Listed Building record MDO9579 - St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles

17th century or earlier manor house with 18th and 19th century additions and alterations. Has walls of brickwork with ashlar dressings, and roof-coverings of slate and of lead. The building is now mainly two-storeyed with cellars and attics, but the basement storey in the E. block was formerly above ground and its rooms have been made into cellars by the construction of later terraces.

(4) ST. GILES'S HOUSE (03221159) has walls of brickwork with ashlar dressings, and roof-coverings of slate and of lead. The building is now mainly two-storeyed with cellars and attics, but the basement storey in the E. block was formerly above ground and its rooms have been made into cellars by the construction of later terraces. On the death of Sir Anthony Ashley in 1628 the manor of St. Giles passed to his only child Anne, wife of Sir John Cooper of Rockbourne, and on Sir John's death in 1631 to his grandson, Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the statesman and politician who in 1672 was created Earl of Shaftesbury. Sir Anthony greatly enlarged and modernised his maternal grandfather's house. In an autobiographical fragment he records 'On 19 March 1650/1 I laid the first stone of my house at St. Giles' (Christie, First Earl of Shaftesbury, p. lv), and a document of 1654 states that 'Sir A. A Cooper has occasion to carry timber and stone to his building' (Cal. S.P.Dom., 1654, p. 303). Bow windows in the S. front, and dormer-windowed attics (Plate 74). The manor house inherited by the 1st earl appears to be represented by thick walls of neatly coursed red brickwork seen in the lower storey of the central range of the present building (basements of Green Room, Small Dining Room, Ante-room), but not enough is exposed, at present, to allow inference of an original plan. Some 30 yds. N.E. of these walls, in a cellar below the Tapestry Room, a moulded stone doorway of 16th-century origin appears to be another relic of the Ashley house, perhaps of the tower-like building shown in the 1659 sketch. Other remains include fragments of oak panelling now in the library (Plate 35); a 15th-century carved alabaster panel (Plate 73), now in the room below the Green Room, with a shield-of-arms, three bulls passant quartering three talbots passant, recorded at the Heralds' Visitation of 1531 as Ashley quartering Talbot (John Ashley married Edith Talbot temp. Richard II); a roundel of stained glass with the same arms above the inscription 'scutum Henrici Ashley'. Probably of the 16th century; and three square pillars of rusticated ashlar, perhaps of early 17th-century origin, now seen in the basement below the E. end of the library, but evidently not in situ. The old range, shown on the 1659 sketch extending E.-W. between the 1st earl's new building and the watercourse, probably remained standing until the 18th century, when it was removed to make way for the Great Dining Room (Plate 77) erected by Henry Flitcroft for the 4th earl. Flitcroft also worked on a 'New Hall', identifiable as the present Tapestry Room. And on a 'Musick Room next to the Great Dining Room', evidently the present White Hall (account books 1740-4, St. Giles's House muniments). As the S.W. wing appears on Vivares's engraving it must have been built before 1774, but there is no record of the date of building, and at the time of demolition in 1972 no datable features were seen. The obliquity of the wing suggests that it was built on the foundations of some earlier range; on the sketch of 1659, however, the site is shown vacant. In the period 1813-20 the 6th earl employed Thomas Cundy on extensive alterations, for which accounts exist. Among them were the roofing-over of an inner courtyard to form the Stone Hall and the formation of a Library to from the S.; the library extends into the S.W. part of the 1651 building. In 1853 the 7th earl employed P. C. Hardwick to pull down and rebuild the kitchens on the N. of the W. court, and in 1854 Hardwick built Italianate towers over the entrance vestibule and small dining room he also remodelled and heightened the roofs. <4>

The house is the earliest example in Dorset of the style introduced by Inigo Jones. Grade 1. <1>

St Giles House. Grade I. <3, 6>

Corney, M, 2016, St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles, Dorset: Interim results of an archaeological watching brief (Unpublished document). SDO21133.

<1> DOE (HHR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Wimborne and Cranborne RD, 23 (Scheduling record). SDO17339.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SU 03211159) St Giles's House (NR)

<3> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset (Monograph). SWX1290.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 94-5 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘St. Giles's House, the seat of the earls of Shaftesbury, is the principal Monument in the parish. … (4) St. Giles's House (03221159) has walls of brickwork with ashlar dressings, and roof-coverings of slate and of lead. The building is now mainly two-storeyed with cellars and attics, but the basement storey in the E. block was formerly above ground and its rooms have been made into cellars by the construction of later terraces.

