Monument record MDO3807 - Fifehead House, Fifehead Magdalen

Built in 1807; three storeys, ashlar walls and tiled roofs. Demolished 1964. <2>

There are no visible remains of Fifehead House, the site being covered by a level lawn. <3>

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1900, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch two (Map). SDO11594.

ST 78362162) Fifehead House (NAT)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 20 (Monograph). SDO99.

‘(5) FIFEHEAD HOUSE (78362161), some 50 yds. S.E. of (1), was demolished in 1964; it was of three storeys, with ashlar walls and slate-covered roofs (Plate 44). It was built in 1807 and had a class-U plan. The E. front was symmetrical and of three bays, with large sashed windows in each storey and with an elliptical-headed central doorway sheltered by a portico with four unfluted Corinthian columns and an enriched entablature. The ground-floor windows flanking the doorway were set in shallow segmental-headed recesses. A slender plat-band marked the first floor; an entablature above the second-floor windows had a triglyph frieze and a moulded cornice capped by a low parapet wall; the corners of the façde had rusticated quoins. The N. and S. elevations of the main building were each of three bays, with architectural details as described; the W. elevation was masked by a two-storey service range. Inside, the principal rooms had ceilings with enriched plaster cornices, doorways with moulded and reeded surrounds, and carved marble chimneypieces. The open-string stairs had balustrades with panels of foliate trellis-work in cast lead, set between plain iron uprights; the handrails were of mahogany.’

<3> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 28-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

‘There are no visible remains of Fifehead House, the site being
covered by a level lawn.’

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 202424 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 8:05PM