Owen Davies
Mar 9, 20201 min
Today I have a great picture of the East Front of Athelhampton, we don't know the exact date, but from the features we can see we believe its is around 1870.
Athelhampton was being used as a farmhouse at this time. In some of the archive material we have we are told that just on the other side of the wall you can see on the image are a range of pig sties and hen houses.
In 1890 Alfred Cart De Lafontaine purchased Athelhampton, and restored the house and created the magnificent architectural gardens that you see today. He was friends with Thomas Hardy who had been a frequent visitor to Athelhampton.
The pigs went, and the magnificent Private Garden and Terrace created with a fishpond. He also added a turret give symmetry to the look of the building.
The maid in the picture could be Sarah Harrington, who was the housemaid from Witchampton near Wimborne.