Mapperton House offers the benefits of a complete wedding day in one place. It is a stunning and versatile location and you and your guests have exclusive use of the glorious and romantic garden surroundings in one of Britain's finest manor houses. Civil wedding and partnership ceremonies take place at the Garden Pavilion or in The Sawmill. Catering for receptions of all sizes and styles; from an intimate sit down dinner in The Sawmill to a wedding breakfast and evening party in a marquee on the croquet lawn. The idyllic surroundings are a photographer's dream as well as a perfect place for your guests to relax and enjoy the tranquil beauty. Mapperton is available for weddings and receptions throughout the year.

The manor house with its church, stable block, coach house, dovecote and courtyard identifies with its countryside, a glorious harmony of golden sandstone. The house, Elizabethan in origin, enlarged in the late 1670's is a marvellous example of a West Country manor in harmony with its surroundings, growing into the landscape with every century.

Mapperton Gardens are a romantic valley garden deep in a lost Dorset combe among tumbling hills and unspoilt countryside. The gardens descend from the great lawn, through the formal topiary down to the woodland garden. The gardens contain many secret paths and walks and the surrounding countryside is an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Early History

Mapperton was entered in the Domesday Book 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. In 1919 by Mrs Ethel Labouchere bought the Manor House, since her death in 1955 it has been the home of the Montagu family who formerly had a house at Hooke.

The gabled north wing with its twisted chimneys and finials is all that remains of Robert Morgan's Tudor manor, built from golden Ham Hill stone in the 1540's. Mapperton has remained almost unchanged since the plague of 1665-6 which claimed many of its inhabitants. The buildings consist of the main manor house, church, stables, dovecote and outbuildings, forming a harmonious group. They stand on level ground looking across terraced gardens, grass banks and wooded hills which descend steeply to the south.

After the plague, according to Hutchins, "the tenements fell into the lord's hand, and have all been pulled down". The new owner, Richard Brodrepp, rebuilt the hall and west front and also erected the two stable blocks. The balustrade was added in the 18th century when a later Richard Brodrepp, a magistrate, created the Georgian staircase hall and north front.

Mapperton House Postcode is DT8 3NR, the full address being Mapperton House and Gardens, Beaminster, Dorset, DT8 3NR

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