Listed Building record MDO9051 - Muston Manor, Muston, Winterborne Kingston

A house built in the late seventeenth century. The central part of the house is the oldest part and there are additions to each side; these are probably of eighteenth-century date. The building has brick walls and a thatched roof.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2 (Monograph). SDO136.

'(5) House (87359708), about 200 yds. E. of the foregoing, is of one storey with an attic and has brick walls and a thatched roof. The central part of the range appears to be of the late 17th century; the additions to E. and W. are probably of the 18th century.

The S. front (Plate 58) is symmetrical and of five bays; the middle bay, containing the doorway, has a projecting two-storied five-sided porch, probably of the 18th century and perhaps inspired by that of Anderson (2) which stands only 1 m. to the E.; it has a round-headed archway with a projecting keystone and impost blocks, and in the upper storey it has a small stone window of one elliptical-headed light with recessed spandrels and a weathered, hollow-chamfered hood-mould. The windows of the adjacent bays have plain wooden casements with shallow segmental brick heads; the additional bays to E. and W. are set a few inches back from the original façade and have similar but slightly larger windows.

Inside, the ground plan of the original range comprised only two rooms; one has a large open fireplace, the other had a smaller fireplace, now blocked up. The E. and W. additions are each of one room. Throughout the house the rooms are decorated with a richness that is exceptional for a rural dwelling. On the ground floor, the room to the W. of the entrance is lined from floor to ceiling with fielded panelling in two heights, with a moulded cornice and a moulded dado rail. The room in the W. extension has a panelled dado with a moulded rail, and a ceiling cornice enriched with acanthus ornament, egg-and-dart mouldings and a hollow-chamfer; the added room at the E. end on the ground-floor has a panelled dado. In the attic storey the E. bedroom is lined from floor to ceiling with two heights of fielded panelling. The two bedrooms of the original range have similar panelling, with moulded cornices; the ceilings are coved and segmental in cross-section. In the W. attic the floor-level is higher than elsewhere.'

<2> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 481 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 888163 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 18 2023 8:27AM