Chettle
House
Chettle, nr Blandford Forum, Dorset
Notes in italics from Dorset by John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner
(2002)
Yale University Press, New Haven and London
Click on photos to enlarge |
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The plum among Dorset houses
of the early C18, and even nationally outstanding as a specimen of English
Baroque. Built for George Chafin, who held the post of Ranger of
Cranborne Chase. For his architect he chose - there is no doubt in the
matter - Thomas Archer. (There is no clinching external evidence, though
what external evidence there is points in his direction. It is on style
that the certainty rests). So Chettle is the only domestic building of
Archer's maturity to survive unspoilt. Archer bought an estate fifteen-odd
miles away, at Hale in
Hampshire, in 1715; so in spite of Hutchins's date of 1710 for Chettle,
one may prefer a slightly later one. |
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The house is built of red
brick, like most others of any pretension in north-east Dorset, with
dressings of Chilmark stone. It is a seven-bay block plus round-cornered
end bays, of two very tall storeys, set on a high, vaulted basement, and
rising in the three-bay centre for a further attic storey. Top balustrade
on a deep bracketed cornice, the balustrades originally returned to
exclude the returned ends. Giant brick pilasters articulate both facades,
a cluster of them used to mark the angles. ... Lofty, segment-headed
windows, the upper with raised brick aprons. ... The
end bays were heightened in the C19, but there is evidence that they were
originally two-storeyed, and had been lowered.
Note: The end facades are at right angles to the main
facades despite the illusion of an acute angle in some of the photos (due
to a wide-angle lens setting). |
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But in the centre, the
facades are sharply contrasted. On the W, where the entrance now is, a big
round-headed doorcase, with a cornice above it raised high by consoles; and curved corners to the centre projection. The E
(original entrance) front has a slight projection only at the centre, but
it is broken up into superimposed arcades, the piers between the windows
banded with stone, the arches moulded and given bold keystones. That
handling of a centrepiece is a favourite of Archer's and his alone. ... The basement windows re-use
C17 stonework, with a step and a hollow chamfer. |
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Top balustrade on west, south and
east. The giant pilaster have exceedingly odd capitals, grooved and
tapering upwards. |
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Looking
west |
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East side |
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Gardens to
the east |
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The great thrill of the
interior is the entrance hall on the E side. Two storeyed, with a
staircase in it. The staircase rises in two flights against the l. and r.
walls, turns, and joins at a balcony. From here a single flight of only a
few steps, and then a second division, to lead through the spine wall of
the house and re-emerge as a balcony l. and r. Flat ceiling on
groin-vaulting. The central flight ends at a doorway, with a
tunnel-vaulted ceiling above. Three turned balusters per tread, and fluted
Doric columns as newels; ... |
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The room in the centre of the
W front has bowed ends, and huge pilasters carrying Doric entablatures to
frame the doorcases, an original feature. Lunettes over the doorways in
both rooms by Alfred Stevens, whose father was employed as a decorator
when the house was altered c.1846. |
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Passage to
the south drawing room |
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S drawing room of that time in
a typical Louis Seize style, designed by Mr Blake of Wareham (Oswald). |
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Vaulted
basement |
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ST MARY, in the grounds. Perp
W tower of flint and stone bands. Nave, chancel, and transeptal chapels
1849-50 by Morris & Henson, with the same bands. |
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Map |
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More
information on the house, including opening times |
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