Lower Berrycourt Farmhouse

DONHEAD ST. ANDREW POUND LANE ST 92 SW (south side)

7/64 Lower Berrycourt Farmhouse

GV II*

Partly in Donhead St. Mary CP. (q.v.). Farmhouse. C15, altered C16, C17 and C19. Dressed limestone and rubble stone, thatched roof, brick stacks. Six-bay hall house with C17 service wing. Two-storey, 4-window south west front, gable end of C15 range. Gabled C17 stone porch has round-arched doorways to sides, inner planked door in pointed chamfered opening, either side are 3-light and 2-light recessed chamfered mullioned casements, straight joint between C17 wing to right and C15 range, first floor has two 2- light, one single light and one 3-light recessed chamfered mullioned casements. Right return of wing has single light and 2- light recessed chamfered mullioned casement to ground and first floor, raking buttresses, coped verge. Rear of wing has 3-light and 2-light mullioned casements. Left return is front of Medieval range with C19 gabled porch, 20-pane sash to left, 2-light mullioned casement with hoodmould, 3-light mullioned casement and blocked doorway to former passage to right, first floor has two 12- pane sashes and one 2-light mullioned casement. Rear of this range has large 4-light mullioned casement and blocked doorway to former screen passage to left, single and 2-light hollow-chamfered mullioned casements solar to right. North east gable has single hollow-chamfered mullioned casement. Interior mainly dates from C16 and C17 remodelling with Medieval roof retained. C17 wing has deeply chamfered beams with stepped stops, open fireplace with timber lintel on stone jambs. Present entrance hall in former service end of hall house has blocked pointed chamfered archway at low level on north west wall, chamfered beams marking position of former screens passage. Dining room in former open hall has C16 inserted ceiling with moulded cross beams and stone fireplace with depressed moulded arch and salt cupboard with butterfly hinges to inserted stack. Two stone Tudor-arched fireplaces to first floor. Newel stairs in 2-bay solar rise from ground floor to roof space. Six-bay C15 roof with deep arched-braced collar truss to 2-bay open hall with heavily smoke-blackened timbers, closed trusses either side have tie-beams, collars and upper V struts, wattle and daub panels. Hall truss and through purlins chamfered, some curved windbraces survive. A fine example of a late Medieval hall house, altered C16, when hall ceiling inserted and stack built at screens passage end, in early C17 when solar range remodelled and late C17 when service wing added and new entrance created. Owned by Abbess of Shaftesbury until Dissolution and then by Arundells of Wardour until 1930s. (W.A. Pantin measured drawings and notes, 1957)

Listing NGR: ST9102923532