Building record MDO46879 - Pulston Barn, Charminster

A barn thought to have been built in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. The building has walls of banded flint and rubble, with later brick additions. The barn is reputed to have been built on the foundations of a chapel of ease known from fifteenth-century documents; no physical evidence has been found to support this.

(SY 66739532). Pulston Barn. "This barn is built on the foundation of Pulston Chapel". "Note. There was formerly A Chapel of Ease, where ye Barn stands in ye meadow". <1>

At Pulston "was formerly a chapel, dedicated to All Saints. In dean Chandler's register it is said to be dependent on the church of Charminster. 1405 Wm. Doke was chaplain, 1411 Wm. Gyffard". <2>

(SY 66729529) The building is still in use. <3>

Pulston Barn (66719530) has walls of banded flint and rubble, with ashlar quoins, subsequently repaired and heightened in brickwork; the roof is tiled. The entrance is in the centre of the N side and a projecting exit bay occurs in the middle of the S side. The structure appears to be of the late C16th or early C17th, but the brick repairs and the roof are of the C19th. Hutchins (II, 546) implies that the building originated as a chapel, but the existing fabric shows nothing to substantiate this. <4>

<1> Historic England, Historic England Archive, Archives Misc P/F 9 p 3 No AO 303 (Index). SDO14738.

<2> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1863, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 2, 546 (Monograph). SWX1269.

<3> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 20-JAN-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 70 (Monograph). SDO146.

'The following monuments, unless otherwise described, are two-storied, with walls of banded rubble and flint, of rough ashlar and flint, or occasionally of plain rubble. Roofs are generally thatched but in some instances modern materials have been substituted.room has recently been brought from elsewhere. There are a number of original stop-chamfered ceiling beams. … (17) Pulston Barn (66719530) has walls of banded flint and rubble, with ashlar quoins, subsequently repaired and heightened in brickwork; the roof is tiled. The entrance is in the centre of the N. side and a projecting exit bay occurs in the middle of the S. side. The structure appears to be of the late 16th or early 17th century, but the brick repairs and the roof are of the 19th century. Hutchins (II, 544) implies that the building originated as a chapel, but the existing fabric shows nothing to substantiate this.'

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452952 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 28 2023 4:28PM