Hooke

52 HOOKE (C.d.)

(O.S. 6 in. ^(a)XXIX, N.E. ^(b)XXX, N.W.)

Hooke is a parish 4 m. S.E. of Beaminster. The church and Hooke Court are the principal monuments.

Ecclesiastical

^b(1) Parish Church of St. Giles stands on the E. side of the parish. The walls are of local rubble with ashlar facing and freestone; the roofs are tiled. The Chancel and Nave were built about the middle of the 15th century and the South Chapel, called the Lord's Aisle, was added early in the 16th century. A S. porch and a bell-cote were destroyed in the restoration of 1874–6, when the chancel-arch was rebuilt and the South Tower and the Vestry were added.

Architectural Description—The Chancel (9 ft. by 13 ft.) has a 15th-century E. window of three trefoiled lights with tracery in a two-centred head with a label. In the S. wall is a modern doorway. The chancel-arch is modern. The modern vestry incorporates a 15th-century window and doorway; the former is of one trefoiled light and the latter has moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head with quatre-foiled spandrels enclosing paterae.

The Nave (36¾ ft. by 14 ft.) has, in the N. wall, two 15th-century windows both of three cinque-foiled lights in square heads; the eastern has been much restored; the western has ogee heads to the lights and a label with head-stops; the window is set in a recess. In the S. wall is an early 16th-century arch, which is moulded and three-centred, the inner member on each side springs from attached shafts with moulded bases and carved capitals; the outer member on each face has a band of running foliage ornament and between the shafts and on the soffit is a band of quatrefoils enclosing shields; the shield at the apex bears the arms of Coleshill impaling Cheyney, for Sir John Coleshill and Elizabeth (Cheyney) his wife; the 15th-century S. doorway has chamfered jambs and two-centred head. In the W. wall is a 15th-century doorway with moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head with a label and head-stops of a bishop and a king; the traceried spandrels have paterae; the W. window is similar to the E. window.

The South Chapel (19 ft. by 12¼ ft.) has an early 16th-century E. window of two four-centred lights in a square head with moulded reveals and label. In the N. wall is a restored fireplace-recess. In the S. wall are three windows uniform with that in the E. wall. In the W. wall is a modern doorway.

Fittings—Bell: one dated 1563, perhaps by W. Purdue. Brass: In nave—on N. wall, to Edmond Semar, 1523–4, inscription only. Font: elongated hexagonal bowl, set against wall, outer faces with panels enclosing six-pointed figures or quatre-foiled panels enclosing paterae, one similar panel on two diagonal sides towards wall, cylindrical stem with moulded capital and base, 15th-century. Monuments: In S. chapel—on E. wall, (1) to Samuel Rawlins, 1847, and Anne, his wife, 1848, slate wall-tablet in Gothic framing. In churchyard—S. of S. chapel, (2) to Henry Minterne, 1651–2, and others later, table-tomb. Niches: In nave —in N. wall, with side-standards and three-sided canopy with crocketed heads and spire and pinnacles between the heads, angel-corbel, 15th-century, moved from S.W. angle of nave; in E. splay of N.W. window, bracket carved with angel holding shield, and three-sided canopy with angle-pinnacles, 15th-century. Piscina: In tower—reset in W. wall, recess with crude trefoiled head, mediæval. Plate: includes Elizabethan cup and cover-paten, the former with a band of engraved ornament and the latter with the date 1574. Recess: in chancel—in N. wall, with moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head, 15th-century. Stoup: In S.W. angle of tower, roun bowl, reset.

Secular

^a(2) Hooke Court, house and moat, 500 yards N.W. of the church. The House is of three storeys with cellars; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. It belonged to the Stafford family in the 16th century and, according to Coker, Humphrey Stafford built the house, c. 1407; this may apply to the E. wing. It passed to the Paulets (Marquis of Winchester) in 1609 and William Paulet probably built the S. part of the S. wing. The house was damaged by fire in the Civil War and the middle part of the S. wing seems to be a reconstruction of this date. The N. part of the same wing seems to be an addition of the 18th century. The house has been extensively altered and modernised and there are modern additions on the N. and E. The W. part of the S. wing has a three-storeyed main block with a modern central porch; the S. part of this block is of early 17th-century date and has stone-mullioned windows with elliptical heads; the northern part has windows with four-centred heads and relieving arches and is probably that part of the building reconstructed after the fire. The two-storeyed N. block is probably of the 18th century but has modern windows. The S. end and E. side of this wing have been refaced. The N. face of the 15th-century E. wing was divided into five bays by buttresses, the marks of which can be seen on the wall and the base of one of which survives; part of the moulded plinth of the main wall also remains; the outlines of three original windows with pointed heads remain and there is the square-headed outlet of a garde-robe shaft. The base of a mediæval wall has recently been found running diagonally away to the N.E. of this range. The S. face has no features earlier than the 18th century. The interior of the house has been much altered but in the Dining Room is a reset fireplace (Plate 46); it has moulded jambs and square head with rounded angles and above it is a frieze of three sub-cusped quatrefoils enclosing foliage and a shield-of-arms of Paulet. In the attics are some fragments of loose stonework and some 17th-century moulded plaster-work. In the garden of the house is a 15th-century head of a two-light window.

The Moat surrounded the early house but the W. and part of the N. sides have been filled in. The N. arm closely skirted the 15th-century wing.

^b(3) Cottage, two tenements, 260 yards S.E. of the church, is of two storeys; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. It was built probably early in the 18th century.