Woolbridge Manor House
Encyclopedia
Wool, Dorset
Wool is a village in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. The village has a population of 4,118 , though the population has fluctuated over the past 15 years, due to the proximity of military institutions, reaching a high of 4,300 in 1992. The village lies at a historic bridging point on the...
on the North side of the old Wool bridge, a historic crossing point over the River Frome
River Frome, Dorset
The River Frome is a river in Dorset in the south of England. At 30 miles long it is the major chalkstream in southwest England. It is navigable upstream from Poole Harbour as far as the town of Wareham.-Geography:...
, which is now closed to traffic except pedestrians and cyclists due to a bypass and junction.
Structure
Woolbridge Manor House has three storeys of red brick and stone construction, the roof covering is of clay tiles with seven courses of stone slates to the eaves. Many windows around the building have been removed at some time possibly due to the window taxWindow tax
The window tax was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. Some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces , as a result of the tax.-Details:The tax was introduced in England and Wales under...
in 1696.
Woolbridge Manor is said to have been garrisoned in the civil war and still has some of the metal bars set into the remaining ground floor stone mullion windows, as well as a wooden security bar across the front door. Woolbridge Manor was at some time partially demolished and was once much bigger, possibly forming a hollow square with an enclosed courtyard in the center. It is rumoured that a tunnel runs under the river from the Manor to Bindon Abbey
Bindon Abbey
Bindon Abbey was a Cistercian monastery, of which only ruins remain, on the River Frome about half a mile east of Wool in the Purbeck District, Dorset, England.- History :...
.
Wellbridge House
The Manor was mentioned in Thomas HardyThomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
's Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British...
as Wellbridge House where Tess and Angel Clare had their unfortunate honeymoon.
They drove by the level road along the valley to a distance of a few miles, and, reaching Wellbridge, turned away from the village to the left, and over the great Elizabethan bridge which gives the place half its name. Immediately behind it stood the house wherein they had engaged lodgings, whose exterior features are so well known to all travellers through the Froom Valley; once portion of a fine manorial residence, and the property and seat of a D'Urberville, but since its partial demolition a farm-house.
In the house on the first floor landing are the two old mural portraits of Tess's ancestors also mentioned in the book.
Phantom Coach of the Turbervilles
A local legend, also mentioned in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, states that a phantom coach crosses the bridge by Woolbridge Manor at night, but only those with Turberville blood can see it. Various versions of the legend exist, but one, associates the coach with the elopement of John Turberville of Woolbridge with Anne, the daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of BindonThomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon
Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon , was an English peer and politician. He was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Stafford. He served as Custos Rotulorum of Dorset and Vice-Admiral of Dorset. In 1559 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Howard...
.