Clapton Court is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, in

Clapton in Gordano Clapton in Gordano is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated within the unitary authority of North Somerset on the southern side of the Gordano Valley, immediately adjacent to the M5 motorway. The parish has a population ...

within the English county of

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. Local

lords of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...

, the Arthur family originally built on the site. The current porch tower remains from the 15th-century house; the rest was added in the 17th and 19th centuries. It has been owned by many local

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest ...

, but changed from mansion house to farmhouse.

History

The first manor house on the site was built by Sir William Arthur in the 13th century. Sir Thomas Arthur was the

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

in the 1390s. In the 14th century his descendant Richard Arthur added to the house. He married Alice the daughter of

James Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley James Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley (c. 1394 – 22 OctoberBurke, Bernard. ''A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire.'' London: Harrison, 1866. (p. 44googlebooks.comAccessed 7 July 20 ...

and the entwined coats of arms of the two families appear on the entrance porch. Edward Arthur died in 1592, his daughter married William Winter (or Wynter) of

Dyrham Park Dyrham Park () is a baroque English country house in an ancient deer park near the village of Dyrham in South Gloucestershire, England. The house, attached orangery, stable block, and accompanying parish church are Grade I listed buildings, wh ...

and the house was passed down in the Winter family. Their tombs can be seen in the neighbouring Church of St Michael. Subsequent owners included: James Davis, who was a mine owner in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

Sir Edward Payson Wills ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

, 1st Baronet of Hazelwood & Clapton in-Gordano, of the

Wills baronets There have been four baronetcies created for members of the Wills family, owners of W. D. & H. O. Wills and major shareholders and directors of the Imperial Tobacco Company. All four creations were in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Th ...

, who was a director of the family business,

WD & HO Wills W.D. & H.O. Wills was a British tobacco manufacturing company formed in Bristol, England. It was the first British company to mass-produce cigarettes, and one of the founding companies of Imperial Tobacco along with John Player & Sons. The c ...

. In the late 19th century the court was owned by his son

Sir Ernest Wills, 3rd Baronet Sir Ernest Salter Wills, 3rd Baronet of Hazelwood & Clapton in-Gordano, Laird of Meggernie Castle CStJ JP (30 November 1869 – 14 January 1958) was Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire from 1930 to 1942. Life The son of Sir Edward Payson Wills, 1st Bar ...

, who was a director of the

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mor ...

Company , ( formally W.D.& H.O. Wills ) the tobacco importers. It was then bought by Lady Smyth of

Ashton Court Ashton Court is a mansion house and estate to the west of Bristol in England. Although the estate lies mainly in North Somerset, it is owned by the City of Bristol. The mansion and stables are a Grade I listed building. Other structures on th ...

and subsequently by Con Stevens. During the centuries the house moved from being a mansion house to a farmhouse and had various renovations and extensions. In 2009 planning permission was gained to demolish some of the farm buildings and convert others into holiday homes and offices.

Architecture

The house has

red sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) be ...

walls, which are supported by

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es in the northeast corner. The oldest part of the building is the 15th-century three-storey

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

tower at the north front of the house. The rest of the building is of two storeys and dates from the 17th and 19th centuries. A 13th-century wooden screen from the house has been in the Church of St Michael. The archway entrance was built in the late 17th or early 18th century.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book, last1=Cooke, first1=Robert, title=West Country Houses, date=1957, publisher=Batsford Grade II listed buildings in North Somerset 15th-century architecture Grade II listed houses in Somerset Country houses in Somerset