Exterior
North Range
This range was rebuilt for Sir Halswell Tynte, probably by William Taylor, and bears the date 1689 in Roman numerals above the central window on the north elevation. Its architecture has been described several times (Pevsner 1958, Statutory List 1987; Dunning 1991). It is imposingly tall, of three storeys with a flat balustraded roof. The principal north elevation is built of Ham stone ashlar with rusticated quoins and is seven bays long with projecting two-bay wings, articulated by a ramped plinth and string courses at storey height , window cill and roof level. There are sash windows throughout with raised stone architraves and wide replica glazing bars; at attic level the windows are square-headed, in the wings segmental-headed and flanking the centre, round-headed with elaborate eared architraves. The central glazed double door is set back in a deep round-headed niche flanked by three-stage stepped back pilasters; the outer are rusticated, the centre is a quarter column. There are trophies carved in the spandrels over the niche. The central first floor window is set back behind this narrow balcony, formerly railed, and has an elaborate pilastered architrave surrounded by a pediment bearing a swagged cartouche of the family coat of arms. Comparisons can be made with the pre- and post- fire appearance of this elevation in the Country Life photographs of 1908. The only significant alteration is the removal of the iron balustrade from the central first floor windows.
The east elevation is of five bays and is stuccoed with ashlar dressings. The ground floor is rusticated and has windows with blind arched heads; in the panel over the door at the south end is inscribed THIS PORTION WAS PARTIALLY DESTROYED BY FIRE 27TH OCTOBER 1923. RESTORED 1924-1926. The flanking first floor windows have moulded architraves and cornices; the central window is pedimented and has a blaustraded panel below the cill. The attic windows have plain rectangular architraves.
The west elevation was rebuilt in the mid 18th century to the designs of Francis Cartwright of Blandford. It is of three bays, rendered and painted with ashlar dressings. The rendering must conceal rebuilding as part of this wall collapsed in the fire. On the ground floor the central arched door has a rusticated surround and is flanked by a pair of canted bays with pitched roofs set behind a parapet. The central first floor window also has a arched head in a square-headed architrave with a dentilled cornice carried on console brackets. There is a balustraded panel below the cill rising from the string course at storey height. The remaining windows have narrow ashlar surrounds. Running south from this elevation and part of the same design is a screen wall closing off the west side of the courtyard. It has a rusticated central arch, matching the west door, flanked by shell headed niches and surmounted by three plain recessed panels below a moulded cornice at the height of the string course. Two sash windows north of the arch are later insertions. The external face is rendered, the reverse bare brick.
The south elevation faces onto the inner court and demonstrates the imposing scale of this range in relation to the older house; it is a full storey higher than the ridge of the east range roof. It is built of sandstone rubble, currently unrendered, without string courses or balustrading. The windows have plain ashlar surrounds with projecting cornices and are of two-light mullioned pattern with wooden transom bars and leaded lights. The central part of the elevation projects slightly and is butted against the older house at its east end. It is one storey lower than the rest of the north range but accommodates two mezzanine levels; the lower level (exterior of Alcove room) has wooden sash windows replacing the mullions.
