Description

ST 40 SW BETTISCOMBE

4/1 Bettiscombe Manor House
with attached south front
area wall and gate-piers
4.12.51

GV II*

Manor House c.1694 and early C18. Possibly C16 core to main range. Brick
walls in Flemish Bond with regular pattern of burnt headers. Ham stone
rusticated quoins. Ham stone ovolo-moulded string-course over ground floor
windows. Slate roof with stone gable-copings and moulded corbels. Brick
stacks with rusticated stone quoins and moulded stone cornices, sited at
gable-ends and on rear-wing gables. U-Plan house: main range with two
back wings. Two storeys with attics. Five window bays, three light wooden
sashes with fluted motif renewed to ground floor. Segmental window-heads.
Ham stone cills. Front door, just left of centre: six-panelled, with fluted
wooden pilaster doorcase, and massive foliated scroll brackets supporting a
Doric entablature and pediment over. East front with one late C17 casement
window. Staircase-window: round-headed with gauged brickwork, projecting
imposts and keystone. Interior: Hall with panelled screen on three elliptical
arches with dropped keys. Ceiling in twelve compartments: six compartments
on right hand with C16 moulded beams with sunk oak-leaf pattern. Low ceiling,
and above beams perhaps indicate C16 core to house. Bolection-moulded, and
recessed panelling of high quality throughout the house, some recently renewed.

Overmantels and fireplace-surrounds. One fireplace with c.1700 glazed tiles
and grate-fittings. Closets, panelled in beside chimney breasts, with original
tables, drawers and shelves. Staircase with fluted newels, with Roman Doric
capitals and faces. Ramped handrail, three fluted balusters per tread, c.1720.
Massive Blue Lias flagstones in Hall.

Attached low brick wall and Ham stone gate-piers, forming small paved area
on south front of house. Early C18. Brick walls with Ham stone copings and
wrought-iron railings over. The square piers with moulded plinths, two
recessed panels to each face, the upper with ogee and round-moulded heads.
Doric cornices with cavetto spur-finials on top.

Source: R.C.H.M. Dorset I, p. 28(2).

Listing NGR: ST4014100322

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17541813

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

• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)