The Cambridge Society of Dorset invite you to join them on Wednesday 29th June 2022 there will be the opportunity to visit Wolfeton House, the ancient seat of the Jurdains, de Mohuns and Trenchards. It stands in the water meadows west of Dorchester, near the confluence of the Cerne and Frome rivers. The name is of Saxon origin, from Ulf, and Ulfton gradually turned into Wolfeton.  It is likely therefore that a house has been standing there since the Saxon era, though the present building dates from ‘only’ the early 16th century.  It was neglected during the 18th century, rescued in 1862, converted into flats after the Second world War (!)  and acquired by the present owners, Captain and Mrs Nigel Thimbleby in the 1960s (themselves connected to the Mohun and Trenchard families), and they have done much to restore it to its Elizabethan and Jacobean glory.

Wolfeton House was described by Thomas Hardy as “an ivied manor flanked by battlemented towers, more than usually distinguished by the size of its mullioned windows”.  Although reduced in size, it has still been called “a beautiful and romantic building, suggesting the proud rivalry that must have existed between the great Dorset families of the 16th Century, the Trenchards and Durbervilles, the Horseys and Martyns.”  Magnificent oak work, moulded plaster ceilings and a monumental stone staircase, unique for its period (about 1580) are among the attractions and points of interest – and of course a ghost.