Listed Building record MDO3923 - Hanford House, Hanford

A country house built for Sir Robert Seymour between 1604 and 1623, with later alterations and additions. It has stone walls and is roofed with stone-slates; it has two principal storeys with attics and cellars and is planned around a square courtyard, on the model of an Italian palace. A service wing was added in the 18th century, and in the 19th century the interior was remodelled and courtyard roofed over.

ST 84561112 Hanford House (NR) <2>

Hanford House (845111) is set on ground which falls away to S and E to the R Stour, about 1/4m away. The mansion has stone walls and is roofed with stone-slates; it has two principal storeys with attics and cellars and is planned around a square courtyard, on the model of an Italian palace. It was built for Sir Roberty Seymer between 1604 and 1623. In the 18th century a staircase was renewed and a service wing was added on the W. Extensive remodelling of the interior took place in the 19th century, and in 1873 the courtyard was roofed over and a wooden galley was inserted on the N, possibly in place of an earlier one. At the same time the leaded casements were removed from many of the mullioned windows and sashes were substituted.

Hanford House, distinguished as a well-preserved example of an early 17th-century country house, is also of importance for its plan. The Italian idea of a small enclosed courtyard is interpreted in a manner appropriated to a northern climate, large inward-looking windows on the ground and first floors taking the place of the open loggias of the south. The strict symmetry and the slightly ponderous grandeur of this medium-sized house well illustrate the attitude of English architects toward houses for the affluent in the early Jacobean period. <3>

The house is of two storeys with attics. It is built of stone, though it has been faced with stucco on the north west front. The roof is of stone slates.

The house is an E-shaped building with wings to the north west. A further wing between the extremities of the east squares the house while leaving a centre courtyard. This wing is pierced by an archway which opposes the projecting porch of the E-building.

The courtyard is now ceiled, but the original building is in good condition, though there have been some minor modern alterations. Some of the stone mullioned windows and moulded doorways have been renewed. There are modern building additions on the south west side of the house. <1>

Hanford School (formerly Hanford House). <4-5>

<1> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 03-JAN-56 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 102-4, Plan (Monograph). SDO146.

‘(2) Hanford House (845111) is set on ground which falls away to S. and E. to the R. Stour, about ¼ m. away. The mansion has stone walls and is roofed with stone-slates; it has two principal storeys with attics and cellars and is planned around a square courtyard, on the model of an Italian palace. It was built for Sir Robert Seymer between 1604 and 1623. In the 18th century a staircase was renewed and a service wing was added on the W. Extensive remodelling of the interior took place in the 19th century, and in 1873 the courtyard was roofed over and a wooden gallery was inserted on the N., possibly in place of an earlier one. At the same time the leaded casements were removed from many of the mullioned windows and sashes were substituted.

Hanford House, distinguished as a well-preserved example of an early 17th-century country house, is also of importance for its plan. The Italian idea of a small enclosed courtyard is interpreted in a manner appropriate to a northern climate, large inward-looking windows on the ground and first floors taking the place of the open loggias of the south. The strict symmetry and the slightly ponderous grandeur of this mediumsized house well illustrate the attitude of English architects toward houses for the affluent in the early Jacobean period.

The North Front, of fine-jointed ashlar with traces of stucco rendering, presents a symmetrical composition comprising a two-storey, pedimented centrepiece, perhaps, a later 17th-century insertion, and two main flanking bays, all crowned by three equal gables (Plate 135). It has a hollow-chamfered plinth, continuous moulded string-courses at first and second floor levels and a continuous moulded coping to the gables and intervening parapets. All the windows have square heads and hollow-chamfered jambs and mullions. The classical centrepiece contains a round-headed gateway with a rusticated arch springing from moulded imposts and shafted jambs. The archway is flanked by Doric pilasters with an entablature. Superimposed Ionic pilasters on the first floor support a pedimented entablature and flank a transomed two-light window with a moulded architrave and a shaped apron. On the ground floor, transomed three-light windows open to each side of the central archway, and coupled pairs of transomed two-light windows are set axially in the gabled flanking bays. The same arrangement obtains on the first floor, and in each gable is a single four-light window, without transom, under a square label with returned stops. Two lead rainwater heads bear the Stuart royal arms and the date 1623.

The ashlar-faced East Front has string-courses returned from the N. front. The façade is crowned by four gables and at either end is a five-sided projection; that to the N. is central with the N. gable but the S. projection is set asymmetrically under the S. gable. Both projections are of two storeys with cellars and have hollow-chamfered transomed two-light windows in each side on each floor, the alternate windows being blind. Between the terminal projections and under the two central gables each principal storey has three transomed three-light windows, with mouldings as before. Doorways occur between the projections and the adjacent ground-floor windows. The doorway to the N. has a hollow-chamfered four-centred head in a square surround and a hollow-chamfered two-light stone window above it. The original oak door has twelve panels with moulded nail-studded ribs. The corresponding doorway to the S. has been renewed and slightly enlarged but the window above it is original. Each gable has a two-light attic window with a hood-mould and at the apex of each gable is a pair of cylindrical stone chimneys, united by a thin rectangular stone cornice. Of four lead rainwater heads three are embossed with the Seymer crest, a winged cap of estate; they discharge into a horizontal lead gutter decorated at intervals with embossed leopard masks.