The Commission first visited St. Giles's House in 1964 and the accompanying plan and photographs show the house as it then was. Subsequently, in the course of stripping 18th-century cement rendering from the walls, much new information has come to light and continues to come to light at the time of writing (1973); current research in the muniment room is also yielding important results. The description which follows can only be provisional. Many problems remain unresolved.

On the death of Sir Anthony Ashley in 1628 the manor of St. Giles passed to his only child Anne, wife of Sir John Cooper of Rockbourne, and on Sir John's death in 1631 to his grandson, Sir Anthony AshleyCooper, the statesman and politician who in 1672 was created Earl of Shaftesbury. Sir Anthony greatly enlarged and modernised his maternal grandfather's house. In an autobiographical fragment he records 'On 19 March 1650/1 I laid the first stone of my house at St. Giles' (Christie, First Earl of Shaftesbury, p. lv), and a document of 1654 states that 'Sir A. A. Cooper has occasion to carry timber and stone to his building' (Cal. S.P. Dom., 1654, p. 303).

The earliest drawing of the house as yet discovered is a small bird's-eye view from N.E. on an estate map dated 1659 (Plate 82). In it a branch of the R. Allen is seen flowing between two groups of buildings. On the W. bank, a courtyard is defined by W., S. and E. ranges, that on the W. apparently two-storeyed, the others lower. To S. a small building, probably a mill, spans the stream. On the E. bank an ill-defined range, parallel with the stream, seems to be connected with the western courtyard by a bridge. Further E., at right-angles to the ill-defined range, an E.–W. range has a chimney-stack or smoke-louvre on its roof; this range seems to terminate in a tower-like building of three or perhaps four storeys. Further E. again, a large rectangular building is identifiable with the 1st earl's new house, started in 1650/1 and perhaps still under construction in 1659.

An estate map dated 1672, probably by the same draughtsman as that of 1659, shows the house from the E. (Plate 82). The mill is no longer seen. The E. front of the 1st earl's new house, symmetrical and of seven bays, appears much as at present. Behind it, a long range, on the site of the building on the E. bank of the stream in the drawing of 1659, extends N. and S. beyond the ends of the 1651 building. The S. part of this range still exists (Small Dining Room on accompanying plan); the N. part, largely rebuilt in the 19th century to create the N. tower, was demolished in 1973. Further W., the sketch of 1672 appears to show the courtyard on the W. of the stream. Later illustrations include two engravings published by Hutchins (1774 ed., II, opp. 216): a view from S.W. by Thomas Vivares and an E. elevation by B. Pryce of Dorchester. These views date from the third quarter of the 18th century and show that the house was not greatly changed externally between then and 1972, except for the addition of two 19th-century towers, bow windows in the S. front, and dormer-windowed attics (Plate 74).

The manor house inherited by the 1st earl appears to be represented by thick walls of neatly coursed red brickwork seen in the lower storey of the central range of the present building (basements of Green Room, Small Dining Room, Ante-room), but not enough is exposed, at present, to allow inference of an original plan. Some 30 yds. N.E. of these walls, in a cellar below the Tapestry Room, a moulded stone doorway of 16th-century origin appears to be another relic of the Ashley house, perhaps of the tower-like building shown in the 1659 sketch. Other remains include fragments of oak panelling now in the library (Plate 35); a 15th-century carved alabaster panel (Plate 73), now in the room below the Green Room, with a shield-of-arms, three bulls passant quartering three talbots passant, recorded at the Heralds' Visitation of 1531 as Ashley quartering Talbot (John Ashley married Edith Talbot temp. Richard II); a roundel of stained glass with the same arms above the inscription 'scutum Henrici Asheley', probably of the 16th century; and three square pillars of rusticated ashlar, perhaps of early 17th-century origin, now seen in the basement below the E. end of the library, but evidently not in situ.

The old range, shown on the 1659 sketch extending E.–W. between the 1st earl's new building and the watercourse, probably remained standing until the 18th century, when it was removed to make way for the Great Dining Room (Plate 77), erected by Henry Flitcroft for the 4th earl. Flitcroft also worked on a 'New Hall', identifiable as the present Tapestry Room, and on a 'Musick Room next to the Great Dining Room', evidently the present White Hall (account books 1740–4, St. Giles's House muniments).

