It’s no wonder that Beaminster is set in an Area of Outstanding National Beauty – a space that covers almost half of Dorset and is part of a family of nationally important, protected landscapes. On the doorstep of the Jurassic Coast, Beaminster boasts a hive of independent shops in the town, and a history that extends for many generations.
But one of the big reasons people love to visit Beaminster is the beautiful Mapperton House and Gardens – just a stone’s throw from The Ollerod.
Home to the Earl and Countess of Sandwich, Mapperton is a glorious sandstone manor house and romantic valley garden deep in a lost Dorset combe among tumbling hills and unspoiled countryside.
During the Spring and Summer months, it’s the Gardens that attract visitors from all over the world with fifteen acres that offer the visitor a formal view of the topiary through to an abundant wild garden that is home to a bustling Dorset animal life.
“Mapperton was entered in the Domesday Book 1086 as Malperetone. It was then the property of William de Moion, Sheriff of Somerset, who earned 70 shillings from arable land for four ploughs, twenty acres of meadow and pasture, woodlands and a mill.
From then on Mapperton belonged to only four families linked by descent in the female line – the Bretts, Morgans, Brodrepps and Comptons – until it was bought in 1919 by Mrs Ethel Labouchere. Since her death in 1955 it has been the home of the Montagus, currently the Earl and Countess of Sandwich.”
For more information about visiting Mapperton House and Gardens, visit their website here.
