Description

POOLE

SZ0090SE HIGH STREET
958-1/17/64 (North West side)
14/06/54 Old Town House (Scaplens Court
Museum)

GV I

Merchant's house, now museum. Late C15-early C16, NW range
added, and NE range late C16; restored 1986. Coursed Purbeck
rubble incorporating various other stones, some Bath
dressings, later brickwork, and a tiled roof with stone slate
verges. L-shaped plan with left-hand wing, now enclosed round
a quadrangular courtyard.
2 storeys and cellar; 4-bay range. The SE front has two
4-centre-arched doorways to the right, the inner with moulded
surround and the flanking broken ends of a former porch;
right-hand one-light window with chamfered surround and a
one-light window with moulded surround and iron grille; late
C20 left-hand windows with chamfered surrounds and full-height
central canted bay with plate glass and lead-hung first-floor
apron with date of restoration (1986). A passage from the
entrance leads through a 4-centre arch to the courtyard.
The SW range has corbelled eaves, a mullioned window, a W
gable with stepped kneelers and tripartite first-floor C20
window. NW elevation has a 4-window range with sashes in
exposed frames.
The courtyard has on the SW side a shield of arms of Poole
over the doorway inscribed WP 1554, and 1729; across the SE
side is a C20 gallery with steps up to the first floor with a
large external stack, on the NW side a 4-centre-arched doorway
beneath a relieving arch and blocked window and a 3-light
first-floor mullion window, and to the NE side a 4-light
mullion window.
INTERIOR: the original house contains C15 four-centre-arched
fire surrounds to the SE range ground and first floors, and a
good fireplace with a large cambered stone lintel in the SW
ground-floor, and doorways with 4-centre-arched heads to ridge
and batten doors. The SE range has a through passage with a
left-hand hall and right-hand store.
The SW range has a ground-floor parlour with compartmented
ceiling of moulded beams in 9 square bays, the SW room has a
surviving fragment of stud partition with laths and lime
plaster, and a winder stair in the NE end to a C18 cellar; the
roof has principal and secondary trusses with continuous
arched braces to the collars, and 4 purlin registers with
windbraces to each quarter.
NW kitchen range has a late C15 fireplace, and an early C17
first-floor enriched plaster overmantel. C16 NE range has a
blind mullion and transom window to the outer first-floor
wall, and a collar truss roof with chamfered beams.
HISTORICAL NOTE: reputed to have been the former Guildhall,
possibly housed the George Inn in the C17, and was the home of
John Scaplen in the early C18. Developed from an L-shaped plan
into a courtyard plan, and is an outstanding example of a late
medieval quayside merchant's house. Full analysis with plan in
RCHME.
(RCHME: County of Dorset (South East): London: 1970-: 206;
Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Newman J: Dorset: London:
1972-: 306).

Listing NGR: SZ0087990359

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Scaplen's Court at Wikipedia
• Scaplen's Court official website
• Wikidata Q17529350

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)