Listed Building record MDO9552 - West Woodyates Manor, Pentridge

A house which appears to have been built in the 17th century. It is thought to be on the site of the medieval manor house and may incorporate the remains of an earlier building.

"Moated site" (presumably the 18th century ha-ha) at West Woodyates Manor, SU 016195, scheduled as an ancient monument. (4) DOE (IAM) AM Eng 1973 85

National Record of the Historic Environment, 213488 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SU 01631949) West Woodyates Manor and remains of (NAT) Manor House (NR)

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 53-54 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(2) West Woodyates Manor House (01631949), of two storeys with attics and cellars, has flint and rubble walls with ashlar dressings, and tile-covered roofs. The building appears to be of 17th-century origin, but it may incorporate the remains of an earlier structure. The S.E. front was remodelled early in the 18th century, probably under the ownership of Lord Londonderry, a son of the celebrated Governor Pitt (Hutchins III, 608). Further improvements and extensions date from early in the 19th century and from recent times. (Dorset Procs., XLIX (1928), 77–88.)
The 18th-century S.E. front (Plate 29) is rendered. Originally it was symmetrical and of five bays, with a square-headed central doorway with a rusticated ashlar surround. The sashed window over the doorway has a moulded ashlar architrave; the other windows are plain. Small bull's-eye windows flank the ranges of openings in each storey, those on the S. being false. The façade is capped by a moulded wooden cornice and a parapet. The S. corner has a rusticated quoin; doubtless a similar quoin originally marked the E. corner, but it was removed early in the 19th century when the façade was extended on the N.E. An early photograph (N.M.R.) proves that the bow-window in the extension is of later 19th-century date. The S.W. elevation is of flint and has two gables, a chimney-stack with three diagonally-set ashlar flues, and square-headed casement windows with 17th-century moulded stone surrounds. The N.W. elevation has three gables, partly of flint and partly of brick, and casement windows as described.
Inside, the S.W. ground-floor room has a large open fireplace with a chamfered oak bressummer with rounded shoulders and a raised centre; it rests on chamfered stone jambs. The walls of the room are lined with 17th-century oak panelling. A recess beside the fireplace is spanned by a modern stone arch with a reset mediaeval keystone. The chamber above this room has a small fireplace with a moulded stone surround with a rounded head. Another chamber has an 18th-century fireplace with a bolection-moulded stone surround.
A modern extension on the S.W. of the house has, reset in the S.E. wall, a fragment of a 13th-century Purbeck marble coffin-lid with hollow-chamfered edges and with a cross carved on the surface. A small stone coffin, preserved close to the house, is probably also of the 13th century.
An 18th-century range adjacent to the house on the W., formerly Stables, is single-storeyed and has brick walls and tiled roofs. At the centre of the N.E. front is a blocked segmental-headed archway and over this is a pigeon-cote with a round opening. On the roof ridge is an arched wooden bell-cote with a weather-vane.’

Record last edited

Jul 5 2022 4:44PM