Whatcombe House

WINTERBORNE WHITECHURCH ST 80 SW WHATCOMBE

3/181 Whatcombe House 14-7-55 - II*

Country house, 1750 with alterations and extensions of 1802. For Edward Morton Pleydell. Rendered walls with ashlar dressings and lead roofs concealed behind parapets. Symmetrical 3 storeys, 7 bays. The central bay is defined by a giant order of coupled Ionic pilasters. 12-pane sashes to the first two floors and 6-pane sashes to the upper storey. The doorway is in the form of a Palladian motif with the lunette over the doorway bearing a shield of arms. The double door is part-glazed. The central second bay has a Palladian window with acanthus capitals. Above is a heavy dentilled cornice. Above the third storey is a further cornice surmounted by a parapet with blind panels.

Internal features: entrance hall has an C18 rococo plaster ceiling with modillion cornice and C19 doorcases with reeded architraves; the drawing room has an C18 rococo plaster ceiling, a matching fireplace surround and doorways with enriched, moulded, lugged architraves; C18 stone staircase with moulded handrail supported on wrought-iron balusters with foliate and scroll enrichment; various C19 fire- places and plasterwork. (RCHM, Dorset, vol.III, p.311, no.3. Newman, J and Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972, p.488-9).

Listing NGR: ST8373501295