Cranborne Manor from the South Court - geograph

Cranborne Manor is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

Cranborne Cranborne is a village in East Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the parish had a population of 779, remaining unchanged from 2001. The appropriate electoral ward is called 'Crane'. This ward includes Wimborne St. Giles in the west and so ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, in southern England. The manor dates back to around 1207/8, and was originally a hunting lodge. It was re-modelled for The 1st Earl of Salisbury in the early 17th century. The main seat of the

earls Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form '' jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particula ...

and

marquesses A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Ceci ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, and Cranborne Manor is often the home of the heir to the title, who uses the

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but rather is used through custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some co ...

Viscount Cranborne.

The house

The house is a

building, being "extremely important both as a rare survival of early C13 domestic architecture and as a fine early C17 country house" remodelled, after 1608, by William Arnold who also worked on

Dunster Castle Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a English country house, country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo- ...

in this period and built

Montacute House Montacute House is a late Elizabethan mansion with a garden in Montacute, South Somerset. An example of English architecture during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the Renaissance Classical, and one of few prodigy house ...

and

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

. The original Manor house was actually built for King John in the 12th century and was used as a royal hunting lodge. It is constructed of ashlar, rubble and flint with ashlar dressings. The roofs are tiled and slated, with brick chimney stacks. The house is E-shaped in plan with three storeys, attics and basement. Originally, the house probably had the hall on the first floor, and other rooms over a vaulted undercroft. The windows are seventeenth century and are mullioned. In the southwestern corner there is a tower. The interior of the house has seventeenth century panelling and fireplaces in many rooms, as well as a number of seventeenth century stone doorways. The vaulted undercroft dates from the same period and has screens with Doric pilasters, and a gallery with arcaded panelling above. There are some remnants of the thirteenth century chapel at the east end of the house.

The estate and garden

The estate consists of a 3,000 acre in hand farm and over 1,700 acres of woods, as well as the park and gardens. The estate is owned by the Marquess of Salisbury through a set of offshore companies. The farm is mostly arable but there is some pastureland, mostly riverside meadows, where the beef suckler herd graze. The Manor is surrounded by extensive formal and informal gardens, lawns, a kitchen garden, walled gardens and an orchard. It contains a water mobile named 'La Source' created by

Angela Conner Angela Conner FRSS (born 1935) is an English sculptor who works in London. Conner has exhibited internationally and has large scale sculptures in public and private collections around the world. Biography In her early life as a sculptor, Conner ...

and various other works of art. The garden is open to the public on a regular basis, but the house is not open to the public. The garden featured some of the Horticultural designs of Mollie Wyndham-Quinn, who married the Viscount Cranborne (later the 6th Marquess of Salisbury), before she restored the gardens at Hatfield House.

References

External links

Official siteEntry at britishlistedbuildings.co.uk
{{coord, 50.9185, -1.9258, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Manor houses in England Country houses in Dorset Gardens in Dorset Grade I listed buildings in Dorset Grade I listed houses