Listed Building: THORNHILL HOUSE (102372)

ST 71 SW STALBRIDGE THORNHILL Thornhill House 3/57 4.10.60 II* Country House, c1730, with late C18 and C19 alterations. For the painter Thornhill, probably by himself. Rendered with ashlar dressings, hipped stone slate roof. 2 storeys and attic. North facade: 'Palladian', symmetrical, 1:3:1. All windows are wooden sashes with glazing bars. Central 3 bays project slightly and have rusticated quoins and a pediment. The central doorway has a rusticated surround with a large keystone. Above is a flat entablature supported on consoles. The central bay on the first floor has a large round headed window flanked by Doric pilasters supporting a moulded archivolt with keystone. Bays 2 and 4 have swags of drapery above the upper floor windows. There are rectangular panels above the upper floor windows in bays 1 and 5 and the pediment contains a bull's eye window. The eaves are overhanging and have a moulded cornice. The east facade is of 7 bays with ashlar quoins and a projecting C19 central bay, which is of squared dressed stone. 1:2:1:2:1. Bays 1, 4 and 7 project from the façade presenting hipped gables to the front. At ground floor level bays 1 and 7 have wooden sashes with glazing bars under segmental arches with stone labels. Bays 2, 3, 5 and 6 have C19 'Tudor perpendicular' 3-light stone mullioned windows with hollow chamfers. On the first floor all windows except bays 4 and 5 have wooden sashes with glazing bars in moulded ashlar surrounds with square stone labels. Bay 5 has a C20 casement window with no glazing bars. The central bay has a mullioned and transomed ashlar stone window with horizontal glazing bars in a moulded ashlar surround with a square label. Above each bay is a C19 hipped dormer with 3-light wooden casements with glazing bars. The central double plank door is set under a 4-centred ashlar arch and has moulded ashlar surrounds and a square label. Internally the house is much altered, the staircase and stair hall being additions. The first floor library has a c1730 wooden fireplace with caryatid jambs possibly designed by Thornhill himself. Some rooms have moulded skirtings, dado rails and cornices and there are some late C 18 features including a door and fireplaces. 'RCHM, Dorset, Vol III', HMSO, 1970, p249-50, no.3. Listing NGR: ST7405814936

Record last edited

Nov 27 2008 11:40AM