Philipps House

The estate of the South family may originate in the holding of the Mauduits in Dinton. In the mid-12th century Ancelin Mauduit, who may have been a descendant of the Gunfrid of the Domesday Survey, held 2 hides on the manor, and in 1242 three mesne tenants held land in Dinton of Joanna Mauduit, who held of the Abbess of Shaftesbury. In 1567 the freehold estate of Thomas South included lands called Mauduits, Wick, Gerrards, and Uptons, then occupied by William Dunne.

Ten years later Thomas South settled 'the manor or farm of Dinton called Mauduit's' upon his son Thomas’s marriage with Martha Goldston. The younger Thomas died in 1606 and the 'manor of Dinton Mauduits' passed to his son Edward. Edward was succeeded by Richard South, probably his son, who in 1630 acquired from William Rolfe the property which Rolfe had acquired five years earlier from John Mayhew and Thomas Blake.

In 1689 George South, grandson of Richard, sold his estate to William Wyndham, second surviving son of Sir Wadham Wyndham of Norrington and Salisbury. Thus the estate acquired by the Wyndhams, later called the Dinton Park estate, included the freehold estate of the Souths, situated in Dinton and Teffont, and that of the Mayhews which had passed to the Souths in 1630.

The Dinton Park estate was much enlarged in the 18th and early 19th centuries by acquisitions of land in Dinton and Teffont Magna. Among these acquisitions, was the estate known as Dalwood, which Lord Pembroke conveyed to William Wyndham in 1802 in exchange for land elsewhere in the parish. The Dinton Park estate descended from father to eldest son in the Wyndham family until 1916 when William Wyndham sold it to Bertram Erasmus Philipps. In c. 1940 B. E. Philipps let the house on a long lease to the Y.W.C.A. as a holiday home, and in 1943 he gave the house and park, comprising some 200 a., to the National Trust.

Dinton House (also called since 1943 Philipps House) was designed by Jeffry Wyatt (later Sir Jeffry Wyatville) at the beginning of the 19th century to replace the earlier house on almost the same site, which until then had been the home of the Wyndhams. The new house was started in 1814 and completed in 1816. Built of local Chilmark stone from the same quarry that produced the stone for Salisbury Cathedral 600 years earlier. it is a two-storied house with symmetrically set chimney stacks and central lantern.

The well- proportioned south facade, with its rows of sash windows and parapet, is dominated by a graceful Ionic portico which rises to the height of the building.

Inside the house, the rooms are planned round a spacious square hall. The major internal feature is the elegant staircase which rises through the heart of the house and is top-lit from a circular glazed lantern. The lower flight rises grandly from the centre of the hall and divides at a half-landing into two parallel stairs to the first floor.

Brass outlets can be seen in the flagstones of the hall below and these are remnants of the original underfloor heating system which was installed in the 1820s. It was one of the earliest houses to have a central heating system installed. This was achieved by pumping hot air from a boiler in the basement into the stair well. More information on the underfloor heating con be found in village links.

Wyatt also created austere and unadorned interiors with restrained and stylised mahogany doors, cornices and marble chimneypieces.

The principal rooms on the ground floor of Philipps House are open to the public and access to Dinton Park is free.

The National Trust website gives opening hours and facilities available.

Web: House Opening Times

Little Clarendon

Another freehold estate in Dinton at the time of the Inclosure Award was one of about 30 a. belonging to William Maslem Barnes and known as Hayters. The early history of this has not been traced. It was acquired by Henry Hayter of Clarendon Park in 1697 and from the Hayters passed to John Barnes in 1797. It passed to John's brother, William Maslem Barnes, in 1822. During the 19th century the property changed hands a number of times, and in 1901 was bought by the Rev. George Engleheart, a retired Anglican vicar. Engleheart died in 1936 and in 1940 his widow gave the former farmhouse of the estate, by then called Little Clarendon, to the National Trust.

Little Clarendon is a stone farmhouse probably dating from the late 15th or early 16th century. The two- storied porch and mullioned windows are of slightly later date. The gable front of the south-east wing appears to have been added, or re- built, in about 1900. In the angle between this wing and the main block is a stair turret containing a stone newel staircase. The house was completely restored by George Engleheart at the time that he bought it when it was sometimes called Steps.

Known his lifetime as 'the daffodil maker', Rev. Engleheart introduced many of the most popular daffodils grown today. He bred his daffodils over a period of 50 years first in Hampshire and then in Dinton. He was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour in 1900 by the Royal Horticultural Society for his achievements and some of his daffodils are still to be seen in the fields behind Little Clarendon and in 'The Hangings'.

The Rev. Engelheart's wife, Mary, converted a bakery in the grounds of the house to create her own Roman Catholic chapel in 1921. This very small chapel, which was part of the Roman Catholic parish of Tisbury, served Dinton and the surrounding are until 1934.

Web: House Opening Times

Hydes House

The rectors of Dinton held a small estate in the parish. This passed with the rectory upon the Dissolution to Sir Thomas Arundell and thenceforth descended like the rectory and advowson until the 1920's when it was sold. In 1567 the rectorial estate included 14 a. of arable divided between three fields on the east side of the manor and 16 a. of arable divided between three fields on the west side of the manor. There was also some 2 a. of meadow and grazing rights for 60 sheep and other beasts. A parsonage house existed at least as early as 1249. In 1567 the house belonging to the rectory estate had a tiled roof, a dovecot, outhouses, and about 2 a. of garden and orchard. The land belonging to the rector was assessed at 49 a. in 1837. It was sold in lots during the 1920's. The Rectory House was sold to Bertram Erasmus Philipps in 1924, and was re- named Hyde's House. It was given by Mr. Philipps in 1943 with Dinton House to the National Trust.

The Rectory House has some walls and windows of Tudor date, but it was re- fronted on the south side early in the 18th century. This front, built of Chilmark stone, is of 5 bays, the central 3 projecting slightly and being surmounted by a pediment. The central door is also pedimented.

Detached from the house, is a large dovecot dating from the 15th century.

Edward Hyde, future Lord Chancellor under Charles II, and first Earl of Clarendon, was born in Dinton in 1609 and was baptized in the church there. His father, Henry Hyde, had apparently leased the rectory and advowson of Dinton from his brother Sir Lawrence Hyde, the lay rector. Edward and eight other children of Henry Hyde and his wife, Mary Langford, were born at Dinton, presumably in a house on or near the site of the present Rectory House. Until he went to Oxford at the age of 13, Edward Hyde was educated by the Vicar of Dinton.