John Of Gaunt'S Kitchen, Canford School

John of Gaunt's Kitchen at Canford School is the surviving kitchen block of a former medieval manor house. The building dates to the 15th century, incorporating 14th-century work in its east wall, and was substantially altered in the early 16th century when it was subdivided horizontally. It underwent restoration in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The structure is built of coursed squared limestone with courses of carstone at the top and bottom of the walls and limestone dressings. It has a plain tile roof with a verge of stone slates to the south side, a stone ridge stack, and massive internal stacks to the north side. The building forms a 2-unit plan with one room approximately twice the size of the other, configured as a tall single-storey, 6-bay range.

The main south front, which faces the present service court of Canford School, features a small 1-light window to the right of centre at ground floor level with a chamfered stone lintel, with a similar window above it featuring a hollow-chamfered stone surround. To the right are a pair of tall 2-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned windows with 2 transoms, and a matching pair to the left of centre. The plinth is chamfered and just visible above the courtyard surface. The moulded stone eaves cornice features a deep hollow chamfer framed by roll moulding below and a sunk quadrant moulding above. This hollow chamfer is punctuated at regular intervals by worn grotesque heads.

The left end wall is covered by later school buildings. The 14th-century right (east) end wall has diagonal buttresses, the southern one largely cut away, and displays an original doorway, formerly internal, with a chamfered depressed 2-centred head. A 1-light window with a pointed trefoiled head opens to the gable. The wall shows the scar of a steeply pitched roof from a former adjoining building.

The north front has a massive projecting stack to the right of centre with offsets to its sides and an original louvred chimney of limestone ashlar. A similar but smaller stack stands to the left of centre. A blocked window to the far left features continuous hollow chamfer and wave moulding with a 4-centred head. A similar doorway stands to the right of the larger stack. To the far right at ground floor is a 3-light hollow-chamfered stone mullion window, with a 2-light hollow-chamfered stone mullion and transom window above. A similar window appears to the left of the left stack at the same level, with a small 1-light window to the centre at high level with chamfered stone surround. Massive quoins, chiefly of carstone, project from the buildings and stacks. The plinth shows a slight batter and the left end of the roof has a half hip. The ridge stack retains an original double louvred chimney of limestone ashlar.

Interior

The main kitchen contains two very large fireplaces, the one on the north wall being larger than the other, both with chamfered and cambered heads. The smaller fireplace now houses a full-length effigy of the 1st Baron Wimborne by Rosamund, Viscountess Ridley, removed from the south chancel chapel of the Church of St John at Canford Magna. The early 16th-century roof has 5 tie beam trusses on wall posts with arch-braced collars, vertical struts to the ridge piece flanked by diagonal struts, and 2 tiers of wind-braced purlins. Wall posts sit on stone corbels.

Either side of the stack dividing the two rooms is a small chamber at first-floor level, entered by a doorway with a 4-centred head. Below the chamber to the south is a stone-vaulted passage leading to the smaller kitchen, entered by a doorway with a 4-centred head. The smaller kitchen or scullery has 2 large fireplaces, the one to the dividing wall being larger, both with hollow-chamfered and wave-moulded cambered heads. The 2-bay roof is of similar construction to that of the larger room. The doorway to the end wall has a pointed-arched head with 2 orders, the inner moulded and the outer chamfered.

History

John of Gaunt's Kitchen is the only surviving portion of an important medieval manor house referred to in 1221 when it was owned by William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury.