Cranborne Manor

Cranborne Manor NGR SU0514 Postcode BH21 5PP Lead authors: JT, WGT,JL

History
Cranborne Manor i has three major dates. The original building was built for King John circa 1207-08 has banded stonework with inserted perpendiculars making it look like a simplified drawing of masonry. Their impact is seen in the reconstruction artwork of the building . If you look carefully at the breaks in the rendering you will appreciate that this idiosyncratic fashion, perhaps based on buildings seen during the Crusades, was over the whole building.

Cranborne Manor 1210 reconstruction (Courtesy of JL)

The second major phase was the conversion to a Tudor Palace for Robert Cecil from 1605 to 1614 which produced the huge brick Tudor Chimneys and the detailed additions by William Arnold of loggias and decorative details some based on printed designs by Battini. Getting rid of the earlier wall treatment in this phase may be a reason for the render so it would look like a unified stone building. The last major addition was the first example of true classical design in Dorset designed by Captain Ryder in 1647-50 and based on the designs of Inigo Jones. Part of this can be seen to the right of the rear corner photo below.

Early arches (JL)

Rear corner (JL)

Buttress (JL)

Geology
Most of the parish is on Chalk, with an outcrop of the Reading Beds and London Clay in the south east corner. The village is built in the valley of the river Crane.
Buildings. Most of the buildings are of brick, almost certainly made in the estate brickyards. The church and manor house are the only buildings of stone. The stones recognised are Upper Greensand, Flint, heathstone, Chilmark/Tisbury Sandstone, cob, timber frame.The flint may have come from the Clay with Flints near Pentridge. The Upper Greensand came from Shaftesbury, and the Tisbury sandstone, which is also a greenish colour, from the Vale of Wardour.

1. Cranborne Manor from the south west

2. Cranborne Manor. The oldest part of the manor seen on the south, though now rendered, was constructed of flint, with a Greensand stair turret and buttress.

3. A Greensand buttress on the south side of Cranborne Manor

5. The north side of the manor has been constructed of buff to greenish Chilmark stone, from the Tisbury Member, in the Vale of Wardour, with rare blocks of Heathstone.

6. Detail of the Chilmark stone

6. Garden walls use a great deal of Heathstone.

7. The walled garden, now partly the Garden Centre, has cob walls

8. The village buildings are brick, of various dates, Cranborne Lodge being the grandest. Cranborne Lodge was built mostly in the 18th century

Note for visitors: The gardens are open on Wednesdays from March to September, from 9 am to 5 pm. The house is never open, but can be examined closely from the garden. The Cranborne website can be visited here and gives the dates of occasional extra opening of the gardens.