Chettle House
This stunning Queen Anne house was commissioned by the Chafin family and designed by Thomas Archer in 1710 to replace their Elizabethan manor house. It is reputed that the house took 25 years to build, with all the materials coming from the neighbouring countryside. The house has no corners - all corners are rounded in common with the style of Thomas Archer, an example of which is found at the Church in Smith Square, London.
The last of the Chafins died in 1818, and Chettle House was bought by the Castleman family in 1846, and they undertook an extensive programme of renovation including rebuilding the chancel, nave and vestry of Chettle Church. In 1946, Edward Castleman died and Chettle House was inherited by his niece Esther Bourke, the grandmother of current owners, Peter and Fiona Bourke.
The Gardens
The beautiful gardens blend traditional structure with modern design. A croquet lawn, flanked on one side by herbaceous borders, fills the foreground to the park while the borders in the main garden surround a sunken lawn.
The plantings are stunning and offer colour and interest throughout the seasons, and include a variegated liriodendron, a stauntonia growing over an old yew, a holboellia, a small rose garden, a fine display of campsis in late summer, some 60 clematis cultivars and 23 cultivars of lonicera. This garden is the original home of the very pretty and popular 'Chettle Charm' (Campanula persicifolia) with its distinctive white flower and blue fringe.
Opening Times
The House and Gardens are open on Easter Sunday, and then on the first and second Sunday of each month, April – October, from 11.00am – 5.00pm.
Admission includes access to the House & Gardens: £4.50 for adults, accompanied children under 16 free.
Tea and Dorset homemade cakes served from the tearooms in the barrel-vaulted basement of the House.
Film Location
Chettle House is a popular film location having played host to several period and contemporary dramas
