The Captain's House

The Captain's House after renovation in 2014.

The Captain's House is a large detached house located at the bottom of Mallams, and within the proximity of the villages of Chiswell and Fortuneswell, on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The house, together with the attached wall to the south east, has been a Grade II listed building since September 1978.^[1] It is not to be confused with another Captain's House on Portland, in Castletown, a large detached house, adjoining Portland Castle.^[2]

History

The Captain's House is said to date back to the mid-18th century and has been subject to local stories for many years. It stood in ruin for over one hundred years before being privately renovated in the late 1990s. Two stories about the history of the unfinished house have been speculated. One story stated that the house belonged to a sea captain who was building the house from him and his fiancée, but her death left the house unfinished in his grief.^[3] From this story came the belief that the ruins were haunted.^[4]

The second story is that the house once belonged to Dr Motyer who was known for exploiting the local's ignorance of medicine over a century ago. Reportedly he sold 'cures' for witchcraft and scared the locals around Mallams with unearthly sounds and screams at night. In the Free Portland News issue of August 1990, Geoff Kirby published his own story of the house's history:^[5]

According to a self-published report by stonemason Nigel Copsey, who was involved in restoring the building, the last known resident of the house was John Comben Lano - a quarry agent to the Weston family who had seemingly built the house sometime after 1666, after the quarry for the stone from which it is constructed was opened, following the Great Fire of London. Some historic records had held the house to date from the 1750s, which was largely based on the Gibbsian portico design, a pattern for which appeared in a book printed in 1738, as well as the two storey canted bay window. However, other sources reveal that those features were added after the original construction of the main body of the house. Comben Lano died in 1866, two years after having been given the house by the Weston family, whilst archive photographs of the area have revealed a limestone slate and plain tile roof still intact in 1870. By 1895, however, the roof had gone, probably sold for its timbers. In between times the shell accreted a variety of lean-to structures and the remaining ruined rooms were variously used as stables and a forge, whilst the cellar was filled in.^[1]

Restoration

In 1995, work to restore the house began. By October 1998, the Bedford family had moved into the house. At some point during the 3 years, both Nigel Copsey and Oliver Coe became attached to the project, originally to work on the seriously deflected palladian window. After the completion of the original contract, their involvement grew afterwards and following work included reconstructing the bay window and the wall to its north, as well as the portico, the stone chimneys and the amended gables. Soon after both men became the main conservation and masonry contractors, and their continued work consisted of carrying out the repointing of the walls in lime mortar and the building of the roach stone and rubble stone walls and the hard landscaping to the front of the house. However, Copsey and Coe were unable to change some regrettable decisions taken prior to their involvement, including the brick chimney stacks, and they soon opposed some of the proposed alterations to the historic fabric on ethical grounds. This resulted in both men finally departing the project over the issues, along with their refusal to carry out the work in contradiction to their strongly held conservation ethic. Despite this, the project has been much applauded locally and regionally and led to the training and the education in best conservation practice and philosophy of those who continue to work in the industry. Some responses from local people as to whether or not it should have remained a romantic ruin has been the subject of debate. However, the house restoration project had provided a more than comfortable home for the Bedford family, who financed the project themselves, using traditional materials and construction techniques.^[4]

Original design and ruins

The large detached house was formerly one of the grandest houses in the Underhill area, however it had remained in ruin for over a hundred years. The building was made of Portland ashlar with pecked surface and when in ruins, had no roof. The walls were constructed of fourteen inch thickhand-squared blocks of Portland Roach stone ashlar, the most arduous to mason, each block being the full width of the walls. The central lobby was constructed of birdsmouth-jointed, 8 inch thick slabs of Portland Whitbed freestone which formed the ceiling of part of the cellar. A stone staircase had been removed, probably whilst the house was still occupied.^[4] The house was built in two parts - including a symmetrical two-storey 3-windowed unit with central portico, then, beyond a straight joint, a wide one-bay unit with two-storey canted bay. The left side ruins highlighted three over two openings that included stone cills, and were formerly with sashes. The ruins also had openings each side of porch, leading to the basement, which itself has stone floor. The interior had a cross wall to centre and remains of a fireplace.^[1]

References

Coordinates: 50°33′35″N 2°26′45″W / 50.5596°N 2.4457°W / 50.5596; -2.4457