SDO11335 - Corfe Castle, Uvedales House. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

'Before advertising for tenants at 15 East Street, part of Uvedales House, Corfe Castle, The National Trust carried out an evaluation of the significance of the building and commissioned a historic building survey, documentary research and dendrochronological analysis.' The house is named after the Uvedale family who owned the building in the 16th century. The house was probably built on a medieval site. Hutchins mentioned decorated glass in the windows during the 18th century, removed by the 19th century. The house passed to the Okeden family in 1598 and had become the Kings Arms pub by 1723. In 1796 it was recommened that the building be converted to the use of the poor with up to 11 households there in 1861. Today there are only four dwellings of which number 15 lies at the centre. The building is arranged into an L-shaped plan, although it may originally have been T-shaped building with numbers 17 and 21 fronting on to the road and containing the original hall, and numbers 15 and 11 behind. Number 15 contains a large blocked fireplace in the west wall of the ground floor which may have formed part of the original kitchen, although tree ring samples in this room failed to provide reliable dates. Blocked doorways suggest that this was the 16th century service range with kitchen and doors giving access to the pantry and buttery and hall. The first floor is reached by a later set of stairs relating to the poor house conversion. This room contained a stone fireplace of 16th-17th century date. A further 16th century staircase may have led to the second floor where the rooms have 18th and 19th century detail. This room had been blocked off in the late 19th or early 20th century prior to which it had been occupied as part of the poor house. The roof structure was carefully recorded and appeared to be late medieval or Tudor in style. However, tree ring dating showed it to have been built in 1656, possibly reconstructed follwing civil war damage. Other parts of the roof were rebuilt during the 18th and 19th centuries, possibly during the change of use from the Kings Arms to Poor House. The detailed historic building analysis was carried out by Philip Brebner and the Oxford Dendrochronolgy lab carried out the tree ring dating.