Deans Court, Wimborne
VISIT TO DEANS COURT, WIMBORNE
At 11.30am on 5th October twenty or so enthusiastic members of the Historic Visitors Group, led by Bill Titley, assembled at the main entrance to Deans Court. Our guide, Paul, ushered us from the North Front of the house into the Dining Room to be seated around the large Victorian dining table. Paul detailed the extremely varied history of the Hanham family who have inhabited the house for fourteen generations. Family portraits and interesting objets d'art were to be admired in all rooms of the house, with portraits dating from the sixteenth century to Sir Willam Hanham who succeeded his father in 2009.
The house stands on the site of a mediaeval Deanery. The main building is two storeys with attics and basements, has brick walls with ashlar dressings and tiled roofs.The north and east ranges were constructed in 1725 enclosing the mediaeval hall in the angle. From the Dining Room, Hall and Library we negotiated the cantilevered staircase which has stone steps, wrought iron balustrades and mahogany handrails. Certain bedrooms on the first floor were decorated and furnished by the fashionable company, Liberty's, in the 1930's.
From the interior of the house, we gathered at the east front of the bulinding to be provded with a tour of the grounds by our guide, Adrian. We viewed the bridge over the River Allen constructed by Lady Cordelia Hanham, 19th/20th century, to allow her to travel south of Wimborne without passing through the town. Lady Cordelia had apparently fought lengthy legal arguments with the town authorities concerning ownership of the access road into Deans Court from the town. She refused to enter the town again and furthermore, negotiated her own private pedestrian way in order to worship at Wimborne Minster.
After the bridge we viewed the lake (covered in algae), marquee wedding facilities, garden areas and specimen trees to finalize our visit in the large Kitchen garden, a very well tended area operating the "no dig" method of horticulture. The Garden wall, serpentine on plan, is composed of attractive brickwork with ashlar coping.
The Kitchen Garden concluded our thoroughly enjoyable and interesting visit to Deans Court.
Peter Slocombe & Marie Harris