Mapperton is a hamlet and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of ...

, England, south-east of Beaminster.

Dorset County Council Dorset County Council (DCC) was the county council for the county of Dorset in England. It provided the upper tier of local government, below which were district councils, and town and parish councils. The county council had 46 elected council ...

estimated that the population of the parish was 60 in 2013.

Parish

The parish of Mapperton is comparatively small at . The population has always been low, rising to a peak of 123 in 1821, before falling to 76 in 1901 and 50 in 1931. After the Second World War it dropped further; only 21 residents remained in 1961. Listed as ''Malperetone'' in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, the name means "farmstead where maple trees grow".

Mapperton House

Mapperton is noted for its manor house, with both house and gardens open to the public during the summer months. The house is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ire ...

, as is the attached All Saints' Church which dates from the 12th century. The manor had been owned since the 11th century by only four families (Brett, Morgan, Brodrepp, Compton), all linked by the female line, before it was sold to Ethel Labouchere in 1919. When she died in 1955 it was acquired by Victor Montagu,

Viscount Hinchingbrooke Earl of Sandwich is a noble title in the Peerage of England, held since its creation by the House of Montagu. It is nominally associated with Sandwich, Kent. It was created in 1660 for the prominent naval commander Admiral Sir Edward Montagu. ...

. When he died in 1995 it passed to his son, The 11th Earl of Sandwich. Robert Morgan built a Tudor manor on the present site in the 1540s, and part of it remains as the north wing of the present building. The house was largely rebuilt in the 1660s by Richard Brodrepp, with the addition of the hall and west front, as well as the dovecote and stable blocks. A second Richard Brodrepp created the Georgian staircase in the 18th century. In 2006 the house was voted the "Nation's Finest Manor House" by '' Country Life'' magazine. The tomb of Richard Brodrepp in the church dates from 1739 and was designed by Peter Scheemakers. The grounds and formal gardens are Grade II* listed. An Italianate garden laid was out in the 1920s and a wild garden in the 1950s. In 2020, the gardens were named Historic Houses Garden of the Year. The house is run by Viscount and Viscountess Hinchingbrooke. In January 2023, they announced plans to open the house for a limited number of private tours.

Gallery

File:Mapperton parish church, window detail - geograph.org.uk - 517667.jpg, All Saints' church, Mapperton File:Mapperton Manor House Tudor Wing Gable - detail - geograph.org.uk - 868285.jpg, A lion representing the Morgan family is one of two heraldic beasts at Mapperton, sitting atop barley-twist columns on the gable end of the Tudor wing

Filming location

The manor house was used in the filming of the 1996 film ''

Emma Emma may refer to: * Emma (given name) Film * Emma (1932 film), ''Emma'' (1932 film), a comedy-drama film by Clarence Brown * Emma (1996 theatrical film), ''Emma'' (1996 theatrical film), a film starring Gwyneth Paltrow * Emma (1996 TV film), '' ...

'', in which it became Randalls, the home of Mrs Weston; the 1997 BBC version of ''

The History of Tom Jones ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', often known simply as ''Tom Jones'', is a comic novel by English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. It is a '' Bildungsroman'' and a picaresque novel. It was first published on 28 February 1749 i ...

''; and the 2015 version of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wo ...

's '' Far from the Madding Crowd''. The manor was used again in ''

Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

'' as Manderley's garden, which is open to the public from Spring to Autumn.

References

External links

Mapperton House
– official site {{Authority control Civil parishes in Dorset Hamlets in Dorset