Benjamin Bastard was a British architect during the first half of the 18th century working in the

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

area of England. A member of a notable family of west country architect-surveyors and masons, he was related to the

Bastard brothers John (ca 1688–1770) and William Bastard (ca 1689–1766) were British surveyor-architects, and civic dignitaries of the town of Blandford Forum in Dorset. John and William generally worked together and are known as the "Bastard brothers". Th ...

who rebuilt

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...

following its great fire of 1731. Bastard was responsible for the

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

Sherborne House, at

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo (South Somerset), River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish include ...

in Dorset built in the 1720s. The accomplished design of this mansion like the works of the Bastard brothers shows late Baroque influences such as those found in the works of Wren and

Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor ( – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principal architects ...

. In style and design it could be compared to

Winslow Hall Winslow Hall is a country house, now in the centre of the small town of Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England. Built in 1700, it was sited in the centre of the town, with a public front facing the highway and a garden front that still commanded i ...

attributed to Sir

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

Chicheley Hall Chicheley Hall, Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, England, is a country house built in the first quarter of the 18th century. The client was Sir John Chester, the main architect was Francis Smith of Warwick and the architectural style is Baroque. La ...

like Winslow Hall also in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. Sherborne House has a three bayed centre projecting from two symmetrical flanking wings each of two bays. The tall slim windows are typical of the English Baroque period which immediately predated the Palladian period. The Baroque style is further emphasised by the broken segmental pediment and

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

of the main entrance. However, the facade, with its central pediment and the balustrade concealing the roof line are devoid of ornament in the Palladian tradition. The only relief from the severity of the facade coming from the

quoining Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, t ...

at each corner. In 1743 Bastard was commissioned to design a hospital for the reception of the poor, later known as the Dorchester parish workhouse. This building has been much altered but the original block can still be discerned as Palladian, albeit in a very severe and chaste form as would have been thought fitting for such an institution at the time. There is a wall monument with a pediment to Benjamin and Thomas Bastard, dated 1772, on the external face of the north wall of the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, Castleton,

in Dorset. The inscription has weathered away. Inside the nave, on the north wall of the north aisle is a monument to Elizabeth Bastard (née Prankerd), wife of Benjamin Bastard, 1732–3, and their son Benjamin. This is a marble wall monument with side-scrolls, pediment, urn and cherub's head.RCHME 1952:211

Notes

References

* *Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England 1952
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset Vol 1 - West
' London, HMSO

retrieved 7 March 2007

External links

Image of Dorchester Workhouse originally by Benjamin Bastard
retrieved 7 March 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bastard, Benjamin Artists from Dorset English Baroque architects Palladian architecture Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown