Description

CHARMINSTER
SY 6792 WOLFETON

13/32 Wolfeton House

20.9.54

GV I

Manor house and attached gatehouse. Gatehouse with date reset 1534. Early
C16 courtyard house, of which only part of one range survives. House
extended to west in later C16. Demolitions in early C19, see RCHM. 1862,
house bought by W H P Weston and his works of restoration and rebuilding
were extensive, including a passage way between the house and gatehouse, and
alterations to the offices to the west. Purbeck rubble stone and ashlar
walls. Stone slate roofs. Stone stacks, both rectangular, and round with
C19 imitation of C16 work. Gatehouse, 2 storey and attics, standing 30
metres east of house, rectangular plan with 2 round towers of different
dimensions. East front, the entrance archway is slightly north of centre.
It has a four centred moulded head and jambs with pedestal base graded in
height to create an illusion of greater recession. Moulded label with
carved stops representing a satyr and woodmouse holding staves. Cartouche
above, early C18. The windows on ground and first floors are of one, two
and three lights with hollow chamfered 4 centred heads with foliate
spandrels, early C16. North and south gable walls have projecting stacks.
On north stack is an inscription panel: HOC OPUS FINITU[M] EST ANNO DNK
MDXXXIIII. For detailed description of gatehouse, RCHM p 65 col 2.
Originally the south range of the quadrangular courtyard house continued
east to join the gatehouse and had a small wing projecting from the free
south east corner. South front of house retains, at its east end, the
surviving part of the C16 south range. South tower of 3 stages, with
strings and an embattled parapet, has a topmost stage of c1862. West
doorway has a restored square moulded head and jambs with pedestal stops.
The tower has 2-light and single light windows, RCHM p 66 col 1. West of
the tower, surviving early C16 walling, to and including small garderobe
tower, 3-light and 2-light mullions to ground floor of high quality carving
in the mouldings, arch-spandrels, labels and stops, early C16. 5-light
window on the first floor with similar detailing. The garderobe immediately
west comprises a small semi-octagonal first floor projection supported on a
rectangular shaft with moulded plinth and capping, moulded corbelling at
sides and small broaches to bring it to the semi-octagon above. The late
C16 block adjoins to the west: 2 storeys, 3 windows, each mullion and
transomed of 4 lights with square heads, moulded jambs and mullions with
moulded pedestal-stops above transoms and sills. A door has been cut in the
east window, comprising two lights and with blockings immediately west of
this. The wall of the east front, north of the south tower is ostensibly
mid C19, with 2 gables, the northern dying into the north east tower. The
3-light mullion and transom windows with labels are C19. The crenellated
north east tower of semi-octagonal form is entirely C19. North front, much
altered and re-faced in C19. To the east the mid C19 screen-wall to the
passageway joins the house to the gatehouse. The north wall of the stair is
late C16, refaced, but retaining over the porch a window of 3 mullion and
transom lights, in a square head with moulded jambs and pedestal stops. The
windows have iron casements with glazing bars. The north porch, mid C19,
ashlar with moulded cornice and crenellated parapet, moulded jambs and
4-centred head, with trefoiled spandrels, label and head stops. Carved
armorial over. 2-leaf plank door, C19. West of this is a range of office
buildings of late C18 and early C19 date, with dressed stone walls and
hipped slate roofs. 2 storeys, 5 windows in total, sashes with thin glazing
bars and stone cills. Gauged stone voussoirs over. One canted bay at left
ground has C19 sashes with thin glazing bars. Door to the left of this has
a round-arched head, b flush-panel door, early C19. South elevation west of
the late C16 range has been much altered and rebuilt and is now largely late
C18, or early C19 except at the west end, where the front has a moulded
plinth, 4-light stone-mullioned window on the ground floor with square head
and label. On the first floor, traces of another blocked window. Interior:
Gatehouse many noteworthy features, RCHM p 67 col 2. Main house extensively
remodelled in later C19, many of the fittings are of that date albeit in
Jacobean styLe. East Drawing Room, ground floor, contains a doorcase and
fireplace surround with overmantel all comprising highly enriched
assemblages of early C17 woodwork from other parts of the house, RCHM p 67
col 1; plates 126 and 127. West Drawing Room, north door is made up of
pieces of C16 and C17 carving. Great staircase, stone, probably restored
C19, but following C16 form. Balustrade with a pierced arcade of round
headed arches supporting a continuous moulded capping, returned along the
first floor landing, terminating in a caryatid. Doorway into former gallery
has a stone surround of late C16, similar to designs at Longleat of c1575.
Gallery, original stone chimneypiece survives, rising to full height of room
in two stages, late C16, full description RCHM and plate 127. This
chimneypiece is similar in design and workmanship to that in Great Chamber
at Montacute. For detailed building history, references to Buckley
Drawings, Walker Engravings, Plans and Plates, essential to refer to: (RCHM
Dorset III p 63(4)ff)

Listing NGR: SY6783392127

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wolfeton House at Wikipedia
• Wolfeton House official website
• Wikidata Q8030008

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey