Place Farm, Tisbury

Shaftesbury Abbey was founded by Alfred the Great in 888. The first religious foundation established for women in England, Alfred's daughter, Æthelgifu was installed as abbess.{{cite web|url=http://shaftesburyabbey.org.uk/history/|title=The Abbey Church of St Mary and St Edward, King and Martyr: History|publisher=Shaftesbury Abbey Museum & Gardens|access-date=30 August 2020}} By the Middle Ages, the abbey had become a very wealthy institution, and it established the grange at Place Farm as the administrative centre of its Wiltshire estates.{{efn|A popular contemporary saying suggested that Shaftesbury's wealth, and that of the neighboring abbey of Glastonbury, was such that, "If the abbot of Glastonbury could marry the abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold more land than the king of England".{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/dorset/vol2/pp73-79|title=House of Benedictine nuns: The abbey of Shaftesbury|publisher=British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk|access-date=30 August 2020}}}} Nikolaus Pevsner, in his Wiltshire Pevsner, dates the buildings at Place Farm to the 14th and 15th centuries.{{sfn|Pevsner|Cherry|2002|p=523}} Anthony Quiney describes the "magnificent scale" of the complex.{{sfn|Quiney|1990|p=162}} The Victoria County History notes that the ancillary features included two chapels, two larder houses, stables, houses for oxen, hay, and charcoal, and a number of fishponds.{{cite web|author-last1=Freeman|author-first1=Jane|author-last2=Stevenson|author-first2=Janet|date=1987|editor-last=Crowley|editor-first=D.A.|title=Victoria County History – Wiltshire – Vol 13 pp195-248: Tisbury|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol13/pp138-155|url-status=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=30 August 2020|website=British History Online|publisher=University of London}} Margaret Wood, in her history, The Medieval English House, wrote that although the gatehouses are not properly defensive in a military sense, they would provide protection "against bands of marauders or discontented peasantry".{{sfn|Wood|1994|p=156}} At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 Place Farm passed into private ownership. In the 19th century, the farm became part of the Fonthill estate of the Morrison family, who continue in ownership.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fonthill.co.uk/history/|title=History|publisher=The Fonthill Estate|access-date=30 August 2020}} The tithe barn is let to Messum's, the art dealers,{{Cite web|url=http://messumswiltshire.com/|title=Messums Wiltshire - Gallery and Arts Centre|publisher=Messums Wiltshire|access-date=30 August 2020}} while other farm buildings are occupied by the charity, International Cat Care.{{Cite web|url=https://icatcare.org/contact/|title=International Cat Care|publisher=ICC|website=icatcare.org|access-date=30 August 2020}}

The farm house at Place Farm is a Grade I listed building. Dating mainly from the 15th century, it was renovated in the 19th. It is constructed of rubble stone, with a tiled roof. A room in the house has a frieze which carries the initials AM, that probably reference the collector Alfred Morrison who owned the estate in the 19th century.{{NHLE|desc=Place Farmhouse|num=1184177|grade=I|accessdate=30 August 2020}} The estate buildings which form three sides of a courtyard are listed Grade II.{{NHLE|desc=Farm buildings at Place Farm|num=1146020|grade=II|accessdate=30 August 2020|fewer-links=yes}} The tithe barn, which at 200ft long is reputed to be the largest barn in England,{{sfn|Pevsner|Cherry|2002|p=523}}{{sfn|Norwich|1985|p=682}} has a Grade I listing.{{NHLE|desc=Tithe barn at Place Farm|num=1318824|grade=I|accessdate=30 August 2020|fewer-links=yes}} The barn was originally tiled, but now has a thatched roof,{{efn|Alec Clifton-Taylor, the architectural historian, calculated the roof required 1,450 square yards of thatch.{{sfn|Pevsner|Cherry|2002|p=523}} John Julius Norwich noted the "heroical" scale of the effort required to undertake the thatching.{{sfn|Norwich|1985|p=682}}}} which was renewed in 1971.{{sfn|Pevsner|Cherry|2002|p=523}} The barn is thirteen bays long, with a cruck truss roof structure. The inner and outer gatehouses are also listed at Grade I.{{NHLE|desc=Inner gatehouse at Place Farm|num=1146019|grade=I|accessdate=30 August 2020|fewer-links=yes}}{{NHLE|desc=Outer gatehouse at Place Farm|num=1300237|grade=I|accessdate=30 August 2020|fewer-links=yes}} Historic England considers the complex at Place Farm, "one of the finest surviving groups of monastic grange buildings in England".

File:Outer Gatehouse of Place Farm.jpg| Outer gatehouse

File:Place Farm, Tisbury - geograph.org.uk - 326506.jpg| Inner gatehouse, to the left, and farmhouse

File:The Tithe Barn at Place Farm - Tisbury - geograph.org.uk - 707316.jpg| Tithe barn

File:Tithe Barn, Tisbury, from east.JPG| Tithe barn (long view)

{{notes}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Cite book

|last=Norwich

|first=John Julius

|authorlink=John Julius Norwich

|title=The Architecture of Southern England

|url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/642298108

|year=1985

|publisher=Macmillan

|location=London

|isbn=978-0-333-22037-5

|oclc=642298108

}}

• {{cite book | last1 = Pevsner | first1 = Nikolaus

| last2 = Cherry | first2 = Bridget

| authorlink1 = Nikolaus Pevsner

| authorlink2 = Bridget Cherry

| title = Wiltshire

| series = The Buildings Of England

| year = 2002

| url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49298090

| publisher = Yale University Press

| location = New Haven, US and London

| isbn = 978-0-300-09659-0

| oclc = 49298090

}}

• {{Cite book

|last=Quiney

|first=Anthony

|authorlink=Anthony Quiney

|title=The Traditional Buildings of England

|url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/802622322

|year=1990

|publisher=Thames & Hudson

|location=London

|isbn=978-0-500-34110-0

|oclc=802622322

}}

• {{Cite book

|last=Wood

|first=Margaret

|title=The English Medieval House

|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/246597155

|year=1994

|origyear=1965

|publisher=Studio Editions

|location=London

|isbn= 978-1-858-91167-0

|oclc=246597155

}}

Category:Grade I listed buildings in Wiltshire

Category:Tithe barns in Europe

Category:Grade I listed farmhouses in England

Category:Grade I listed barns in England