Stouts Hill is an 18th-Century

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

country house situated in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

, just outside the village of

Uley Uley is a village and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Elcombe and Shadwell and Bencombe, all to the south of the village of Uley, and the hamlet of Crawley to the north. The village is ...

. Although there are records of one Adam le Stut settled here in the 13th century, the present house, built for the Gyde family of local weavers, dates only from 1743, the design being attributed to

William Halfpenny William Halfpenny (active 1723–1755) was an English architect and builder in the first half of the 18th century, and prolific author of builder's pattern books. In some of his publications he described himself as "architect and carpenter" ...

. In the late 18th century, the estate was acquired by the Lloyd Baker family, whose principal estate was established at Hardwicke Court, near

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. It was subsequently occupied as a secondary house by members of the family, including Colonel Browne. Stouts Hill was the birthplace reputedly of the Gloucestershire historian,

Samuel Rudder Samuel Rudder (c. 1726 – 15 March 1801)Nicholas Herbert, ‘Rudder, Samuel (bap. 1726, d. 1801)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200accessed 7 Jan 2012/ref> was a Gloucestershire topograp ...

, and of the distinguished

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

scholar

Edward Granville Browne Edward Granville Browne FBA (7 February 1862 – 5 January 1926) was a British Iranologist. He published numerous articles and books, mainly in the areas of history and literature. Life Browne was born in Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, En ...

. From 1935 until 1979 it was let for use as a private boys' preparatory school in which some 100 pupils were boarders. Notable former pupils of the school include

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

, who makes a detailed reference to the school in his autobiography, ''

Moab Is My Washpot ''Moab Is My Washpot'' (published 1997) is Stephen Fry's autobiography, covering the first 20 years of his life. In the book, Fry is candid about his past indiscretions, including stealing, cheating and lying. The book covers some of the same gro ...

'', and Captain

Mark Phillips Captain Mark Anthony Peter Phillips (born 22 September 1948) is an English Olympic gold medal-winning horseman for Great Britain and the first husband of Anne, Princess Royal, with whom he has two children. He remains a leading figure in Britis ...

, former husband of Anne, the Princess Royal.

References

Website

http://www.stoutshill.co.uk/
http://stoutshillschool.blogspot.com/ Country houses in Gloucestershire {{Gloucestershire-geo-stub