The House is currently a development of 9 residential homes and is not owned by the Viscount of Galway.

Below is the text taken directly from the Sports Day programme 15/7/1972 and is out of date. Apologies for any confusion caused.

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THE HISTORY OF STINSFORD HOUSE

   Stinsford House now belongs to the Viscountess Galway, who succeeded, some five years ago, to the estates of the late Earl of Ilchester who was her father. 

   The house itself is a conglomeration of architecture spreading over many years. The end of the house nearest to St. Michael's church, dates from the 15th Century when a number of Knights Templars settled and attached themselves to St. Michael’s church.  The rest of the house was added early in the 18th Century, the present building dating from approximately 1706. How the house came to be built is, itself, a fascinating story, which can be given only briefly here.

   In 1700, the Earl of Ilchester was a prominent figure in London society and one of daughters was an attractive girl named Lady Susahna.   At a ball she met , and subsequently fell in love with, an Irish Lieutenant named William O'Brien, but the Earl of Ilchester was bitterly opposed to this romance and forbad his daughter to meet O'Brien again.

For months, Lady Susahna was watched and guarded and never allowed out of the sight of servants, who accompanied her whenever she left the Earl of Ilchester's London house.  On one occasion, however, she was able to give a servant the slip, met O'Brien at an appointed meeting place, eloped and wed before the Earl of Ilchester could intervene. The Earl, furious at being thwarted, decided that the best thing to do would be to remove his daughter, and her husband, from London society and more or less exile them to one of his estates in Dorset, which, in those days, with bad communications and bad roads, was much the equivalent of being sent abroad. The Earl used his influence to have Lieutenant O’Brien appointed to an official position as Deputy Receiver of Dorset, and then had Stinsford House built to accommodate them.  In fact, the marriage turned out to be a very happy one and Lady Susahna and her husband lived at Stinsford for many years, not at all regretting the fact they had had to leave London.

   The house was passed down from generation to generation of the Ilchesters and thus became a dower house for members of the Ilchester family. The last direct relative of the Earl of Ilchester was a Mr. Williams, who lived here just over one hundred years ago and had a great deal to do with the laying out of gardens and the lake.

   In recent years, it has been rented to various people, including an American millionaire, who was a Master of Fox Hounds for the district, but, in 1961, he died and the house fell into disuse. It has, in fact, taken a great deal of money to maintain the house as it is now and, in one year alone, repairs to the roof cost £800.

   However, the house also connections with one of Britain's most famous novelists, Thomas Hardy.  The author and poet was born in a cottage in the parish (Bockhampton) and he spent a great deal of time at Stinsford House.  Stinsford appears, under the name of Melstock, in Thomas Hardy's writings and it is rather interesting that, this year is the centenary of the publication of one of his earliest novels, "Under the Greenwood Tree", in which almost all the scenes are laid in the confines of this parish and, in particular, in Stinsford Church next door.  The Hardy Society is, in fact, commemorating this event by meeting in the school during the summer holidays.

   The house originally had two or three‑tunnels, one running from the house to the church and another beginning in what is now the school tuckshop and ending up immediately beneath the Headmaster’s desk in the study. For obvious reasons, these have had to be bricked up.  There is also a well within the house, which used to supply fresh water for the Knights Templars so many years ago, but again, for safety reasons we have had to concrete this over. 

Stinsford is now listed, at the Dorset County Hall, as an ancient building and no alterations can therefore take place without their permission.  One more point of interest that parents might like to know is the enormous oriental plane tree abutting the lawn.  This tree is supposed to have been brought home and planted, as a sapling, by Knights Templars so many years ago and is, therefore at least 400 years old.

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