Place Farmhouse

Place Farmhouse is a monastic grange, now a farmhouse, dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, with alterations made in the 19th century. It is constructed of rubble stone with a tiled roof, stone and brick stacks, and features a fine 15th-century octagonal stone louvre to the former hall. The west front is a two-storey, six-window facade. A 19th-century gabled stone porch with a Tudor-arched opening contains a four-panelled door to the right of centre. To its right is a 19th-century two-light ovolo-mullioned casement with a hoodmould, and a single 15th-century Tudor-arched light. The centre of the facade has a 15th-century single light, a 19th-century ovolo-mullioned casement, and a blocked pointed doorway. A chamfered Tudor-arched planked door is within the 19th-century porch, and a two-light pointed casement is to the left. The first floor has five 15th-century two-light casements with Tudor-arched lights and one single-light 15th-century window. The left return has an external stack and 19th-century mullioned casements. The right return also has 19th-century mullioned casements. The rear of the main range has planked double doors, a 15th-century window, and a planked door leading to a 19th-century verandah. The left return has two 19th-century casements on the ground floor and one segmental-headed casement on the first floor.

The interior retains some 15th-century features, although it was partly remodelled in the 19th century. The north kitchen, formerly the hall, features a large Tudor-arched stone fireplace measuring approximately 4 metres wide, along with a blocked chamfered pointed arched doorway on the opposite wall. The centre living room has an open fireplace with a reset 17th-century carved wooden overmantel, originally from Holwell Manor in Dorset. The south sitting room has a large open fireplace with a chamfered lintel on stone jambs and chamfered ceiling beams. A 17th-century wing includes grey marble fireplaces and an arched cupboard to the right with a keystone and impost. There are 19th-century four-panelled doors throughout the wing. The first floor is said to retain an arch-braced collar truss roof with curved windbracing at the north end and cusped principals at the south end. Both ends of the house were originally open. The south room has a frieze with the initials AM, possibly belonging to Alfred Morrison, an owner of Place and Fonthill Estate in the 19th century. The property represents a rare survival as the grange of the Abbess of Shaftesbury.