SDO15402 - Mappercombe Manor, Powerstock, Dorset. An Architectural and Archaeological Analysis and Impact Assessment Proposals for Alterations

‘Mappercombe Manor is a large and attractive, if rather rambling, stone-built house in the fine countryside of south-west Dorset. The earliest part of the house appears to be a small late-medieval Chapel Block attached to a larger later-17th century South Range, now ‘L-shaped’ and possibly once with other rear wings attached; it once had a central two-storey porch on the south entrance front. Another separate West Range was added at the end of the 17th century, possibly as a result of the division of the property. At the start of the 20th century the two portions were reunited and the house was radically rebuilt. The porch and central stair section of the South Range were demolished and gutted respectively and the West Range was entirely rebuilt behind its façade; all the retained ranges were re-roofed. To the north-east, other buildings were demolished and replaced with a large neo-vernacular North-East Range containing a new entrance and stair at its southern end and services elsewhere. Despite the much altered and fragmentary nature of the building it has been listed Grade I. the house, designed for a family with a large number of live-in servants, is now over-large and inconvenient for a family house at the start of the 21st century. Proposals have been made to improve circulation patterns whilst respecting its historic character.’