Listed Building record MDO4 - Dovecote, Abbotsbury

To the east of the Tithe Barn at the Abbey of St Peter is a stone dovecote which is another relic of the monastery. The dovecote is of a 15th century date with 18th century alterations. It is constructed or rubble-stone with a clay tile roof.

A stone dovecote which is a relic of the monastery. <2>

Pigeon House. Rubble and tiled. Coped gables. Oblong plan. Medieval in origin but repaired and re-roofed in 17th century. <3>

The Pigeon House is a gabled rectangular building of uncertain date, but was much altered in the 17th or 18th centuries. The interior is divided by a cross-wall and is fitted with nests. <4>

A rectangular-shaped, stone-built dovecote with tiled and stone roof and modern attic-type windows. There are two small square doorways with stone surrounds on the north side. The interior could not be inspected. Dates in Source 2 accepted. <6>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1 to 25 inch scale map, 1902 (Map). SDO18020.

Dovecote [GT]

<2> Moule, Rev W S, 1946, Abbotsbury The Church Abbey and Other Points of Interest, 16 (Monograph). SWX1589.

<3> Ministry of Housing and Local Government, 1951, Provisional Historic Houses Record Dorchester Rural District October 1951, p2 (Scheduling record). SDO19777.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 4-8 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(3) ABBOTSBURY ABBEY, remains of church, out-buildings, gatehouses, barn, pigeonhouse, etc., stood mostly to the S. of the church (1). The surviving walls are of local rubble with ashlar and dressings of the same materials. The Abbey was founded by Orc in the time of Edward the Confessor for Benedictine monks. No remains seem to have survived of any building of this period, but there are remains of late 12th-century carved decoration and of architectural features of the 13th century built into walls on the site. The N.E. outbuilding is partly of early 14th-century date and the E. outbuilding was built later in the same century. The Gatehouses are also of the 14th century and the Great Barn of c. 1400. The surviving remains of the church appear to be part of a 15th-century reconstruction of the N. aisle of the nave. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the site was bought by Sir Giles Strangways in 1543, who built or adapted a house out of part of the monastic buildings. This was besieged and largely destroyed in 1644 by the Parliamentary party. Some excavations were made in 1871 and subsequently on part of the site of the church which at that time lay immediately to the S. of the parish churchyard; the churchyard has now been extended over most of the site of the nave. … The Pigeon House, E. of the barn, is a gabled rectangular building of uncertain date and in any case much altered in the 17th or 18th century. The interior is divided by a cross-wall and is fitted with nests. …’

<5> Farrar, R A H, 1952, Archaeological Fieldwork in Dorset in 1952. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 83 (Article in serial). SWX1587.

<6> DOE (HRR), 20 May 1985, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: District of West Dorset amendment 1985 (Scheduling record). SWX2354.

<6> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 23-MAR-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<7> 1997, English Heritage Schedule Entry: Stone Dovecote (Unpublished document). SWX1608.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 2:42PM