Little Durnford Manor

Coordinates: 51°06′26″N 1°49′24″W / 51.1073°N 1.8233°W / 51.1073; -1.8233

Little Durnford Manor House

Little Durnford Manor is a Grade I listed country house in Durnford, Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of the city of Salisbury. The current house was built in the late 17th century and remodelled for Edward Younge, a friend of Lord Pembroke, in around 1720-1740.

History

The manor of Little Durnford was mentioned in an inquisition at Amesbury on 6 October 1470, and that a John Wodhull, the great nephew of the owner at the time, was the heir to the manor and Tytherley.^[1]

The current house was built in the late 17th century and remodelled for Edward Younge, a friend of Lord Pembroke, in around 1720-1740. The house is Grade I listed.^[2]

Architecture

A drive approaches the main house from the southeast, which is separated from a landscaped park by a strip of trees.^[3] The house is two storeys faced with flint and stone chequerwork, with five bays under a slate roof, and central glazed doors set within a modest Tuscan portico.^[4] It has a dining room described by Pevsner as "a splendid mid C18 room with a proud chimmneypiece and wall panels of tapestry framed in plaster".^[5] The doors feature pulvinated frieze and pediments, and the walls inside the house feature entitled plaster cornice with frieze, and baroque plasterwork, dating to the late 1740s. The main staircase is at the end of the hall and features turned balusters. The service wing was heightened in the early 20th century.^[4]

A walled cottage garden of approximately half a hectare lies to the north of the house, and is divided into a several sub plots, each with their own identity; it has been maintained by the Countess of Chichester since 1966. The grounds also contain a lake, a swimming pool and a cluster of cedar trees.^[3]

References