Dowsby Hall

About this place

Dowsby Hall stands in the village of Dowsby, six miles north of Bourne in Lincolnshire.

This Jacobean house dates from around 1610 and was built for the Burrell family, with a design attributed to architect John Thorpe.

It is one of only a handful of surviving buildings linked to Thorpe, who trained in the Royal Office of Works.

The east front is faced in fine ashlar limestone.

Originally known locally as 'the house of twenty chimneys', the hall featured a symmetrical south range and long gallery overlooking the fens before being reduced to roughly half its original size when it became a farmhouse in the late eighteenth century.

The house is listed Grade II* and can be visited by appointment through Historic Houses.

History

The house was built for the Burrell family around 1610, with a design attributed to John Thorpe, who trained in the Royal Office of Works and drew up plans for Sir William Rigon shortly after his knighthood in 1603. Known locally as 'the house of twenty chimneys', it originally had a symmetrical south range and a long gallery looking out over the undrained fens, before being reduced to its present size when it became a farmhouse in the late eighteenth century.

Architecture

The surviving range shows Jacobean brickwork and ashlar limestone facing, with Thorpe's design reflecting the fashionable classical symmetry of the early seventeenth century. The house is listed Grade II*, and only around a handful of Thorpe's buildings are known to survive.

Worth knowing

From about 1920 to 1987 the hall was farmed by Henry Burtt, who suggested the idea for the radio drama The Archers to BBC producer Godfrey Baseley.