Listed Building record MDO43254 - The Pitchmarket, 3 Abbey Street, Cerne Abbas

A timber-framed house jettied at the first floor. Built in the early sixteenth century with an 18th-century addition to the rear. One of a row of former abbey tenements, now private houses. The building has walls of knapped flint and dressed stone walls, to cill level. Box- framed timbering (woodwork exposed), with plasterwork covering wattle-and-daub and a stone slate roof. Examination of some of the interior features suggests an even earlier date of construction.

"Barnwells" and No 7 (not No 3 - Authority 1) have Georgian refenestration and the half-timbering is obscured by plaster. "Abbey Cottage" and "The Pitchmarket" are outstanding for retaining most of their original features and the timberwork is exceptional. The row of cottages have stone flag roofs with renewed brick chimneys. The group is centred at ST 66570122. Cottage names verified by nameplates. (4)

Keble, Nicholas, 1976, Report on Abbey Street, Cerne Abbas, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO21187.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West) (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(2) Cerne Abbey, remains … Much of the materials of the abbey has been reused in various houses in the village. Amongst these the most important are the 15th-century remains, perhaps of a reredos, with elaborate vaulted canopy work and pedestals; these stones are built into the wall W. of the New Inn, into the W. front of the house, Barnwells, in Abbey Street (Monument 5) and preserved in the same house. Other fragments of various dates are to be found in the yard of the New Inn (mainly 13th-century), on the first floor of a house in Long Street 60 yards S. of the church and in the modern entrance gateway to the churchyard. In the house Barnwells are some mediæval slip-tiles with conventional foliage and shields vair and fretty.’

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 80 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(5) RANGE of HOUSES (Plates 102, 104) on the W. side of Abbey Street is of two storeys; the walls are of stone and timber-framing and the roofs are covered with stone slates. The whole range was built c. 1500, the individual tenements being separated by stone partywalls with elaborately moulded corbelling at the level of the projecting upper storey; the two tenements between Nos. 1 and 2 have been pulled down, but the party-walls survive; other tenements have been considerably altered. No. 1 retains its timber-framed and plastered front with its projecting upper storey. No. 2 (Barnwells), formerly the Nag's Head Inn, has a similar front to No. 1, but has curved brackets under the first floor projection. It has 18th-century alterations including the bay-window, the staircase and the entry. Inside the building are two original fireplaces with four-centred heads and some plank-partitions. No. 3 is similar, but has no curved brackets to the overhang. Inside the building are exposed ceiling-beams, some plankpartitions and the roof retains a curved wind-brace. No. 4 has the timber-framing of the front exposed; the stone-corbelling between this and No. 3 has carved paterae, the initial B and blank shields. Inside the building are some original moulded ceiling-beams and a fireplace with a heavy chamfered lintel. No. 5 has a front similar to No. 4; the doorway has an original moulded ogee head with blind tracery above including two quatrefoils enclosing flowers; there was a similar door-head to the passage between this and the next house, but it has been destroyed except the head-beam. The windows retain some original work. Inside the building are two original fireplaces.’

<3> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF034114 1 ABBEY STREET, CERNE ABBAS (Index). SDO14738.

<4> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 15-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199113 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 514407 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 19 2024 1:45PM