The South Front is of coursed rubble; the plinth continues from the E. front but there are no string-courses. The fenestration is less regular than that already described and the windows, with and without transoms, are of two and three lights with moulded labels and returned stops. A doorway with a four-centred head is modern. On the W. side of the house the ground floor is masked by an ashlar-faced 18th-century service wing of one storey. Over this rises the three-gabled West Front, of coursed rubble with many irregularly disposed windows; a projection with a weathered stone roof originally contained garderobes.

The internal Courtyard, now roofed to form a hall, is entered from the N. gateway through a covered carriage-way with finely jointed ashlar walls containing eight paired niches with shell heads. A modern fireplace has been inserted on the E. side of the court, a gallery supported on columns has been added on the N. side and the lower storey has been lined with panelling; all these additions are probably of 1873, but several original windows have been retained. Facing the carriage-way on the S. side of the court is a two-storied Porch (Plate 136) with a hollow-chamfered plinth, and moulded string-courses at first and second floor levels. On the ground floor it has a round-headed archway with a plain keystone and moulded imposts, the mouldings of the head being continued on the jambs to terminate at run-out stops. Flanking the opening, fluted Ionic pilasters support an entablature with a strapwork frieze. Above the cornice and flanked by strapwork scrolls is a moulded square panel containing an achievement-of-arms of Seymer quartering Attwater and Lymbergh (Plate 48); the panel is surmounted by a modillion cornice on which is a couched lion in full relief. On the first floor the porch has a transomed three-light window and above, now hidden by the ceiling, is a gable with a three-light window. On each side of the porch are transomed three-light ground and first-floor windows. Similar windows occur on the other three sides of the court; originally each side probably had three openings on the ground and first floors, and a single attic window in a gable, but many of the windows have been suppressed.

The round-headed doorway from the porch into the South Range has a moulded head and jambs with run-out stops; on the W. jamb is scratched 'Jonathan Bartlett, July 2, 1677'. The nail-studded door has vertical outer planks and horizontal inner planks cut to a round head and hung on iron strap-hinges; the vertical joints are covered with hollow-chamfered ribs. The stairs in the hall to which this doorway leads are of the first half of the 18th century; they have cut strings, moulded and twisted balusters and a moulded handrail with a fist-shaped terminal scroll. In the East Range, the original dog-leg staircase (Plate 82) has square newel posts with reeded decoration; those at the main landings and half-landings have vase-shaped finials while the two intervening newels, where there are quarter-landings, run continuously between the floors, except at the top where they too have vase finials. The handrail is heavily moulded and intersects the close-string, which is decorated with fluting. Heavy turned balusters are spaced one to each tread.

The Drawing-room at the E. end of the N. range is entered from the staircase hall through a mid 18th-century doorway with an eared and moulded architrave surmounted by a pulvinated laurel-leaf frieze and a pediment. The marble fireplace is of the late 18th century and has caryatid pilasters supporting a bacchic frieze. At the W. end, the room has been enlarged by removing the party-wall with the adjoining room and substituting slender cast-iron columns of c. 1870.

On the first floor, the chamber over the drawing-room contains an original carved stone fireplace surround and overmantel (Plate 74). Terminal figures rising from pilasters support an entablature with a heavy strapwork apron; strapwork also appears in the frieze, and the cornice has wave and leaf mouldings. Over this rises a colonnade of small Corinthian columns set in pairs to compose a central aedicule and smaller aedicules at each end; each aedicule contains a shell-headed niche. The two intercolumniations between these features contain half-length figures, in high relief, of soldiers wearing classical armour. The geometrical plaster ceiling (Plate 70) is contemporary; it is decorated with intersecting ribs which converge on pendant bosses, the polygonal panels enclosing conventionalised sprays of foliage. The cornice has a vine-scroll frieze. The adjoining chamber to the W. also has an early 17th-century ceiling with geometrical rib patterns enclosing arabesques, fleurs-de-lis, scrolled cartouches, cherub heads and roundels with male and female heads. The chamber at the centre of the E. range is lined on three sides with mid 17th-century panelling, and on part of the W. side with 18th-century panelling; that of the earlier period is in five heights with a frieze and a cornice and is divided into bays by pilasters. In the S. range a small doorway leading into the room over the porch has a four-centred head and an early 17th-century oak plank door. Stairs to the attics continue the line of the 18th-century S. staircase, but above first-floor level the 17th-century stairs survive; they have close strings and heavy turned balusters.

To the S. of the house a late 18th-century walled garden has a scrolled wrought-iron Gate, perhaps Italian and also of the 18th century.

The Stables to the W. of the house date from the late 16th century and were originally a barn. Above a deep chamfered plinth of ashlar and coursed rubble the walls are of brick with ashlar quoins and dressings; the tiled roofs have stone-slate verges. Wings, perhaps former porches, project E. and W. near the ends of the main range. All openings are modern and much of the brickwork has been renewed.’

<4> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 223-4 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<5> DOE (HHR), Jan 1985, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: District of West Dorset, 20-2 (Scheduling record). SDO19482.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206263 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 20 2023 9:48AM