Outer Gatehouse At Place Farm

The Outer Gatehouse at Place Farm is a Grade I listed structure dating from the 15th century, originally serving as the entrance to a former monastic grange. It is constructed from dressed limestone and features a tiled roof with coped verges and a small octagonal stone stack on the east gable. The gatehouse is two stories high and has two windows.

The front facing the road includes an ovolo-moulded pointed arch with a cast-iron gate on the left for pedestrian access, while to the right is a large moulded and chamfered Tudor-arched opening designed for carts. There are five buttresses with offsets that increase in height from left to right, attached to the front of the gatehouse and to a stepped wall on the left. The first floor showcases two 15th-century two-light windows with Perpendicular tracery.

On the right side, there is a stepped wall with two buttresses with offsets. The left return features dog leg stone steps leading up to a planked door for the upper room. The right return has a buttress with offsets and a pointed chamfered doorway that leads to the cart entry.

At the rear, the inner gatehouse has double chamfered pointed archways, with the larger one on the left for carts. The first floor contains two 15th-century two-light windows with arched lights, a buttress to the right with an offset, and a pilaster buttress to the left. Inside the cart entry, there is a depressed pointed archway between the two entries, along with deep chamfered beams featuring stepped stops. This gatehouse is a fine surviving example of the entrance to the monastic grange of the Abbess of Shaftesbury. It is also designated as an Ancient Monument in Wiltshire, No 242.