Ashton Gifford House

Ashton Gifford is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book, listed as land belonging to Humphrey de l'Isle. The land was held by Robert, previously (under King Edward) having been held by Cynewig. Ashton Gifford was a relatively prosperous estate, valued at six pounds (from four pounds in 1066). The estate consisted of 12 acre of meadow, and pasture "6 furlongs long and as much broad". The site of the Anglo Saxon settlement can be seen in the field to the south of the current Ashton Gifford House, where different patches of colour in the earth indicate the sites of Anglo Saxon houses. There is reference to the manor being known as Ashton Dunstanville in the late 14th century. The 1773 version of…

English Heritage, in their Images of England section describe the property as having a limestone ashlar front with side walls of brick. The property is three-storied, with a three-window central block breaking forward and two-storey same-height side-bays. The main entrance is a distyle in antis Tuscan portico to the centre with inserted double half-glazed doors and flanking tripartite sashes, an inner main door with six fielded panels, fanlights and flanking margin-pane round-arched sashes with interlaced glazing bars. The ground floor of the centre block has rusticated stonework. The first floor has three nine-pane sashes, and the second floor has a plat band and three six-pane sashes. The…

By 1929 the house and land were auctioned by again, this time by Constable and Maude of London. The property was described as a "Residential and Sporting Estate", and at the time comprised 60 acre of park land. There was an ornamental lake, woodland, parkland and pasture, and a variety of estate buildings. The auction lot included stabling and garages (in the two former coach houses, which were advertised as accommodating up to six cars). There were also two lodge buildings: a main entrance lodge to the north east of the property (on the Codford High Street), and a "Station Lodge" with a thatched roof at the end of the south west drive, near the (no longer extant) Codford station. The…