Fallardeston

Description

Nicholas Benton (Bayntun) obtained, at the request of William Montacute, in 1376, licence to crenellate his 'muros domorum suarum in manerio suo de Fallardeston, Wilts.'

Dovecote at Faulston House. Early C17. Flint with dressed limestone bands, conical tiled roof with raised conical louvre at apex. Formerly of several storeys, now open from ground to roof. North side facing Faulston House has tall chamfered doorway, upper part now blocked, to left is first floor planked door and recessed chamfered square windows or loopholes. West side has blocked Tudor-arched opening at upper floor level and several loopholes. South side has one blocked and one open recessed chamfered window. Interior has stone corbels to former first floor, walls above are lined with stone pigeon boxes, renewed roof timbers. According to local legend and John Aubrey there were once four such towers around the moated Faulston House, but this has not been substantiated. (Listed Building Report)

Fallersdowne, vulgo Falston, was built by a Baynton, about perhaps Henry the Fifth. Here was a noble old-fashioned house, with a mote about it and drawbridge, and strong high walles embatteled. They did consist of a layer of freestone and a layer of flints, squared or headed; two towers faced the south, one the east, the other the west end. After the garrison was gonn the mote was filled up, about 1650, and the high wall pulled down and one of the towers. Baynton was attainted about Henry the Sixth. Afterwards the Lord Chief Justice Cheyney had it About the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, ….. Vaughan of Glamorganshire bought it; and about 1649, Sir George Vaughan sold it to Philip Earle of Pembroke. (Aubrey)

Faulston was the home of the Bayntons probably from the earlier 14th century to the early 16th. Traces of a moat can be seen on the north, east, and south sides of the present house, and in the southeast angle of the enclosure there is a tall circular tower with evidence of high abutting walls on two sides. The tower, which is of alternate bands of stone and faced flint, may date from the licence to crenellate granted to Nicholas Baynton in 1376, but its only architectural feature is a late-medieval doorway to the southern wall-walk. The house may have lain within the walled enclosure or have formed one side of it with a walled court to the south. It passed with the manor and was occupied by the Vaughans. It was 'slighted' in 1645. Aubrey described Faulston House as 'noble old-fashioned'. He mentioned its moat, embattled walls, and two south-facing towers. A short stretch of walling forming part of the south-west corner of the present house is of similar character to the tower, and the main east wall of the house has in it four doorways of late-15th- or 16th-century character which suggest that it may have been part of a screens passage or entrance hall. The double pile plan of the house, however, dates from a mid-17th-century reconstruction, presumably after the manor changed hands in 1649, and there are mullioned windows of that period in the north and west walls. The house was remodelled in the early 19th century when the south entrance front was refenestrated and the present staircase was inserted, and again later in that century when the kitchen was partly rebuilt, and perhaps reduced in size, and the interior was refitted. (VCH)

Comments

This surviving dovecote does seem to much remodelled and may be earlier than C17 and may have been something other than a dovecote originally, possibly a tower of Nicholas Benton's house. It is also suggested that the cellar of the current Faulston House may be medieval.