Home truths: Author’s book reveals

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

An author from Portesham has charted the history of Chickerell’s Grade II listed Montevideo House – now The Queen Charlotte Care Home.

Chris Miller has been intrigued by the grand home, built some time between 1804 and 1811, since he was a child. He says in his foreword: “Entering the house for the first time, perhaps as an eight-year-old or younger, it was the interior that made a deeper or lasting impression on me. It seemed huge, with so many rooms, each serving a different purpose: a vast kitchen with an enormous table at its centre, a billiards room, a drawing room with a large marble fire surround and tapestries and oil paintings on the walls, the library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on either side of another marble fireplace.

“But what really engaged my curiosity was the row of bells, with labels below, by which a servant could be summoned to a particular room.”

Chris’s fascination with the stately home deepened and when the country locked down during the first wave of covid he decided to use the time to research its history. He hit ancestry.com and newspaper archives in a bid to uncover who built it and why it was called Montevideo House. He discovered, by studying other stately homes in West Dorset, that Montevideo House was built by Joseph Horsford, a wealthy Weymouth solicitor.

“He was prone to shady dealings during parliamentary elections,” said Chris.

Then in 1832 wealthy London silversmith John Bridge bought the property for his son and then a nephew to live there. The nephew’s diary provided rich pickings for details in the book, entitled The Intriguing History of a Gentleman’s Residence in Dorset, priced £6.95 from Waterstones (Dorchester and Bridport), the Bookshop in South Street, Bridport, Books Afloat in Park Street, Weymouth and Cherries Café in Abbotsbury.

This nephew (Thomas Bridge) was part of an armed band of local gentry, who faced down a group of ‘Captain Swing’ rioters in 1830.

John Bridge gave another nephew (Robert Bridge) a farm and land in Broadwey, near Weymouth. Around 1850, he chose to name this land ‘Lorton’ (after Lorton Hall in Cumberland – the ancestral home of his second wife). The area is still known as Lorton

CPRE’s fears for ‘abandoned’ listed building

The Sherborne branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has said it is “deeply concerned at the parlous state” of Newell House, a Grade II listed building at the junction of the A30 and Marston Road.

The CPRE says the western side of the house is thought to date back to the 17th century and the house was listed as far back as

1950 but has now deteriorated and is on the At Risk register.

Alongside the house is a listed barn that dates back to the early to mid-16th century.

Sherborne CPRE chairman

Sir Christopher Coville said: “Despite approaches to Dorset Council at the highest levels, it is clear that our county representatives are either powerless or disinclined to take any positive action to preserve our precious heritage buildings.

“We find it disappointing that a house listed 72 years ago by an official government agency is then effectively abandoned by local authorities when it deteriorates. It is sadly ironic that as Sherborne House is being transformed into a remarkable asset for the town centre, another even older much-loved building has been allowed to become derelict. “Something must be done before it is too late.”