Athelhampton Hall, Dorset

This beautiful, mellow looking Elizabethan Manor House nestles almost unseen in the Dorset countryside near a village called Puddletown as it has done so for the past 500 years. It has been added to by different owners over the years but retains all the lovely features, like the great hall, mullioned windows and shingle roof tiles.

It was a lovely sunny June day when we pulled up in the ‘car park’ aka on the grass under the canopy of some trees. The entrance looked unassuming, straight into a barn type building with the bar on the right, cafe in front and obligatory shop. We walked in and showed our pre booked ticket and went into a little theatre room which showed a short film about the house. The film featured more about the writer Thomas Hardy who had lived close by all his life and used descriptions of the house in many of his books. So we were prepared to see the ‘hammer-beam roof, carved stonework, stained glass, etc’ but when we walked out from the barn and saw it, we were stunned.

In Tudor times it only consisted of the Great Hall accessed by the main entrance, to the right was the Buttery and to the left of the Hall was the Solar. The West Wing and the Dove Cote were added in the 16th Century and building work continued in piecemeal fashion for the next 300 years.

The house was restored by Alfred Cart De La Fontaine in 1890. He altered the room layouts and added turrets to either end of the East Front. It is recorded that Thomas Hardy was a guest there on many occasions.

The version we saw today was as a result of much work carried by George Cochrane who added the North Wing in 1920, between this date and up to 2019 four more owners also carried out restoration and added the many different garden rooms which we enjoyed today.

Our tour started off in the original Elizabethan entrance, the original door is still used today.

From there into what would have been the Buttery but which is now the East Wing and a dining room which is referred to as the Hardy Room as he used to visit for dinner frequently and used the description of this room and many other features of the house in many of his books.

The next room was changed into a breakfast garden room in the last century and has a huge mullioned glass door onto the private garden.

From here we walked upstairs where some of the rooms had been restored to how they were in the 1920’s.

We then visited the Solar Long Gallery where ladies would have taken excerise in Tudor times, it’s now the White Drawing Room.

Along from here was the Large Library (there is a small one too), this was turned into a Snooker Room in the 1920’s.

From here the tour took us back down to the Great Hall with its curved ceiling.

As always because the houses is lived in most of it is not open to the public but I was mightily impressed with what we were allowed to see, including the wine Cellar hot course). I couldn’t help but become fascinated with some of the doors, locks and carvings. So here are some pics that I took.

The indoor tour completed we moved outside to the garden which was very popular. We started in the courtyard garden which had a fountain as the centre point with four ‘doorways’ leading out to other gardens.

The first one we walked round was the huge Great Court garden with massive pyramid shaped yews. Some were so large there were garden benches inside to sit on.

From there were a series of different gardens the rose garden, the kitchen garden, the canal, the octagonal garden and a few more that weren’t even named. It is all very beautiful. Here are some photos.

The visit culminated with us imbibing in the tea room, as you do.

On the way home we also popped into the next village, Tolpuddle. Yes indeed, home of the famous Tolpuddle Martyrs.