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Steeple

The Mark of the Blandford Architects

Jan 17th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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“A pretty neate Country town”, was how Celia Fiennes described Blandford around 1680 and a few years later Defoe said of the town: “…a handsome well built Town, chiefly famous for making the finest Bone lace in England”, but that was before the great fire of 1731, which reduced most of the town to ashes. Its resurrection was assured, for here lived a family of architects and masons: the Bastards.

The rebuilding of the town was largely the work of two men, John and William Bastard, the sons of Thomas Bastard, whom is remembered on a memorial in the church as “eminent for his Skill in Architecture”. Thomas Bastard must have been responsible in his day for a lot of building work in and around Blandford; It is thought the classic church at Charlton Marshall (1713) and the rectory at Spetisbury (1716) are his work. By the time of his death in 1720 Thomas Bastard had built up a considerable business for his sons to carry on.  After the fire in 1731 ‘A List of Sufferers’  was drawn up; it included the losses of the firm Bastard & Co, estimated at £3,709, the largest individual loss recorded in the town.
 
Thomas Bastard’s eldest son, also a Thomas, was a joiner and architect. He died a few weeks after the fire, probably a victim of the small-pox epidemic that was raging in the town at the time.  Then came John (1687-1770) and William (1689-1766); the fourth son, Samuel, was a ship-modeller in the royal dockyard at Gosport and the fifth son Benjamin (1698-1772) set up in business at Sherborne. The youngest son, Joseph, described as a ‘builder and surveyor’ moved to Hampshire.

There is a curious form of capital that acts like a trade mark and helps us identify some of the buildings the Bastard firm designed and built. Instead of the volutes carving outwards in the usual way, they curve inwards and give a distinctive effect.  Two house fronts in the market-place in Blandford have the “Bastard capital”: The Red Lion Inn and The Grape, which is said to have been John Bastard’s own house.

However, there exists an earlier use of this peculiar design of capital on a building unlikely to have seen the involvement of the Dorset architects: Marlow Court in Buckinghamshire built about 1720 for the then Prince of Wales. This stately edifice displays another unusual design of capital and other similarities, which it shares with Chettle House in north-east Dorset. It is most unlikely that the Bastards had any involvement with the Marlow house but they might have been involved with the building of Chettle House about which the RCHM says: “…the architect in all probability being Thomas Archer.”

Arthur Oswald suggests the Bastards acquired their signature capital from the designer of Chettle House “whom they may actually have assisted as builders”. They went on to reproduce it for a further thirty years.

Another house of interest is Creech Grange, owned by Dennis Bond, where there is a further example of the Bastard capital. In the accounts for the alterations made between 1738 and 1741 the name of Cartwright is frequently used to identify the responsible mason and builder, but his place of origin is not given. However, the glazier on these works was a Blandford man, so perhaps Mr Cartwright also came from the town. To add weight to this speculation, in Blandford St. Mary Church we find a memorial: “In Memory of Mr Fran. Cartwright and Ann his beloved wife.” Below this is carved an architect’s set-square, dividers and ruler and a drawing of a Palladium House, which is undoubtedly a representation of Came House near Dorchester, built in 1754 by Francis Cartwright. This would have been one of his last works, for he passed away in 1758.
 
Cartwright does not appear in the list of people who suffered from the Blandford fire. He is described elsewhere as a provincial master builder so it is likely he was a rival rather than a pupil, employee or sub-contractor of the Bastards; nevertheless he incorporates an example of the Bastard capital in Came House.

Steeple

Dec 15th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Photograph of rear of Steeple Rectory. Probably taken in the early part of 20th century.

Photograph of rear of Steeple Rectory. Probably taken in the early part of 20th century.

