Maen - Dorchester

Photograph of Maen taken from the tower of
St Georges Church Fordington about 1903

The same view 100 years later - Maen is virtualy hidden behind
trees and new flats are built in the garden to its left. The open land
where Jersey cows once grazed is now built upon
although the houses are also hidden by the trees

Maen House in 2003. The garden designed by Goldring of Kew Gardens in 1900
cut up by a new road and built on with overpowering blocks of flats and
town houses mostly ignored for the purpose of this illustration.

The House was originally named "Ty Maen" meaning in Welsh, "Stone House". "TI" was the auctioneer's code used by Edward Duke for the number 13. Unlucky for some and perhaps the reason the house became known simply as Maen. The story of the name is further complicated because the name has always been pronounced in the Dorset vernacular in the form of "marn". Marn in Welsh means "fine" as in OK whereas the correct pronouciation should be "mine". Early photographs show this house rising as a great white megalith

in an open area to the south of Fordington Church. Accordingly, Maen, pronounced "marn" with the mildest of Dorset burr, was an appropriate name and just fine.

Sadly, Maen is nothing more than a commercial office today and its grounds (coyly named Rosewood Gardens) have been developed with town houses and flats that overwhelm this once proud home. Although there was a movement to prevent this disproportionate development, there are now those who would rather see Maen demolished than suffer from such desecration.

Aileen Buzzard (daughter of Edward Duke born in 1895) wrote in 1988 "My Father owned the land where Maen was built for as long as I can remember. We used to call it "the Plot". The lawyers firm of Andrews and Huxtable in Dorchester handled the legal business and the Huxtables owned the land next to Maen where they built a house and lived in it. The land right down to Icen Way was open fields and grazed by Jersey Cows belonging to the Pope family at Southcourt. (This is the open land shown in the top photograph on the left)

The architect was Mowlem and Palmer of Swanage. Mr Mowlem was on friendly terms with my Father. The stone was quarried at Swanage. Smith was the name of the quarrying firm and the brother of the owner was the stonemason who laid the stones of the house.

Each stone was laid by Billy Smith. The building took some time to build as he was quite often off work owing to drink and my father would not allow any substitute to take over the building work.

The grounds were laid out by an expert from Kew Gardens who stayed with us at Maen whilst planning the layout. He was Mr Goldring".