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

• 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

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)