The Hamlet of Steeple and Creech Grange

Sep 2nd, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Steeple is a small hamlet surrounded by heathland in the sparsely populated parish of the same name. Comprising a church, fine manor house and a few cottages, it is about four miles south west of Wareham between Lulworth and Corfe Castle at the foot of the Purbeck Hills. This rolling Dorset Down separates the hamlet from Creech Grange, the mansion and estate of special interest to American visitors because of the association with Sir Oliver Lawrence, an ancestor of George Washington. The Lawrence coat-of-arms featuring the stars and stripes is in the porch of the church and is repeated in the barrel roof and is the same as the coat-of-arms on a signet ring belonging to George Washington. Could this little place and nearby Affpuddle, which has similar features, be the birthplace of the stars and stripes?

The Lawrence and Washington families were from Lancaster and united through the marriage in 1390 of Edmund Lawrence to Agnes Wessington. Sir Oliver Lawrence came to Steeple and John Washington a descendent of Agnes, travelled to Virginia; his great grandson was George Washington, who became the first President of the United States of America.

In Domesday this place is referred to as Stiple a reference to the steepness of the hills. It was a part of the manor of Glole, Stiple and Criz or, as we would say today, Church Knowle, Steeple and Creech. We can see from the terrain surrounding the church that in medieval times Steeple was a large village. Now the church is quite isolated from the few cottages of limestone construction that make up Steeple today.

Before the Reformation the land hereabouts was owned by Bindon Abbey, but all that changed when Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Sir Oliver Lawrence, the brother-in-law of King Henry’s Lord Chancellor, acquired the land and built Creech Grange here, completing it before his death in 1559. The house was bought by Nathaniel Bond in 1691, when the Lawrence line died out. Thomas Bond was made a baronet by Charles II and later turned an area of London known as Conduit Mead – at the time nothing more than a rubbish tip – into a habitable place. Today we know it as Bond Street the famous London Street synonymous with fashion and luxury shopping; many ladies will know that for many years Conduit Street was home in the UK to the Christian Dior label.

In 1682 the then Rector Samuel Bolde, dared to declare in a sermon that “everybody had a right to their own beliefs.”  When word of this reached King James II he was not well pleased and Rector Bolde found himself in prison.

The parish church is dedicated to St. Michael. Built from rubble and ashlar and roofed with stone slates it comprises nave, chancel, south chapel, north pew, south porch and west tower. Much of the nave survives from the 12th century; it has a 17th century plaster barrel vault, which was renewed in 1954. Edward Lawrence sponsored several alterations and additions during the 17th century including the building of the west tower. The chancel and south porch were rebuilt between 1852 and 1861.

The Manor House was built at the start of the 17th century and later enlarged probably in 1698. On the front of the building there is the Clavell family crest probably commemorating the additions to the building by Roger and Ruth Clavell and they made further additions at the beginning of the 18th century. The extensive additions made to the north east of the house are modern.

To see the other important buildings in the parish we have to climb some 700 feet to the top of the downs and Grange Arch. Built in the 18th century by Denis Bond “to form an architectural focus to the view southward from the Grange” says the RCHM. From this vantage point we can look down on the mansion known as Creech Grange.

The impressive house we see today owes little to the original building, which was badly damaged by the Parliamentarians during the Civil War. The front of the building was completely rebuilt in 1846 by the Bond family.

Near to the grand house is the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist built in 1746 by Denis Bond, who died before it was completed; for a century the unfinished building was used as a workshop. Originally it consisted of a west tower and nave with a small sanctuary entered through a 12th century archway, brought from the priory church at East Holme and according to the RCHM is a “notable Romanesque feature.”  It was 1840 when work was recommenced by John Bond who died in 1844. His brother the Revd Nathaniel Bond rebuilt the nave and tower and added the north transept in 1849. 1868 saw the addition of the chancel, the vestry and organ chamber.

Every parish, village and hamlet has a history deserving to be told and Steeple, with its associations with America’s founding fathers, its outspoken clergy, and the transfer of its grand mansion from a distinguished Royalist family to another prominent family is no exception.