Athelhampton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Athelhampton |
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 Athelhampton Hall |
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 Athelhampton
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| Population | 30 (2013 estimate) |
| Unitary authority |
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| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Dorchester |
| Postcode district | DT2 |
| Police | Dorset |
| Fire | Dorset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament |
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Athelhampton is a small village in Dorset, England. It is also known as Admiston or Adminston. The village is about 5 miles (8 km) east of Dorchester.
Athelhampton has a famous old manor house and a former church. In 2013, only about 30 people lived in the village.
Contents
Athelhampton's History
Early Days
The Domesday Book is a very old record from 1086. It shows that the Bishop of Salisbury owned the land then. It was called Pidele.
The name Aethelhelm appeared in the 1200s. At that time, the de Loundres family owned Athelhampton.
The Martyn Family
In 1350, Richard Martyn married the heiress of Pydele. Later, his descendant, Sir William Martin, got permission to create a deer park. He also got permission to make the manor house stronger.
Athelhampton Hall
Athelhampton Hall is a beautiful country house. It was built in the 1400s. It still looks much like it did in the Tudor period.
The Great Hall
The house has a wonderful Great Hall. It has a special roof called a hammerbeam roof. There is also an Elizabethan Kitchen. It has a huge fireplace and was recently restored.
The Gardens
Around the house are 20 acres of gardens. They were first designed in the 1890s by Inigo Thomas. These gardens are very important historically.
The house and gardens are privately owned. But they are open to the public for most of the year.
Building the Hall
Sir William Martyn had the Great Hall built around 1485. A West Wing was added in the mid-1500s. This wing was built at a unique angle to the older part. This makes it special compared to other houses from that time.
A gatehouse and a new kitchen were also added. Sir William's grandson, Robert Martyn, married Elizabeth Kelway. After he died, Elizabeth married Sir John Tregonwell. He had become rich from the dissolution of the monasteries. This wealth might have helped pay for the new parts of the house.
Family Connections
The next generation also brought wealth to the family. Sir William Martyn's great-grandson, Sir Nicholas Martyn, married Margaret Wadham. Margaret's brother, Nicholas Wadham, helped start Wadham College, Oxford. He had no children, so his sisters shared his wealth.
A special brass plaque in St. Mary's Church, Puddletown, shows Sir Nicholas and Lady Margaret. It shows them kneeling with their family. The Great Hall at Athelhampton has beautiful stained glass. It shows the Martyn family's coat of arms mixed with those of families they married into.
Dividing the Estate
Sir Nicholas Martyn had four daughters. When he died in 1596, the house and park were divided among them. Later, three of the daughters' shares were combined. The youngest daughter, Anne, kept her share. Her family, the Floyers, owned it until the mid-1800s.
Later Owners
Sir Robert Long bought the three-quarters share in 1665. The ownership then passed through the Long family.
One owner was Catherine Tylney-Long. She was a very rich heiress. She married William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 4th Earl of Mornington. After her death, her husband gained control of her share of Athelhampton. He sold it in 1848 to George Wood. George Wood also bought the remaining quarter from the Floyer family. This meant the whole estate was owned by one person again after 250 years.
Alfred de Lafontaine's Restoration
In 1890, Alfred de Lafontaine bought the house and some land. For many years, the house had been used as a farmhouse. It was in need of repair. But this also meant it had not been changed much. It still had many original Tudor features.
Lafontaine was interested in old buildings. He knew Thomas Hardy, the famous writer. Hardy had worked on the house as a young stonemason. Lafontaine restored the house carefully. He cleaned and repaired it, rather than changing it. He added modern things like heating in a way that fit the old style.
Thomas Hardy was inspired by Athelhampton. He described a farmhouse in his book Far From the Madding Crowd that was like Athelhampton. He also set a poem, "The Dame of Athelhall," at the house.
Recent History
Lafontaine sold the house in 1916. The Cochrane family bought it in 1918. They built the North Wing in the 1920s.
Later, the Hon Mrs Esmond Harmsworth owned it. Famous visitors like Noël Coward and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. came to the house. In 1949, Rodney Philipps bought it. His wife, Marika, and her mother, Marevna, lived there. Marevna was a Russian-French painter. She painted many pictures of Athelhampton.
In 1957, Robert Victor Cooke bought Athelhampton. His family owned it for three generations. They did important restoration work. They also opened the house and gardens to the public for the first time.
In 1992, a serious fire damaged the east wing.
In 2019, Patrick Cooke retired. The house was bought by Giles Keating. He has done more restoration work. The Elizabethan kitchen has been fully restored and opened to visitors. Many other historic rooms are now open too. The house now uses solar panels and heat pumps. This means it has very low carbon emissions from its energy use.
The Gardens at Athelhampton House
The main part of the gardens at Athelhampton was designed by Inigo Thomas. He created them in 1891–92 for Alfred de Lafontaine. Thomas had studied old English garden designs. He also traveled in Europe to study gardens.
Garden Design
Thomas believed old gardens had three main features:
- They were enclosed (like rooms).
- They were divided into smaller areas.
- They had different levels.
He wanted the house and garden to fit together. When you walk up to the house, you see different "outdoor rooms." There's an area for guests to arrive. There's a circular garden called the Coruna for flowers. And there's a West Lawn perfect for games like croquet.
The Coruna garden is a key part of the design. It's a circular space with stone walls and four gateways. From here, you can see long views, called "axes." One axis links the Great Court (with its tall yew pyramids) to the Private Garden. Another links the Mediterranean Garden to the front of the house. A third axis runs along the lily pond. All these axes are parallel to the house. This makes the garden and house feel like one harmonious whole.
Building the Gardens
Building the gardens was a huge job. Old farm buildings were removed. Lafontaine said that about 40,000 tons of Ham Hill stone were used.
Inigo Thomas's original design is still there today. Many new parts have been added that fit his ideas. To the east, the Lime Walk has beautiful flowers in spring. Beyond that, the Kitchen Garden is a large outdoor room. Its walls are covered in pear trees with roses and Clematis. Inside, there are pergolas made of apple trees.
To the west, more work was planned in 1901 by Thomas Mawson. Some of his plans were built, like the long Yew Alley. This alley runs south from the West Lawn, near an old dovecote. An embankment was built along the River Piddle. This creates a walkway along the water. It connects the eastern and western parts of the gardens.
Parish church
Across the old road is the former Church of England parish church of St John. It was built in 1861–62. The old church was moved away from the house.
The church was designed by John Hicks. Thomas Hardy worked for Hicks at that time. St John's Church was closed in 1975. It then started to fall apart. The Athelhampton Estate bought the church to protect it.
Now, the church is used by the Antiochian Orthodox parish of St Edward King and Martyr. Services are held there every Sunday.
Railway locomotive
A steam train called 6971 Athelhampton Hall was part of the Great Western Railway. It was a Modified Hall Class locomotive. These trains were used for passengers and goods in southern England.
British Railways stopped using 6971 in October 1965. It was then scrapped. The nameplates from the train are now on display at Athelhampton Hall.
Film location
Athelhampton Hall has been used for filming movies and TV shows. These include:
- The 1972 film Sleuth
- The 1976 Doctor Who story The Seeds of Doom
- The 2008 Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp"
- Julian Fellowes’ film From Time to Time, based on a book called The Chimneys of Green Knowe.
Images for kids
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Athelhampton Elizabethan Kitchen, restored 2022, showing the great brick range, serving hatches with dresser, and pot boilers
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View across the Private Garden Lily Pond to the East Facade -- Inigo Thomas' Third Axis
