Listed Building record MDO3641 - Blynfield Farm, Cann

Farmhouse dated 1812, of two storeys with coursed rubble walls and a twentieth-century interlocking tile roof. A manor house is known to have existed in this place since the fourteenth century. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

Blintesfield (or Blynfield), now a farm, seems to have been a manor of Shaftesbury Abbey; it was granted to Bruton School, Somerset in 1551-52. There was a chapel here in which the vicar of St. James, Shaftesbury was obliged to officiate, but this was pulled down about 1743. <1>

Blynfield Farmhouse dated 1812, with contemporary or later outbuildings, has a slate panel set in the east gable at first floor level bearing the inscription "King Edward VI restorer of Bruton Free Grammer School, to which school belong this farm and manor of Blynfield". <4.1>

Blynfield Farm is no longer the property of Bruton School. The stable building at the north east of the farmyard is supposed to have been the chapel mentioned by Hutchins <4.2>.

As described except there are no visible remains of the chapel; The building referred to by the owner is a modern brick stable which does not seem to contain re-used material from the chapel. <5>

Blynfield Farmhouse of two storeys with coursed rubble walls dates from 1812. <3> <6>

<1> Shipp, W (ed), 1868, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 3, 78-9 (Monograph). SWX3207.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey map 6 inches to 1 mile, 1930 (Map). SDO17328.

(ST 83822187) Blynfield Farm (NAT)

<3> DOE (HHR), List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Shaftesbury RD Addendum, December 1958 (Scheduling record). SDO18675.

<4> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 11-JAN-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4.1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, RCHM Mss file (Unpublished document). SDO18524.

<4.2> Gibbs, Mrs b, Oral: Mrs B Gibbs (owner), Blynfield Farm, Cann (Verbal communication). SDO18676.

<5> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F2 NVQ 23-JAN-56 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<6> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 9 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(1) Blynfield Farm (83832188), house, of two storeys with coursed rubble walls and stone-slated roofs, dates in its present form from 1812 although a manor house has existed in this place since the 14th century (Hutchins III, 78). The house has a class-U plan, with a symmetrical W. front of three bays, with wood-framed casement windows of two and three lights ; the central doorway, however, is now blocked. A date-stone in the N.W. chimneystack is inscribed MW 1821. An undated inscription on a panel of slate fixed to the N. wall records that the manor of Blynfield belonged formerly to the Grammar School of Bruton, Somerset.'

<7> Wapshott, E, Humphreys, C, and Walls, S, 2016, Blynfield Farm, Shaftesbury, Dorset. Statement of Significance (Unpublished document). SDO15628.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206576 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 17 2022 1:04PM