As the S.W. wing appears on Vivares's engraving it must have been built before 1774, but there is no record of the date of building, and at the time of demolition in 1972 no datable features were seen. The obliquity of the wing suggests that it was built on the foundations of some earlier range; on the sketch of 1659, however, the site is shown vacant.

In the period 1813–20 the 6th earl employed Thomas Cundy on extensive alterations, for which accounts exist. Among them were the roofing-over of an inner courtyard to form the Stone Hall and the formation of a Library to the S.; the library extends into the S.W. part of the 1651 building. In 1853 the 7th earl employed P. C. Hardwick to pull down and rebuild the kitchens on the N. of the W. court, and in 1854 Hardwick built Italianate towers over the entrance vestibule and small dining room; he also remodelled and heightened the roofs (Plate 81).

Architectural Description—The E. front of the 1st earl's new building of 1651 is symmetrical and of seven bays (Plate 74). Originally of finely jointed red brickwork with brick quoins and with stone architraves to the openings, the wall-face was rendered in cement in the time of the 5th earl (1771–1811). The brick quoins appear to have been chamfered and rendered at an earlier period. Former basement windows, obliterated by the E. terrace, are attested by six blind embrasures in the long vaulted cellar below the two drawing rooms; the centre bay having no embrasure suggests that there was originally a flight of steps from the garden to the central opening on the piano nobile. The tall windows of the piano nobile rooms have original keystones, subsequently extended in cement to join a cement plat-band, and shaped cement aprons below the window-sills. The central opening has a stone architrave with a heavy key-stone and scrolled brackets supporting a curvilinear broken pediment within which a blank shield is surmounted by a coronet. The central window of the chamber storey has a rusticated architrave and a multiple keystone; the other chamber windows have details as in the piano nobile. The cement enrichments appear on Vivares's and Pryce's engravings and were perhaps designed by Flitcroft; they are repeated on all the principal elevations. Above the chamber window is a second cement plat-band and a plain parapet wall with a row of ball finials; the latter appear to have been installed in the 19th century to replace the crenellations shown on 18th-century engravings.

The N. front of the E. block (Plate 81) comprises the end of the building of 1651 and the N. side of Flitcroft's range. Above terrace level the joint between the two buildings is masked, but in a narrow passage which extends along the N. front, below the terrace, the brick quoin of the 1651 building is seen. In the same passage are also seen the original basement windows. Those of the 1651 building have moulded stone architraves and keystones; those of Flitcroft's range have similar architraves and also heavily moulded stone window-sills, details which prove that the basement storey was originally a visible part of the façade. In the two upper storeys the details of most of the windows are as described in the E. front, but the easternmost bay of Flitcroft's range has, on the piano nobile, a round-headed doorway in a stone door-case with rusticated pilasters and a Roman-Doric entablature and pediment; above, the chamber storey has a window with scrolled cheek-pieces and a segmental pediment. Evidently Flitcroft made this bay of the N. front into the main entrance. The vaulted substructures of a perron, now concealed by the terrace, are still seen in the basement. Later, when Cundy or Hardwick transferred the main entrance to another position further W., Flitcroft's entrance hall became the Tapestry Room and his principal doorway was converted into a window. At basement level the projecting block of the later entrance vestibule, shown on the 1672 drawing, had 17th-century characteristics, but the cement-rendered superstructure was mainly of 1854.

The S. front (Plate 74) is composed of the S. end of the 1651 building together with the S. side of the range which links that building to the earlier house. Again the basement storey is exposed in a ventilation passage below the terrace while the upper storeys of the façade are masked by later rendering and additions. The basement windows of 1651 have moulded stone architraves, as described above; their upper parts are depicted on Vivares's engraving. The basement windows in the linking range have no architraves, but the former stonework appears to have been removed when these windows were bricked up. Above, in the cement-rendered piano nobile and chamber storeys, 19th-century projecting windows take the place of the two eastern bays of the 1651 façade; the other piano nobile windows are fitted with 19th-century french casements. The chamber windows, string-courses and parapets are uniform with those of the E. front. A rusticated quoin still defines the S.W. corner of the 1651 building; Vivares shows it in his engraving.

