Cranborne Manor House

Cranborne Manor House is a hunting lodge, later adapted as a country house, with significant construction phases dating to approximately 1207/8, substantial remodelling between 1608 and 1636, further work around 1647, and a restoration in 1863. The origins lie with Ralph Neville, acting on behalf of King John, followed by 17th-century alterations by William Arnold for Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, with additions by Captain Richard Ryder in 1647, and culminating in the 1863 restoration for the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. The building is constructed from rendered rubble and flint with ashlar dressings, and partly ashlar, with tiled and stone-slated roofs. The north front features brick stacks with triple flues arranged in a diamond pattern. The original layout likely included a first-floor hall, supporting rooms, a vaulted undercroft, and a south-west corner tower. The house is three storeys high with basements and attics. The north front, the original principal facade, is symmetrical, with three main bays. The south front has five bays, with two further bays to the west. Windows are 17th-century, mullioned, and include transoms with returned labels. A porch, designed as an open loggia with three semicircular arches supported by Doric columns, is positioned centrally on the north front. Battlements rise from a partly 13th-century corbel table. An original 13th-century double archer's loop is located to the right of the porch. Buttresses from the 13th century have been faced with 17th-century classical pilasters. The south front features an embattled parapet above a corbel table, and a central 17th-century portico with three rusticated arches on Doric columns, supporting a strapwork entablature. The upper floor of the portico contains niches and a parapet with recesses holding sculpted symbols of Libra and Virgo. A 17th-century doorway retains its original plank door, and to the right is a 13th-century canted vice turret. The west wing has a steep hipped roof with overhanging eaves and heavy modillions, with 19th-century replacement windows.

Internally, rooms retain 17th-century panelling and fireplaces, some of which have been repositioned. Several 17th-century stone doorways with four-centred arches and original plank doors remain. A 17th-century vaulted undercroft exists, alongside 17th-century screens with Doric pilasters and a gallery with arcaded panelling above. A 13th-century vice rises throughout the height of the building. Remnants of 13th-century shafted rere-arches are also present, as are remnants of a 13th-century chapel located at the east end of the house. Various 19th-century features exist, largely in a Jacobean style. This building is of significant importance as a rare survival of early 13th-century domestic architecture and as a fine early 17th-century country house.