Athelhampton Hall

Heritage listing

Details Late C19 formal gardens laid out to a scheme by Francis Inigo Thomas, with early C20 additions laid out with advice from Thomas Mawson. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT The manor of Athelhampton, the name of which derives from its Saxon owner, Aethelric, was owned in 1086 by the Bishop of Salisbury. It subsequently passed to the de Loudres family, and the de Pydeles, whose heiress married Sir Richard Martyn of Waterston, Dorset (qv) c 1350 (guidebook). The present house was begun c 1485 by Sir William Martyn, who was also licensed to form a deer park in 1495 (ibid). When Nicholas Martyn died in 1595, the estate was divided equally between four heiresses, and remained divided until 1848. The house itself was sold in 1665 by Sir Ralph Bankes of Kingston Lacey, Dorset (qv), who had acquired it through marriage, to Sir Robert Long of Dracot Cerne, Wiltshire. The Long family did not reside at Athelhampton, and the house was used as a farmhouse. In 1812 the property was inherited by the fourth Earl of Mornington, nephew of the Duke of Wellington, and in 1848 the fifth Earl sold it to George Wood, who undertook repairs and alterations to the fabric of the house. In 1891, Athelhampton was acquired by Alfred Cart de Lafontaine, who the same year began a systematic restoration of the house, and commissioned F Inigo Thomas (1866-1950) to lay out a series of formal gardens to the south of the Hall. Athelhampton was among the first of Thomas' garden commissions, which subsequently included Barrow Court, Somerset (qv) and Chantmarle, Dorset (qv). In about 1901, Lafontaine commissioned Thomas Mawson (1861-1933) to prepare plans for the entrance, drive, and gardens to the north of the Hall (Mawson 1926, 1927). The published plans (Mawson 1926) indicate that this scheme was only partially i

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.