Listed Building record MDO9665 - Manor House, known as Abbey House, Witchampton

<1> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset (Monograph). SWX1290.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 106-108 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(3) MANOR HOUSE (98910640), wrongly called the Abbey House (Hutchins III, 478), is of two storeys with attics. The walls are of brick with stone dressings and the roofs are tile-covered, with stone-slate verges (Plate 82).
The S. range is of the early 16th century and retains many original features. Heraldic frets worked in the brickwork and stonework probably relate to the Fitzalans, earls of Arundel, lords of the manor at the beginning of the 16th century; in Hutchins's time the fret was also seen in several windows. The N. range, added after 1860, had details similar to those of the original building, but in 1938 the windows were changed and other alterations were made, resulting in a 'Georgian' N. façade. The service wing on the E. was built in 1914.
The S. range is remarkably well preserved and provides an early example, perhaps the earliest in Dorset, of the use of brickwork in domestic architecture.
Architectural Description—The S. front of the 16th-century range has windows irregularly spaced in four bays. The plinth is of flint and Heathstone rubble with a chamfered ashlar capping. A weathered and hollow-chamfered string-course passes below the first-floor window-sills. The English-bonded brickwork is ornamented with a diaper of blue-bricks and devices worked in brick, including stepped crosses, the letters W and T, and frets. In the lower storey the two S. windows of the dining room, each with two transomed elliptical-headed lights under a label with shield stops, appear to be largely modern. The study (formerly hall) window is original and of three lights with two-centred heads under a label with plain shield stops; the two-light window further W. is similar, but here the label-stops are charged respectively with an heraldic fret and a device showing an oak-leaf with acorns. Immediately beside this two-light window are the remains of a former doorway; the opening has been bricked up and the plinth has been built across the opening, but the stone plinth-jambs remain, as also the segmental brick relieving arch. Over the relieving arch is a square-headed loop with a chamfered stone surround and iron grating; although blocked internally its purpose was evidently to illuminate the former screens-passage. The westernmost opening in the S. front, the S. window of the parlour, is now a doorway, but a drawing of 1860 shows a three-light casement window in this position; of it there survive three roll-moulded and hollow-chamfered two-centred heads in a casement-moulded surround under a label with shield-stops; these features may have been raised slightly in the construction of the doorway. Each shield is charged with a horse rampant before an oak-tree. In the upper storey, the easternmost window is of two lights with two-centred heads under a label with fret and oak-leaf stops as before. Symmetrically placed above the former doorway is a two-light window with restored ogee heads and a label with original shield-stops bearing the letters W and R, probably for William Rolle, rector 1505–21, whose name formerly appeared in a window (Hutchins III, 478). The westernmost window, set somewhat higher than the others in correspondence with the higher floor-level of the parlour chamber, is of three lights with hollow-chamfered, roll-moulded, two-centred heads in a casement-moulded surround under a label with fret and oak-leaf stops.
Above the two middle bays of the S. elevation is a large chimney-stack with weathered offsets and three brick shafts, two set square and one diagonally. The flues serve fireplaces in the former hall, in the hall chamber and in the kitchen chamber; that of the kitchen chamber is an 18th-century addition, but the others are original.
The gabled W. wall has two original ground-floor windows as described; a corresponding two-light window in the parlour chamber does not appear on the drawing of 1860 and presumably comes from elsewhere. The gable has two original square-headed attic windows and, between them, an oblong stone panel with the horse and oak-tree device seen in the label-stops of the parlour window. Above is a chimney-stack of two flues serving original fireplaces in the parlour and parlour chamber.
Inside, the blocked doorway to the former screens-passage now forms a recess with a square head. Chamfers on the beam which marks the E. side of the former screens-passage indicate the position of an original doorway to the hall; elsewhere the beam has mortices for former muntins. Two deeply chamfered beams which spanned the hall remain in situ, but within the study they are concealed by a ceiling; a third beam has gone. The parlour retains heavily moulded oak wall cornices and three of the corresponding beams of a coffered ceiling, originally of nine panels. The fireplace has a richly carved early 17th-century oak overmantel with caryatid figures, arabesques and other decorations in high relief. The dining room, originally the kitchen, has chamfered beams with roll-moulded stops; the fireplace is modern.
On the first floor, the parlour chamber has an original stone fireplace surround with a moulded four-centred head, the mouldings interrupted by square blocks. The hall chamber has a small fireplace with an original stone surround. The chamber above the former kitchen has an 18th-century fireplace set diagonally in the S.W. corner. The original staircase has gone, but a small timber-framed doorway with a chamfered four-centred head, now opening into a wall closet in the N. wall of the original range, may originally have led to a stair turret, removed when the N. range was built; alternatively the original stairs could have occupied a position at the N. end of the screens-passage.
The roof, of six bays, retains original main timbers. The two bays above the parlour have collared tie-beam trusses. The four eastern bays, where the chamber ceilings lie at a lower level than over the parlour, are spanned by three collar-beam trusses raised on wall-braces, leaving room for a spacious attic below the cambered callars. The principals support two purlins on each side, with curved wind-braces.
The brick wall enclosing the garden on S. and W. is largely of the 16th century and includes frets and crosses worked in blue header-bricks.’

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1977 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 98910640) Abbey House (NAT)

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209263 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 4:22PM