Listed Building record MDO704 - Guest House, Cerne Abbey, Cerne Abbas

Later fifteenth century Guest House, probably under abbot John Vanne (1458-70). Built of knapped flint and dressed stone walls (limestone), with mainly Ham stone quoins. Twentieth century stone slate roof.

Guset House of Cerne Abbey. Later C15th, probably under Abbot John Vanne. Knapped flint and dressed stone walls (limestone) with mainly Ham stone quoins. Renewed C20th slate roof supported by crucks. <1>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 77-80 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(2) Cerne Abbey, remains, porch, outbuildings and earthworks at the N. end of the village. Apart from the legendary visit of St. Augustine to Cerne there is evidence of the existence of a monastery here in the latter part of the 9th century. It was refounded on the Benedictine model by Ethelmaer, Earl of Cornwall, c. 987 and dedicated to St. Mary, St. Peter and St. Benedict. It was dissolved in 1539 when the revenue amounted to £575.17.10¼ a year. The main block of the conventual buildings was destroyed at an early date and no record survives of the former dimensions or appearance of the church and claustral buildings.
The Church seems to have stood on the eastern part of the present graveyard where portions of tile-pavement have from time to time come to light. On the S. side is the well traditionally connected with the visit of St. Augustine. It forms a rectangular pool with a late masonry enclosure and set up on its W. side are two 17th or 18th-century stone supports of a former bench or table. Bounding the well on the E. and N. are rubble walls of mediæval date and now reduced to the core only except that in the angle a portion of the facing survives. It has been conjectured that these walls formed the angle between the nave and S. transept of the abbey-church. There is evidence that the church was rebuilt in the 12th century but little or no recognisable material of this date survives. A Purbeck marble effigy of an abbot, found on the site and dating from the early part of the 13th century, is preserved in the Farnham Museum, Dorset. The Cloister and main conventual buildings must have occupied the flat ground to the N. of the churchyard, but no trace, even of foundation-mounds, survives on the site.
The surviving buildings of the abbey consist of the porch to the Abbot's Hall, a building called the Guest House to the S. and a barn or outbuilding to the N. … The ‘Guest House’ stands on the N. side of the graveyard at its W. end. It is of two storeys and was built in the 15th century. It has been suggested that this was the earlier Abbot's Lodging. The building was presumably done by Abbot John Vanne (1458–70) whose initials appear on a fireplace removed from the building and now in the Abbey Farm. The gabled W. wall is faced with alternate courses of knapped flint and stone. It has a doorway of c. 1500 with moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head with foliage-spandrels and a label; N. of it is a 15th-century window of two trefoiled lights in a square head; on the first floor is a 15th-century window of two pointed lights with tracery in a two-centred head. The N. wall retains the E. side of a 15th-century doorway with a two-centred head; set partly in the blocking is a later 15th-century window of two cinque-foiled lights in a square head with a label and returned stops; further W. is a 15th-century window of two trefoiled lights. Towards the E. end of the wall are the remains of three original windows. Near the middle of the wall on the first floor is a 15th-century oriel-window, restored and reset; each of the three faces has a window of two trefoiled and transomed lights; the oriel rests on moulded corbelling and has buttresses at the angles; on either side of the oriel are two windows, all four originally similar to one window of the oriel, but mostly lacking the mullion and transom. The S. wall formerly extended further to the E. and in the broken end is the jamb of a former window. Inside the building is a large inserted chimney-stack of the 15th century; there are remains of various blocked and altered windows. In the W. room is an early 16th-century moulded ceiling-beam, but the floor of the room above has been otherwise removed.’

<2> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 134 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25 inch scale map, 1976 (Map). SDO18020.

(ST 66550137) Guest House [NAT]

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199023 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 18 2022 3:13PM