Athelhampton
Encyclopedia
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is a privately owned country house on 160 acres (647,000 m²) of parkland, located five miles (8 km) east of Dorchester, Dorset. The house is now open for public visits.
In 1086, the site was recorded in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
which states that the Bishop of Salisbury
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset...
, with Odbold as tenant, held the manor, then called Pidele. The name Aethelhelm appears in the 13th century, when Athelhampton belonged to the de Loundres family. In 1350 Richard Martyn married the de Pydele heiress, and their descendant Sir William Martyn
Sir William Martyn
Sir William Martyn of Athelhampton, near Dorchester, Dorset .Sir William Martyn, Sheriff of London in 1484 and Lord Mayor of London in 1492, built the current Great Hall of Athelhampton in or around 1485. He also received licence to enclose 160 acres of deer park and to fortify his manor...
, Lord Mayor
Lord Mayor
The Lord Mayor is the title of the Mayor of a major city, with special recognition.-Commonwealth of Nations:* In Australia it is a political position. Australian cities with Lord Mayors: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong...
of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1492, built the current Great Hall in or around 1485. He also received licence to enclose 160 acres (647,000 m²) of deer park and to fortify his manor.
A West Wing and Gatehouse were added in 1550, but in 1862 the Gatehouse was demolished. Sir Robert Long
Sir Robert Long, 1st Baronet
Sir Robert Long, 1st Baronet was a courtier, administrator and politician in 17th century England.He was the son of Sir Walter Long of South Wraxall and Draycot in Wiltshire, and his wife Catherine Thynne of Longleat...
purchased Athelhampton House in 1665 from Sir Ralph Bankes
Ralph Bankes
Sir Ralph Bankes was a courtier of the restored Charles II and a knighted member of the Privy Chamber. He is most notable for being the builder of Kingston Lacy, the restored seat of the Bankes family....
. In 1684 an attempt was made by the court to sequester
Sequestration (law)
Sequestration is the act of removing, separating, or seizing anything from the possession of its owner under process of law for the benefit of creditors or the state.-Etymology:...
the estate from the then owner, James Long Esquire (son of Sir James Long, 2nd Baronet
Sir James Long, 2nd Baronet
Sir James Long, 2nd Baronet was an English politician and Royalist soldier.Born at South Wraxall, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, the son of Sir Walter Long and Anne Ley , he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1634...
), to recover a debt, but this appears to have been unsuccessful. The estate passed down through the Long family to William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley
William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington
William Richard Arthur Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington was a British nobleman.Long-Wellesley, the son of the notorious spendthrift William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley and Lady Catherine Tylney-Long, was born on 7 October 1813 at Wanstead House, Essex.His father's spending...
(Viscount Wellesley, later 5th Earl of Mornington
Earl of Mornington
Earl of Mornington is a title in the Peerage of Ireland, since 1863 a subsidiary title of the dukedom of Wellington. It was created in 1760 for the Anglo-Irish politician and composer Garret Wellesley, 2nd Baron Mornington. He was made Viscount Wellesley, of Dangan Castle in the County of Meath, at...
), who sold it in 1848 to George Wood. In 1891, the house was acquired by the antiquarian Alfred de Lafontaine, who carried out restoration to the interior and added the North Wing in 1920–21.
At the same time, de Lafontaine engaged Inigo Thomas to create one of England's great gardens as a series of "outdoor rooms" inspired by the Renaissance. Twenty acres (81,000 m²) of formal gardens are encircled by the River Piddle
River Piddle
The River Piddle or Trent or North River is a small rural Dorset river which rises next to Alton Pancras church and flows south and then south-easterly more or less parallel with its bigger neighbour, the River Frome, to Wareham, where they both enter Poole Harbour via...
, and consist of eight walled gardens with numerous fountains and pavilions, plus a balustraded terrace, statues, obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
s and vistas through gate piers. Great Court contains 12 giant yew
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
pyramids set around the pool by the great terrace. The lawn to the west has an early 16th-century circular dovecote
Dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
, and the south terrace features a vast "Magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
grandiflora" and a Banksian rose. Pear
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
trees cover the old walls and support rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
s and clematis
Clematis
Clematis is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners beginning with Clematis × jackmanii, a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars are being produced constantly. They are mainly of Chinese and Japanese...
.
Across the A35 stands the Church of St John, built in 1862 as a way of moving the old parish church away from the house. The church was designed by the Dorchester architect 'Hicks' who employed Thomas Hardy at the time. The Church was acquired with its pews and most of the Grave Yard in 1984 after the church had fallen into disrepair having been made redundant by the Church of England in 1975. The Church is now used by the Antiochian Orthodox parish of St Edward King and Martyr. A congregation meet at the church with services every Sunday.
The Great Western Railway 'Athelhampton Hall', was one of the 71 Modified Hall Class locomotives used for passenger and freight in the South and Southwest, designated as loco 6971, she was withdrawn from service in October 1965 and scrapped, though the nameplates are on display at Athelhampton.
Athelhampton has been owned by three generations of the Cooke family, the present owners.
The commercial aspects of Athelhampton including some Pubs and Restaurants in Dorset are run by a Partnership between Patrick & Andrea Cooke, the present owners, and Owen Davies. The Martyrs Inn in the historic village of Tolpuddle just 1.6miles distant has high profile links with Athelhampton.
Film location
- The House was used as a location for the 1972 film, Sleuth, when it was owned by Robert CookeRobert Cooke (politician)Robert Gordon Cooke was a British Conservative Party politician.Cooke was educated at The Downs School, Wraxall, Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford...
, MP. - The house and gardens were also used for the main filming location of the Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
serial The Seeds of DoomThe Seeds of DoomThe Seeds of Doom is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 31 January to 6 March 1976...
. - Julian FellowesJulian FellowesJulian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, DL , known as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, as well as a Conservative peer.-Early life:...
used the house for his children's film From Time to TimeFrom Time to Time (film)From Time to Time is a 2009 British adventure film directed by Julian Fellowes and starring Maggie Smith, Carice van Houten, Alex Etel, Eliza Bennett, Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh, Dominic West, Hugh Bonneville, Kwayedza Kureya and Pauline Collins. It was adapted from the children's novel The Chimneys of...
based on The Chimmneys of Green Knowe.
External links
- Athelhampton (official website)
- Great Hall (360 virtual tour)
- Photo gallery of Athelhampton House
- "Marevna's Studio" at Athelhampton House where the Russian émigrée cubist painter Marie VorobieffMarie VorobieffMarie Bronislava Vorobieff-Stebelska , also known as Marevna, was a Russian-born Cubist painter. She is internationally known for convincingly combining elements of cubism with pointillism and – through the use of the Golden Ratio for laying out paintings – structure. She tends to be accredited...
, known also as Marevna, stayed and worked between 1949 and 1957 http://www.marevna.info/ (open to the public from March 2006). - Orthodox parish of St. Edward, King and Passionbearer