The Turret is a Grade II* listed building in the Dorset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 2 June 1986. Garden-house.
The Turret
- WRENN ID
- mired-beam-kestrel
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Dorset
- Constituency
- West Dorset MP: Edward Morello (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 2 June 1986
- Type
- Garden-house
- Address
- The Turret, Melbury Sampford
- OS grid reference
- ST 576 059
- Coordinates
- 50.85163, -2.60363
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Turret is a free-standing garden house dating from the 16th century, with 18th-century additions in the Gothick style. It is constructed from coursed rubble stone with ashlar dressings and features a hexagonal shape. The building has a plinth mould, a moulded string course, and an embattled parapet adorned with crocketed pinnacles at each angle. The entrance, located on the south face, showcases a depressed-ogee moulded arch supported by slender clustered jamb-shafts with crocketed terminals. Above the entrance is a traceried panel that is divided into two heights.
Inside, the building consists of one stage and includes a semi-circular niche directly opposite the entrance, which has a round head beneath an ogee label. The hexagonal ceiling is ogee-shaped, featuring moulded angle ribs and is painted with shields of arms. Horace Walpole noted the new decoration of shields of arms during his visit to Melbury in 1762. It is important to note that the building is hexagonal, not octagonal.
Local climate
The Turret 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.
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- 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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