SHERBORNE House is so beautiful, so elegantly proportioned and pleasing to the eye, it's hard to believe that architecturally, it's on the critical list.
But, behind the imposing faade and the illustrious history, it is clinging to life, nursed and cared for by its Friends and its Trust, who want to transform it into a regional centre for the visual arts.
They've been at it since 1995, but tomorrow night they will get their big chance - to tell the whole country why Sherborne House, a Palladian, Grade I listed building, in Newland, close to the town centre, must be saved, when its plight is featured in the new series of the BBC programme Restoration, fronted by Griff Rhys Jones.
"Restoration is so important for us," says trust chairman Giles Harvey, who, before he flung his energies into saving bricks and lime mortar, was marketing director at Bournemouth University. "The programme will give us a massive boost in publicity; we'll be seen all over the UK, not just in this immediate area.
"We were so excited even to have made it on to Restoration; it takes some doing because there are hundreds of edifices all over Britain that want to be included. It's a bit like the World Cup, what you see in the competition on the TV are just the ones that made it through to that stage."
For those not in the know, the Restoration format comprises a potted history of the building, reports from presenters - architect Ptolemy Dean and chartered building surveyor Marianne Suhr - and a visit and interview from the show's main presenter, Griff Rhys Jones. Then viewers are invited to vote for their favourite building from each region, to put it into the final. Money from the phone votes goes towards the final pot, which should be enough to completely restore the winning ruin.
"The Restoration team spent around four days here and did a reconstruction, with a carriage and horses, of the original owner, Henry Seymour Portman, arriving here with his young bride; he was 70 and she was 17!"
All the presenters were, says Giles, great fun to work with and "hugely knowledgeable" about their subject.
"Griff is very knowledgeable about this kind of thing and very interested in the project, because he's done it before, saving the Hackney Empire Theatre in London. Eventually he interviewed me in a cherry-picker, high above the house itself, which was a bit of an experience."
Giles tried to convey to Griff what he is going to try and convey to me - just how bad a state of repair the house is in. It doesn't take him long.
We enter under an inelegant scaffold and tarpaulin porch affair. "That's to stop stuff falling off the faade and onto our visitors," says Giles, cheerfully. Despite the building's vulnerable condition, there are many visitors, both for the trust, which leases the ground floor from its owner, Dorset County Council, and for the art exhibitions and adult education classes, which are held in the Tudor part of the building, beneath original beams and giant, carved rose bosses.
The entrance hall sports a magnificent staircase with a gallery that looks as though it is waiting for Mr Darcy to lean over it. It is decorated with what is possibly the house's most stunning feature: the Thornhill Mural, depicting a scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses of the Calydonian Hunt.
"Thornhill was, if you like, the Damien Hirst of his day," says Giles.
Closer inspection reveals that the mural is freckled with white spots from water damage, and that the marquetry on the staircase is in severe need of attention.
Giles explains that the original Tudor house was bought by Henry Seymour Portman in 1720 and, after a substantial proportion was pulled down, he engaged the engagingly-named Benjamin Bastard, who rebuilt Blandford Forum after the Great Fire, to design his new house.
"Not that it was ever really a home to him," says Giles, explaining that it was originally meant to serve as a halfway house between Portman's two country estates. "He wouldn't have dreamed of staying in an inn."
After Portman's death in 1728, the house was let to tenants and in 1816 the place was sold to the 2nd Earl Digby for £2,000.
Possibly the most distinguished tenant was William Charles Macready, the leading actor-manager of his day. More interesting still were his visitors, who included Vanity Fair author Thackeray, and his closest friend of all, Charles Dickens.
"I think Dickens was a bit of a city boy and not too keen on rural Dorset, but he did give what became only the second public reading of A Christmas Carol, here, and Macready equipped a Reading Room and evening school for the town."
Eventually, the house was leased and then sold to Dorset County Council and became the home of Lord Digby's School in 1932. It later became a girls' grammar school, which is where Giles came in. "My daughter went to school here so I have known it for a long time," he confesses. "I've always thought it was a charming building. It always seems to charm the people who visit."
I'm charmed, too, by the sash windows, soaring ceilings, the original panelling and the forlorn detritus of its former school life; slippy brown linoleum, blackboards covered with the chalkmarks of the last maths lesson, a room full of mouldering Latin texts, and a half-ripped-out science lab.
The ground floor, with its old dining and sitting rooms, and the bright area of the galleries, isn't too bad. But, the higher we climb, the worse it gets. The handrail is worn, paint is flaking off the panelling, and many of the oak floors slope and sag. Higher still, the damage is truly horrific. One leak above an upper room allowed water to cascade down to the ground floor. Another has caused creeping black spot. Another has caused a worrying crack in the plaster and brickwork.
"The roof is the biggest problem; all the lead's been stripped and it just gets patched now, and that means we are forever discovering new leaks. It's like painting the Forth Road Bridge."
And yet the building is not, like some others in Restoration, a victim of wilful cruelty, from people who want to murder it and sell the land off to developers. It has just suffered from terrible neglect. It has the air of a house waiting to come alive and show itself off again, like a pretty girl, waiting for an invite to a party.
And Giles is determined it will happen. "If we win, the plan is to buy it for £1 from the county and develop it as regional arts centre."
And not just any old arts centre, either. Sherborne House has been chosen by the artist Lin Jammet to house the archive and the works of his mother, the late Dorset sculptor, Dame Elisabeth Frink.
"We want to create a sculpture garden at the back and also devote space to touring sculpture exhibitions. We think it will encourage visitors and scholars from all over the world to come to this part of Dorset. You only have to look at the effect on St Ives of the Tate Gallery and the Barbara Hepworth Museum."
They want to demolish a hideous 1960s extension that lies at the back, install a lift, and hold exhibitions by other artists.
Currently they are exhibiting Yeovil College, but have had very prestigious exhibitions by Brit Artist Gavin Turk, and an exhibition of works by the Bloomsbury Group. One for the diary in September includes their Going Modern, Being British exhibition of works by 40 artists, including Jacob Epstein, Eric Gill, Duncan Grant, Augustus John, Henry Moore and Stanley Spencer which are in private collections in Dorset and Somerset.
Giles believes that the house will give back as much to the people of Dorset, as it is asking from them.
"When we come to restore it, we'll want to use local craftsmen and woman and will have to, wherever possible, use local stone and wood. We'll need our gates done, and detailed plastering. There'll be carpentry work and specialist work to fix the roof and strengthen the floors to make them safe for visitors. We'll need gardeners and people to work here in the cafeteria and the arts centre. So, yes, I think it will not only provide work for local people, it will have a knock-on effect for the local economy." So, vote early and vote often for Sherborne House. Because the idea of this magnificent building dying by inches, or struggling on into an uncertain future is, quite simply, unthinkable.
Remember, Restoration is on BBC2 at 9pm on July 25.
