Listed Building record MDO15996 - Edmondsham House

A house built around 1589. The south east and north west wings were added in the 18th century and the house was extensively remodelled in the 19th century. The building has rendered brick walls with stone dressings and tiled roofs.

Probably built on the site of an earlier house. The owner has deeds going back to 1392. <1>

<1> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 14-MAY-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<1.1> Munro, Cmdr H R, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments: Commander H R Munro, owner of Edmondsham House, 14-MAY-54 (Verbal communication). SDO18331.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SU 06141160) Edmondsham House (NAT)

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 17 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(4) Edmondsham House (06141160), of three storeys and a cellar, has rendered brick walls with stone dressings; the roofs are tiled. The date 1589 on the finials of the middle gable in the S.W. front probably records the completion of the main part of the house. The S.E. and N.W. wings were added early in the 18th century. During the 19th century the principal windows of the 16th-century façade were remodelled and the interior of the house was extensively altered.

The S.W. front (Plate 28) is rendered. At the centre, the symmetrical five-bay façade of the 16th-century house is three-storeyed, with a chamfered plinth and with moulded stringcourses between the storeys. The three projecting bays have curvilinear gables with ball finials. The central porch, of ashlar, has a round-headed opening with a panelled archivolt and jambs with moulded capitals; above is a carved stone cartouche-of-arms of Hussey, with mantling and scroll-work. The windows are of three and four square-headed casement lights, those of the two lower storeys transomed. The stone window surrounds have ogee mouldings and recessed fascias; the sides of the projecting lateral bays have panelled stonework in correspondence with the window lights. Flanking the 16th-century façade on the N.W. and S.E., the end walls of the 18th-century wings are two-storeyed, with curvilinear gables with vase finials, and with large sashed windows in each storey; those of the upper storey are round-headed. Recesses in the gables correspond with the third-storey windows of the original façade. The 18th-century openings have plain architraves, impost-blocks and keystones.

In the two-storeyed N.W. front (Plate 29), the three middle bays form a slightly projecting pavilion defined by a pediment and french quoins; the centre bay of the pavilion is emphasised by rustication; the tympanum has a blind lunette.

The S.E. front, partly masked by later additions, has original fenestration as in the N.W. front, but with no architectural elaboration.

Inside, the 16th-century house has been much altered and its original plan is lost; the former N.E. outer wall is identifiable by its plinth. The staircase on the N.W. is of the 17th century, with stout oak newel-posts with ball finials, plain strings, moulded handrails and turned balusters. A smaller 17th-century staircase has a moulded close string and profiled flat balusters. The rooms were modernised in the 19th century (Hutchins III, 425) and contain no notable features.'

<4> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BF061621 EDMONDSHAM HOUSE, EDMONDSHAM (Index). SDO14738.

File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213705 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:59PM