A 14th-century manor hall and its private upper room, under elaborate oak roofs, sit by the River Stour near Sturminster Newton
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Underneath its two steeply pitched roofs, Fiddleford Manor keeps some of the best-preserved 14th-century carpentry in Dorset — arched trusses and cusped wind-braces, a pattern of curved cross-braces, holding up both the hall and the private room, or solar, beside it.
William Latimer, sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, built the house around 1370, some fifteen years after marrying into the Fiddleford estate. The private room upstairs, his own solar, still has a fragment of medieval wall painting, part of an angel from a scene of the Annunciation.
The building changed hands and shape many times after Latimer’s day. The Whites remodelled it in the 16th century, and around 1660 the hall was shortened by about two metres and given the end wall you see today. By the mid-20th century the oldest part stood derelict, and it was restored to its current state in the 1970s.
Fiddleford is free to visit, though hours are set rather than round-the-clock. Sturminster Newton is a short walk away, and the Stour Valley Way footpath runs along the riverbank right outside.
