Scaplen's Court
{{short description|Museum and listed building in Poole, Dorset, England}}
{{Use British English| date=September 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates| date=September 2016}}
File:Scaplens Court Museum & Garden (geograph 3085845).jpg
Scaplen's Court is a fifteenth century Grade I listed house in Poole, Dorset, England, adjacent to the Poole Museum. The house is now used as a museum focusing on life in Poole between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, and includes a Victorian schoolroom and kitchen.{{cite news| url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/southernengland/721216/Bournemouth-Peter-Hardys-guide.html| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080926034943/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/southernengland/721216/Bournemouth-Peter-Hardys-guide.html| url-status= dead| archive-date= 26 September 2008| title= Bournemouth: Peter Hardy's guide| last=Hardy| first=Peter| work=The Daily Telegraph| date=1 August 1998| accessdate=29 September 2016}}{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Ot-vCwAAQBAJ&q=Scaplen%27s+Court+history| title= The Macmillan Guide to the United Kingdom 1978–79| publisher=Macmillan Publishers| page=204| date=1979| isbn= 9781349815111| access-date=29 September 2016}}
History
Scaplen's Court was originally built in the late fifteenth century as a house for a rich merchant, and the style of the house was indicative of the prosperity of Poole at the time.{{cite book| url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol2/pp189-240| title=An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 2, South east. | volume=2| publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office| via=British History Online| date=1970| accessdate=29 September 2016}} The house was originally L-shaped, and was built of Purbeck and Bath stone, and cobbles from Poole Quay. The history of the house is uncertain, but a doorway in the courtyard displays the Poole shield of arms.{{cite book| title=The Book of Poole: Harbour and Town| last=Legg| first=Rodney|page=23| isbn=1841144118| publisher=Halsgrove| date=2005}} It is believed that a maid named Agnes Beard was murdered at the house in 1598, and there are suggestions that her ghost haunts the house.{{cite web|url= http://www.whtimes.co.uk/cmlink/compass-hampshire-and-dorset/out-about/places/most_haunted_places_in_hampshire_and_dorset_1_2993516| title= Most haunted places in Hampshire and Dorset| publisher=WH Times| date=13 November 2013| accessdate=29 September 2016}} It has also been suggested by local historians that the building may have been Poole's Old Town House, the first guildhall in the town, and that in the seventeenth century it was known as the George's Inn, and was occupied by the Roundheads during the English Civil War.{{cite web| url= http://www.poole.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/museums-and-local-history/museum/scaplens-court/| title= Scaplen's Court Museum| publisher=Poole Borough Council| accessdate=9 October 2016}} During the eighteenth century, the house was acquired by John Scaplen, after whom the building is now named. In 1927, the Society of Poole Men bought the house for £16,000 and spent £430 on renovating the property. During the renovation, a shilling from the time of Mary I was found at the house.{{cite news| url= http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19280524/117/0001| work=Hull Daily Mail| date=24 May 1928| page=1 |title=Register |access-date=15 June 2023 |url-access=subscription |via=British Newspaper Archive}} The building was opened to the public for the first time in 1929. In 1931, the house obtained a map believed to be the oldest map of Poole, which dated from 1643.{{cite news| url= http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000407/19310710/094/0012| title= An Early Map| work=Western Gazette| date=10 July 1931| page=12| accessdate=29 September 2016| via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }} The museum became a Grade I listed building in 1954,{{cite web| url= http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-412507-old-town-house-scaplens-court-museum-#.V-10-vArLIU| title= Old Town House (Scaplens Court Museum), Poole| publisher=British Listed Buildings| accessdate=29 September 2016}} and was restored in 1986. In 2006/7, the museum was used to dry an Iron Age boat that had been recovered from Poole Harbour in 1964; the boat is now on display at the nearby Poole Museum.{{cite news| url= http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/iron-age-boat-conservation-nearly-982161| title= Iron Age boat conservation nearly done| work=Manchester Evening News| date=15 February 2007| accessdate=29 September 2016}}
References
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Category:Grade I listed houses in Dorset
Category:Grade I listed museum buildings