Description

POOLE

SZ0398 CANFORD MAGNA, Canford Magna
958-1/9/223 (East side (off))
14/06/54 Nineveh Court, attached carriage
arch and screen wall, Canford School
(Formerly Listed as:
MAGNA ROAD
Canford School)
(Formerly Listed as:
Canford Manor)

GV I

Sculpture gallery, now school tuck shop. 1851, altered C20. By
Sir Charles Barry. White brick in Flemish bond with Portland
limestone dressings and Westmorland slate roof. Greek cross
plan with porch continuing entrance arm.
Single storey. Tall pointed entrance archway to S with
hoodmould and many-moulded head dying into plain chamfered
jambs. Pointed-arched sunk panel to gable above inscribed
THESE SCULPTURES/ WERE BROUGHT FROM/ NINEVEH/ AND PRESENTED TO
SIR JOHN GUEST BART/ BY THEIR DISCOVERER/ HENRY LAYARD/ IN THE
YEAR MDCCLI. Entrance, formerly open, is now glazed.
Chamfered and moulded doorway to right (E) side elevation with
Tudor-arched head. Other 3 arms of cruciform building each
have 3-light window to gable end with pointed heads and
Perpendicular-style tracery. Stone-coped gables with kneelers
and gable finials and angle buttresses, except to arm facing
service court, which is flanked by lower single-storey
extensions with chamfered stone mullion and transom windows
and battlemented parapet.
Rear left corner of building is joined to NE angle of John of
Gaunt's Kitchen (qv) by carriage arch to service court, in
wall with battlemented parapet, stepped up over archway.
Carriage arch has hollow-chamfered and wave-moulded 4-centred
head, and double-leaf cast-iron gates.
Service court is hidden from garden to S by 9-bay screen wall
of limestone ashlar, extending from front left corner of
Nineveh Court to house (qv Canford School) with 1-bay return
at that end. Screen originally formed garden front of the new
conservatory, subsequently dismantled and its site added to
service court. Wall is designed in manner of Perpendicular
cloister walk with a 3-light window to each bay, now blind,
with 4-centred head, Perpendicular-style tracery and
hoodmould. Central cinquefoil-headed light now forms niche,
outer blank lights are sub-divided by mullion and transom and
have pierced quatrefoils to head; pierced trefoils to
spandrels either side of central light. Stone bench below each
blank window between buttresses which define bays. Diagonal
pinnacles on buttresses, with crocketed finials, punctuate
openwork balustrade, which has pierced trefoils, small blank
shields to string course below and prominent moulded stone
coping.
INTERIOR: porch has tiled floor with Islamic-style patterns to
tiled borders and blocked doorway to former conservatory with
Tudor-arched head. Tall double-leaf cast-iron gates lead to
former gallery incorporating Assyrian motifs including bulls
with bearded human heads and pointed arched overthrow with
winged bulls kneeling either side of Assyrian symbol.
Former gallery has boarded roof with painted decoration and
central square blank opening to crossing, formerly a skylight,
removed in subsequent re-roofing. Patterned stained-glass
windows.
Before the sale of Canford Manor in 1923 the building housed
an important series of Assyrian reliefs excavated at Nimrod by
Sir Henry Layard and presented by him to Sir John Guest, his
father-in-law. The reliefs were sold 1932 and 1959 and are now
mostly in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. One Assyrian bas
relief was discovered in 1994 and sold at Auction at
Christies.
A postcard of Canford House postmarked Feb 17 1906 records the
appearance of the original central lantern turret over
crossing skylight. This was square and had 2 stages. The
bottom stage had 4 tall thin windows with pointed heads to
each side and pinnacles. The upper stage has 2 similar smaller
windows to each side and more pinnacles.
(National Monuments Record: Postcards Collection).

Listing NGR: SZ0341498941

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q96240087

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

• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas