staircase window with a segmental head extends over the two upper storeys. Above the first-floor windows is a brick plat-band and a parapet with a moulded stone coping; these features are continuous with those of the S.W. front. The S.E. and N.W. elevations are similar to one another except that the S.E. elevation is of banded brick and flint up to the first floor while the N.W. elevation is wholly of brick; the fenestration is asymmetrical. Each side elevation is dominated by two large chimneystacks, between which the parapet wall is raised higher than the roof ridges to accommodate a 19th-century attic storey. Between the chimneystacks and the front and the back elevations the roof gables are concealed by shaped parapets. The N.W. elevation is partly masked by a late 18th-century single-storied range, containing a brew-house, a coach-house and stables, recently converted into a separate dwelling.
Inside, the hall is paved with flagstones and the walls have a dado of fielded panelling in two heights. Of the two doorways in each side wall that nearest the S.W. entrance is square-headed while the other doorway is crowned by an elliptical tympanum. The open-string staircase is of oak with marquetry decoration. The moulded handrail terminates in a fist-shaped volute over the bottom newel post, which has the form of a Tuscan column (Plate 84). At the landing, where the handrail joins another Tuscan newel post a few inches below its capital, the shaft is enriched with carved scroll-work and foliage, with which the handrail mouldings are continuous. The balusters, two to each step, are square at the top and bottom but in the central zone they are turned and shaped, with tapering octagonal members similar to the balusters of the communion rails at Charlton Marshall (p. 58); no doubt they came from the same workshop, probably Bastard's of Blandford. The wall has a panelled dado.
The drawing-room is panelled from floor to ceiling with bolection-moulded and fielded panelling in two heights, with a heavy wooden ceiling cornice. The doorway has a bold bolection-moulded architrave. In the N.E. wall is a double doorway to the adjacent study; the opening is original but the sliding doors are modern; the fireplace surround is of the mid 19th century. The study has a late 18th-century fireplace. The room in the N. corner of the house has a dado of fielded panels and a large fireplace with 18th-century glazed tiles. The rest of the ground floor has been remodelled and the former dining-room has been converted into service rooms. On the first floor, the chamber in the E. corner of the house has fielded panelling for the full height of its -walls, and a fireplace with a bold bolection-moulded surround.’

<1.1> Shipp, W (ed), 1868, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 3, 529 (Monograph). SWX3207.

<2> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 395 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1978 (Map). SDO17396.

(ST 91040283) Johns House (NAT)

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209668 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 11 2023 8:03PM