English Heritage Register Grade II. Elaborate Edwardian formal garden by F. Inigo Thomas for Henry Martin Gibbs, 1892-96. Largely intact, the garden’s features include monumental gazebos and columns, balustrades, terraces, clipped hedges, wrought iron screens, shrubbery, and a fine half-circle of terms representing the months of the year. A large kitchen garden also survives. House (LB II*) C16, extensively restored 1882; two gazebos, garden walls, temple, exedra, gate piers and 12 terms, two walled courts, lily pond, pedestals and urns, steps, walls, ornamental vases and sundial (ailLB II*), all 1892-96.
EHCountry house, now in several ownerships. Originally a Benedictine nunnery converted for residential purposes c.1538, rebuilt c.1545, altered and extended c.1602 and further altered and extended in 1882. Squared and coursed rubble with freestone dressings, slate roofs to main block, pantiles to subsidiary ranges and ashlar stacks. E shaped central block of c.1545 with c.1602 L shaped range to the west and further C17 range to the north east. 2 storeys and attics. Largely symmetrical east front with 3 and 4-light mullioned and transomed windows with hoodmoulds and small leaded pane casements under flush relieving arches. 4th bay to the right has two 6-light windows and all attic windows are set within gables. Similar 2-light mullioned windows in C17 range much renewed in 1882. Doorcase to porch in central projection has Ionic pilasters with masks, a segmental pediment open and broken by a cartouche and 2 reclining figures. Moulded Tudor arch to porch, C19 plank and batten door to inner doorway. 5-light canted oriel to west range. Ball finials to gable ends, tall ashlar stacks and central open cupola with fish-scale base and conical lead cap. Interior. The interior was extensively restored and renewed in 1882 but several early C17 features survive: a panelled Parlour off the Great Hall with rich arabesque patterned ceiling and decorative frieze; a grand Jacobean staircase with fine plaster ceiling in style a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance motifs with a central pendant and intricate cusped rib patterning; a similar plaster ribbed ceiling in the Great Chamber or Solar above the Great Hall and contemporary chimney piece and overmantel; a second, minor, staircase giving onto the Long Gallery; the Ilex Room has a chimney and overmantel supported by figures of Justice and Mercy. The Great Hall was remodelled in 1882 but some sections of the Screens Passage may date from the early C17. The other notable late C19 interior is the Chapel above the porch which has contemporary woodwork and Kempe glass. (J. Collinson, History of Somerset, 1791; Country Life, 18 January 1902; W.J. Robinson, West Country Manors, 1930; R. Cooke, West Country Houses, 1957; N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England : North Somerset and Bristol, 1958).
Listing NGR: ST5143068437 – House ll*
