Listed Building record MDO8942 - Delcombe Manor, Milton Abbas

This house is unoccupied, but it is described as Delcombe Manor on a name board at the drive entrance.

The house is 85.0m long and composed of two main blocks, joined by small gabled buildings. It is of single and double storeys, and the south west front is mostly of alternate bands of flint and stone, in which there are five 2-light windows and one single light window probably 15th or 16th century and the archway with the Milton rebus and date 1515.

The frontage is a sham antiquity. It has been designed and built as a whole and includes ornamental buttresses. Close examination showed that the stone and flint work and the stone buttresses are simply a facing upon brickwork.

The regular and ornamental style, and some probably original windows at the rear of the house suggest that it was constructed in the late 18th century. There is no evidence to show that a building previously existed at the site, and it seems likely that this house was designed to incorporate material from Milton Abbey, when the latter was demolished between 1730 and 1771. <2>

Delcombe Manor. A two-storey building with walls mainly of banded flint and ashlar and tiled roofs, built 1750 with materials form the Medieval Abbey (ST 70 SE 27). It comprises three separate buildings joined by a long screen wall facing south-west; at the north-west end is a room known at the 'chapel'. The screen wall in the centre, forms the south-west front of the Manor House, and has three bays defined by diagonal buttresses. Further to the south-east, Abbot William's rebus and the date 1515, is reset over a doorway in the screen. The cottage at the extreme south-east end, is similar to the Manor House <3>. because of the reused Medieval materials. <3,4>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 79290483) Delcombe Manor

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 23-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 198 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(11) DELCOMBE MANOR (79310482), house, near the N.W. end of the parish and over 1½ m. N. of (1), is two-storied, with walls that are mainly of banded flint and ashlar, and with tiled roofs. The house was built c. 1750 from materials taken from the mediaeval abbey; it comprises three separate buildings united by a long screen wall, facing S.W. At the N.W. end is a building of one room, known as the 'chapel'. Its gabled S.W. wall, forming part of the screen, is defined by diagonal two-stage buttresses; in the centre it has an early 16th-century window of two hollow-chamfered lights with two-centred heads; above is a modern attic window. The side and rear walls of the 'chapel' are of brick. The screen wall on the S.E. of the 'chapel' contains a 15th-century window of one two-centred light with foliate spandrels. Further S.E. the screen forms the S.W. front of the manor house; it is of three bays defined by diagonal weathered buttresses; originally the bays were crowned by a large central gable with smaller gables on each side, but these have now been modified by heightening of the walls; the windows, central doorway and porch are modern. Further S.E. the screen wall contains a trefoiled door-head, probably of the 14th century but recut and reset; adjacent are two reset loop lights, perhaps from a vice turret. Further still to the S.E. the screen is pierced by a doorway with a moulded four-centred head, continuous jambs and quatrefoil spandrels; reset over it is a stone carved with Abbot William's rebus and the date 1515. Next comes the S.E. cottage, which corresponds with the manor house in having three gabled bays defined by diagonal two-stage buttresses; the gables in this case have not been altered; symmetrically disposed in the middle bay are three two-light windows, uniform with that of the 'chapel'. Finally, continuing the same line, a section of the screen wall repeats the gable of the 'chapel', first described. The N.E. front and the side walls of the manor house block are rendered and the openings have been modernised; behind the S.W. screen, the walls of the cottage are of brick and have brick dentil cornices. Inside, the 'chapel' contains a 16th-century fireplace surround with a hollow-chamfered and ogee-moulded four-centred head.’

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201818 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 3 2025 12:18PM