Came House

Came House

A country house built between 1754 and 1762 by Francis Cartwright of Blandford for John Damer. Following Cartwright's death in 1758, the London firm Messrs Vile and Cobb was employed for the interior decoration. In the mid-nineteenth century, an entrance wing with porch, vestibule and cloakrooms was built at the west end of the house, and a conservatory was subsequently added to the south and west of this block.

The house is constructed of ashlar stone with hipped slate roofs. Composite stone stacks rise in the central valley and at right angles to it. The plan features a near-circulation of rooms with the hall originally on the north front, later moved to the south front and subsequently relocated again in the nineteenth century.

The north front displays 2 storeys above a basement across 7 bays. The central three bays project forward as a columniated and pedimented centrepiece. The basement, mostly above ground level, forms a channelled podium with grilled windows fitted with keystones. The centrepiece breaks forward with four Composite columns supporting an entablature with a pulvinated frieze and carved modillions. A pediment encloses a carved cartouche bearing the arms of Damer impaling Rush, with floral festoons and the date 1754. The central doorway has been converted to a window. The main floor features centre sashes with glazing bars, plain cills and aprons, and moulded eaved architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices topped by pediments, the central one being segmental. The upper sashes are square with the architrave moulding returned along the cills. To each side of the centrepiece, sashes have moulded architraves interrupted by keystones. The cornice continues either side with plain shaped modillions and is surmounted by a balustraded parapet.

The south front has the basement storey entirely concealed, presenting 2 storeys and attics above across 7 bays. The centrepiece is a projecting tripartite composition. At ground floor level, a central French window is flanked by attached Ionic columns with entablature and pediment; the entablature is repeated over flanking windows with pilasters. On the first floor, a central round-headed window and two square-headed windows make a variant on the normal Palladian motif, each flanked by Corinthianized pilasters. The arched centre window sits below the main central pediment. A balustraded parapet crowns this elevation. The sash windows in the flanking bays match those on the north front but with different spacing.

The east and west ends have the cornice and parapet returned from the main front; the cornice here lacks modillions and window architrave mouldings are simpler. Lead downpipes with cisterns embossed with the Damer crest descend from these elevations. At the east end, a single-storey passageway connecting to the kitchen annexe has its north side divided into bays by rusticated piers, finished with plat band and parapet. The kitchen annexe has a plain plinth, moulded cornice and parapet, with hipped slate roof and ashlar stacks. It rises to 2 storeys with 3 windows to the north elevation, featuring sashes with glazing bars and moulded architraves with keystones; a double sash appears at the right ground.

The entrance wing at the west end of the house has a rusticated base, cornice and parapet. The entrance on the north side is via an open archway leading to a covered stair up to the doorway.

The conservatory, dating to circa 1840, has panelled stone piers with moulded caps and bases at the angles, carrying an entablature with pulvinated frieze and balustraded parapet. The main openings to the south are subdivided by narrow stone piers. Over the main part of the conservatory is a formerly glazed octagonal dome carried on eight fluted iron columns with acanthus leaf decoration and square pedestals. Within the octagon, eight slighter fluted timber columns carry a circular trellis.

The interior contains important rococo work, particularly in the Saloon (Hall), Drawing Room and Dining Room, featuring panelled and scrolled plasterwork ceilings, fireplaces with overmantels, doorways and window architraves of considerable ornamental detail. The Library was refitted in the early nineteenth century and retains a bookcase with glazed doors and a reset fireplace of red and white marble. The Schoolroom, now converted to a kitchen, preserves rococo ceiling ornament. The staircase has stone steps with a mahogany handrail carried on scrolled wrought iron standards and a turned mahogany newel at the bottom. The basement rooms are all covered with simple plastered vaulting.