Listed Building record MDO10765 - Court Farmhouse, Corscombe Court, Corscombe

A farmhouse which was a former monastic grange of Sherborne Abbey. The building contains c 14th century walls and porch in the north range, with 17th century re-modelling and an 18th century south wing. It is built of rubble-stone with stone quoins and an asbestos and slate roof. The west elevation of the north range is 2 storeys high with attics and the south elevation of the south range is 2 storeys, built of plinth and rubble walls with ashlar quoins. On the inside, the north range has heavy sawn ceiling beams of which one is incised with 1780, a 17th century fireplace with bread oven and flagstone floor in the room behind the porch.

Corscombe Court consists of house, barn and moat. The late 13th century to early 14th century house is a rubble-walled two storey building with stone slate roofs. Formerly the grange of Sherborne Abbey, it now forms the north wing of the building and contains an original lancet window, now blocked. It was remodelled in the 17th century. It also has a modern addition to the north. The south cross wing is early 18th century with a stone mullioned three-light window. Grade 2. The barn is 15th century with buttressed rubble walls and a S porch. The moat which formerly surrounded the house is largely filled in on the S side. <2> Now known as Corscombe Court; it is an outstanding group. The moat encloses a level platform, 66.0m E to W by about 75 m N to S and 0.5 ha, up to about 0.4m above the surrounding ground. The original causeway is central to the S arm, which is partly filled to the E and dry to the W. The water-filled W, N and E arms are on average 8.0m wide and fed, by means of a short culvet in the SW angle, from the adjacent stream. The water level, on average 0.7 below platform, is controlled by two sluices on the N arm. 1:2500 surveyed revised on PFD. <4> (Description of the moated site as Auths 2 & 5). No surrounding earthworks or fishponds were apparent and the Tithe Map (1840) does not indicate their existence. But there is a possibility that they may have been destroyed by ploughing to the west of the site and by tennis courts and landscaping to the north. <5> The Corscombe Court group remains as described. North of the swimming pool and tennis court, a low bank aligned WSW - ENE is evident. This feature, 8m wide and 0.5 m high, extends on the east from the modern road for a distance of circa 42m. Eight metres beyond its west end there is a raised scarp aligned roughly north - south running into the arable north of the moat. This terraced feature with an east facing slope is about 5m wide and 0.6m high. At its north end it turns to the east and is truncated by the modern road. It may have defined a formal garden feature or a large shallow pond. A more extensive and precise survey of the earthwork remains is intended. Resurveyed at 1:1000, revised at 1:2500. <6>

Record last edited

Mar 1 2022 9:53AM