The E. and S. walls of the small dining room and the chamber above it appear on the estate-map drawing of 1672, but not on that of 1659. The architectural details of the windows are uniform with those of the E. front. The top storey with its balustraded parapet (Plate 74) was added in 1854.

The S. elevation of the bedroom and ante-room block is symmetrical and of three bays, with basement, piano nobile and chamber storeys; it remains today much as shown on Vivares's engraving except that the central opening in the basement has ceased to be an archway. A short westward extension of the façade, masking the end of the oblique S.W. wing, allows the central opening of the symmetrical façade to fall clear of the adjacent N.—S. wall, which is earlier (see below).

The long S.W. wing of nine bays extending W. from the three-bay projection in an orientation slightly oblique to the rest of the house, demolished in 1972, was of three storeys, the first floor being level with the piano nobile and the ground floor corresponding with the basements elsewhere. In general, the plain sashed windows were uniform and evenly spaced. A projecting bay with traceried windows in the lower storey was formed c. 1900 as part of a domestic chapel designed by Sir Ninian Comper. When the rest of the range was demolished the chapel was allowed to remain. The N. side of the S.W. wing was masked by a 19th-century range.

The E. side of the court has six bays of plain sashed windows in three storeys, the lowest storey corresponding with the basement of the E. block. Although the thickness of the W. wall of the Green Room suggests that it survives from an older range, no building appears in this position on the sketch of 1659. The kitchen wing on the N. side of the courtyard, rebuilt in 1853 and demolished in 1971, had no notable features.

Inside, the basements of the White Hall, Green Room and small dining room have rendered walls and no certain traces of the early house are visible. The room below the ante-room has, on S. and W., brick walls with wide window splays subsequently modified to suit 18th-century openings. It is possible that this basement incorporates the 'mill' shown in the sketch of 1659, but if so the watercourse must have been moved; it now flows in a culvert below a vaulted cellar to the west.

In the basements which lie between the former manor house and the house of 1651, a blocked arch, with ashlar voussoirs spanning some 8 ft, supports the W. part of the S. wall of the Tapestry Room; it may have originated as a gateway in the inner court before the erection of Flitcroft's dining-room range. Although removed on the piano nobile to form Flitcroft's 'New Hall' (Tapestry Room), the northern part of the W. wall of the 1651 building is intact in the basement and it is here, close to the N. front, that the 16th-century stone doorway mentioned before is found. It has a heavily moulded four-centred or 'Tudor' head, under a label with returned stops, and continuous jambs ending in moulded and broached stops. The mouldings are on the W. and the rebate on the E. side.

The basement of the 1st earl's new building of 1651 is divided by the spine-wall into two parts, both with brick barrel-vaults of elliptical cross-section probably inserted during the 18th century. In the area below the library, however, the southern sector of the W. basement has no vault, but beams supporting the library floor. On the N. side of this basement room are three niches with jambs formed of rusticated stone piers, perhaps of the late 16th or early 17th century, but certainly reset. There is some reason to associate this material with a bath room mentioned in a manuscript by the 1st earl (St. Giles's House muniments), directing that 'the three rooms within, and the dineing roome be finished & a bathing roome made under that wch. was intended for the Cabanett & a doore opened out of the Hall into it & that doore into the long greene walk be made up'. The earl's 'dineing roome' was probably one of the two present drawing rooms, since Pryce's view calls the E. façade 'the dining room front'; the 'three roomes within' would therefore be in the W. part of the 1651 building with, presumably, the intended cabinet on the S. and the bathing room below it. Since a door was to be made from the hall into the bathing room, it follows that the earl's 'hall' was in the basement storey. It may have been below the 19th-century main staircase.

On the piano nobile the White Hall (Plate 75), Flitcroft's music room, has 18th-century decoration augmented by later work. The ceiling (Plate 38) is original.

Flitcroft's Great Dining Room (Plate 77) has a coved plaster ceiling rising into the chamber storey. The cornice has a frieze of gilded rinceaux. The doorcases are flanked by pilasters with scrolled brackets supporting broken pediments enclosing busts. The white marble fireplace surround (Plate 37) has foliate swags and scrolled consoles with flower festoons; at the centre is a Bacchic mask. The wooden overmantel has clusters of Corinthian pilasters and half-columns supporting an entablature with a scrolled pediment enclosing a cartouche and festoons of fruit and flowers; at the centre is an oil-painting attributed to Van Dyck. Attached to the walls are six portraits in gilded surrounds with enriched borders. Between the windows are oval mirrors with gilt foliate surrounds and marble-topped console tables with brackets elaborately enriched with festoons.

