The Old Post House and the Nook is a Grade II listed building in the Dorset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 2 June 1986. A C17 Post office house. 1 related planning application.
The Old Post House and the Nook
- WRENN ID
- quiet-footing-gold
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Dorset
- Constituency
- West Dorset MP: Edward Morello (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 2 June 1986
- Type
- Post office house
- Address
- The Old Post House and the Nook, Melbury Osmond, DT2 0LU
- OS grid reference
- ST 574 077
- Coordinates
- 50.86768, -2.60615
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Old Post House and The Nook is a former post office that has been converted into a private dwelling, with an attached cottage. The Post House dates from the late 17th century, while The Nook was built in the mid 19th century.
The Post House features coursed rubble-stone walls and a thatched roof with gable ends, including a stone gable coping on the left side. It has 20th-century rebuilt brick stacks at the gable ends and stands two storeys tall. The ground floor has three windows with three-light stone mullions, originally ovolo-moulded, though the right window has been replaced with a hollow chamfer. Each window has separate labels above. The iron casements are fitted with lead lights. The first floor has two-light cast-iron casements with lead lights in pegged wood frames. The front doorway is centrally located and features stone moulded jambs and a depressed arch within a square head, dating from the 17th century. The door itself is panelled and made from old materials, dating from the 19th century, and is sheltered by a flat stone canopy supported by two stone brackets. Inside, there are flagstone floors and mid-chamfered ceiling beams with stepped stops, likely re-set and dating from the late 17th century. The roof structure has butt-purlins and pegged collars, which were renewed in the early 19th century, with a 20th-century raising of the front pitch and consolidation.
The Nook has roughcast walls and a hipped slate roof, and it shares a stack with The Old Post House. It also stands two storeys tall and features one window and a door. The window has three-light cast-iron casements with glazing bars and wooden cills, while the plank door on the right side is from the 20th century. Notably, there are slate-roofed outshuts at the south end that are of special interest.
Local climate
The Old Post House and the Nook receives an average of 830 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 54% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 65% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 64% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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