The Tapestry Room, Flitcroft's 'New Hall', has door-cases with pulvinated laurel-leaf friezes and pediments enclosing baskets of fruit and coronets. The cornice is 19th-century work.

The North Drawing Room, probably the dining room of the 1651 house, has 18th-century joinery and plasterwork, but it retains a stone chimneypiece of c. 1650 (Plate 76) with a moulded and enriched cornice supported on brackets with acanthus leaves; between these are heavy festoons of fruit; the pilasters have lion masks and fruit swags.

The South Drawing Room has 18th-century joinery as in the adjacent room, and a marble chimneypiece of the same period with caryatid figures supporting the cornice. The ceiling, on the other hand, is of c. 1650 and has wreaths of oak and bay-leaves surrounding a central wreath of fruit and flowers (Plate 76). It is comparable with ceilings of c. 1635 formerly in Balmes House, Hackney (Drawings by G. W. Toussaint, Hackney Public Library).

The small lobby in the thickness of the spine-wall, between the S. drawing room and the library, retains the original ceiling cornice with gilded acanthus enrichment. The walls are decorated with 16th-century carved oak panelling, perhaps taken from the former Ashley house, with arabesques and busts in high relief (Plate 35).

The main staircase, with wrought-iron balustrades of plain design, appears to be Cundy's work of c. 1820, as also the Stone Hall in the area of the former courtyard. The hall is two-storeyed, with columned galleries, and has a vaulted plaster ceiling with pendentives supporting a fluted dome above a drum with windows. The stairs in the 1st earl's house probably occupied the same position as at present and, as suggested above, possibly continued down to an entrance hall on the lower level, where now are cellars. Adjacent to Cundy's stairs is a small oak service stair of 17th-century origin, with moulded close strings, square newel posts with carved pendants, turned balusters and stout moulded handrails.

When Cundy created the library he obliterated the earlier rooms of the S. connecting range. Further W., the Green Room, the small dining room, the ante-room and the bed room have 19th-century decorations. The staircase on the N. of the anteroom is probably Cundy's work.

In the storey above the piano nobile several chambers have 18th-century dados with fielded panelling, and ceilings with moulded cornices. A chamber above the S. drawing room has a wooden chimneypiece (Plate 36) of c. 1650, carved to represent hanging drapery. An inserted panel with a painted inscription records that the room was once part of the 3rd earl's library.

Vivares's engraving shows that the roofs were not originally seen behind the crenellated parapets; or if seen that they were low enough to be ignored. The present steep roofs were built by Hardwick to admit the construction of dormer-windowed attic rooms loftier than those of the 17th century. In the area above Cundy's main staircase, however, a small part of the original roof survives. It is of low mansard form, with stout chamfered beams some 6 ft. long rising at a steep pitch from the wall-plate to join similar timbers at a very low pitch which span the interval between the first-named members and the spine wall.

Although Vivares's engraving shows that the recently demolished S.W. wing existed in the 18th century, its rooms contained no notable features. At the time of demolition the remaining fittings were of the late 19th or early 20th century. The chapel is outside the scope of this inventory.’

<5> English Heritage, 1984-1987, Register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in England: Dorset (Monograph). SWX1383.

<6> DOE (HHR), 1986, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Wimborne District, 44 (Scheduling record). SDO18076.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 2K/07949 (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: CHAPEL TO ST GILES HOUSE.

<8> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 2K/08328 (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: ST GILES HOUSE COPY PAINTINGS.

<9> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF112187 (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles.

<10> Cattell, J, and Barson, S, 2003, St Giles's House, Wimborne St Giles, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO16433.

<11> Carter, D, 2011, New Photovoltaic Arrays within the walled garden, St Giles' House, Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. Results of archaeological monitoring. (Unpublished document). SDO12511.

<12> Bailiff, I et al, 2017, St Giles House and the 'Riding House', Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. Scientific Dating and Bayesian Chronological Modelling (Unpublished document). SDO16303.

<13> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213812 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 18 2024 3:06PM