Barrington Court
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Barrington Court is a Tudor
manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
begun around 1538 and completed in the late 1550s, with a vernacular stable court (1675), situated in Barrington, near
Ilminster Ilminster is a minster town and civil parish in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England, with a population of 5,808. Bypassed in 1988, the town now lies just east of the junction of the A303 (London to Exeter) and the A358 (Taunton to C ...
,
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_ ...
, England. The house was owned by several families by 1745 after which it fell into disrepair and was used as a
tenant farm A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
. After repair by architect
Alfred Hoare Powell Alfred Hoare Powell (1865–1960) was an English Arts and Crafts architect, and designer and painter of pottery. Career Alfred Powell was born in Reading, Berkshire, on 14 April 1865, the son of Thomas Edward Powell by Emma Corrie. He was ...
(1865–1960), it was acquired by the
National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
in 1907, on the recommendation of the antiquarian Canon
Hardwicke Rawnsley Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (29 September 1851 – 28 May 1920) was an Anglican priest, poet, local politician and conservationist. He became nationally and internationally known as one of the three founders of the National Trust for Places of H ...
(1851–1920). It has been described as the first house acquired by the National Trust, although
Alfriston Clergy House Alfriston Clergy House in Alfriston, Polegate, East Sussex, England, was the first built property to be acquired by the National Trust. It was purchased in 1896 for £10. The house lies adjacent to the Church of St. Andrew. It is a Grade II* ...
, a more modest property, was acquired earlier. In the 1920s the house was renovated after Colonel Lyle and his wife 'Ronnie' agreed to take on a ninety-nine year repairing lease from the Trust, and work began in 1921. The stable block turned into a residence and several outbuildings, gardens and gateways were constructed. The house was originally surrounded by a medieval deer park and in the 17th century a formal garden was constructed. This had largely disappeared until a new garden was laid out by
garden designer A garden designer is someone who designs the plan and features of gardens, either as an amateur or professional. The compositional elements of garden design and landscape design are: terrain, water, planting, constructed elements and buildings, ...
Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932) in an Arts and Crafts-style. It now contains walled kitchen gardens, fruit orchards and ornamental gardens.


History

The estate had been occupied since the 11th century and by the 14th century included a substantial house to the north east of the present building, where traces of a moat can still be seen. In 1446 the owner, Giles Daubeney, 6th Baron Daubeney, died at Barrington and left it to his son, another Giles Daubeney,
Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney, KG PC (1 June 1451 – 21 May 1508) was an English soldier, diplomat, courtier and politician. Origins Giles Daubeney was the eldest son and heir of Sir William Daubeney (1424-1460/1) of South Ingelby ...
who was a courtier, diplomat and military commander under Edward IV and Henry VII. The manor was inherited in 1514 by Henry Daubeney, created
Earl of Bridgewater Earl of Bridgewater was a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England, once for the Daubeny family (1538) and once for the Egerton family (1617). From 1720 to 1803, the Earls of Bridgewater also held the title of Duke of Bridgewat ...
for his services to Henry VIII. He spent much of his time in France and little time in Somerset. He may have begun the new house, but he went bankrupt and was involved in the disgrace of
Catherine Howard Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the se ...
, Henry VIII's fifth wife. It is unlikely that much, if any, of the current building was his work. The house was forfeit to the crown and then had various owners including
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset (17 January 151723 February 1554), was an English courtier and nobleman of the Tudor period. He was the father of Lady Jane Grey, known as "the Nine Days' Queen". Origins He was born on ...
, who in 1552 sold it to William Clifton, a London merchant who had been assembling a Somerset estate. Clifton or his son John Clifton are thought to be responsible for most of the building at Barrington, possibly modeled on earlier work at
Kirby Hall Kirby Hall is an Elizabethan country house, located near Gretton, Northamptonshire, England. The nearest main town is Corby. One of the great Elizabethan houses of England, Kirby Hall was built for Sir Humphrey Stafford of Blatherwick, beginnin ...
or East Anglian manors close to their roots at
Kentwell Hall Kentwell Hall is a stately home in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It includes the hall, outbuildings, a rare-breeds farm and gardens. Most of the current building facade dates from the mid-16th century, but the origins of Kentwell are much ea ...
,
Hengrave Hall Hengrave Hall is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house in Hengrave near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England and was the seat of the Kitson and Gage families 1525–1887. Both families were Roman Catholic recusants. Architecture Work on the ho ...
or Channons Hall at Tibenham. It passed down in the Clifton family including Gervase Clifton, who in 1605 sold it to his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Phelips of
Montacute House Montacute House is a late Elizabethan era, Elizabethan mansion with a garden in Montacute, South Somerset. An example of English architecture during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the Renaissance Classical, and one of fe ...
. The house was then mortgaged and, in 1625, sold to Colonel William Strode, Jr. The house and estate were owned by the Strode family from 1625 until 1745 after which it was bought by several different owners but poorly maintained, becoming known as Court Farm. The interior of the house suffered from its demotion to a
tenant farm A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
and from a fire in the early 19th century; after being almost derelict it was repaired under the supervision of
Alfred Hoare Powell Alfred Hoare Powell (1865–1960) was an English Arts and Crafts architect, and designer and painter of pottery. Career Alfred Powell was born in Reading, Berkshire, on 14 April 1865, the son of Thomas Edward Powell by Emma Corrie. He was ...
. Barrington Court was acquired by the National
Trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...
in 1907 and was leased to Col. Abram Arthur Lyle of
Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle PLC is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage ingredients to industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s it began to diversify, eventually divesting its sugar business i ...
in the 1920s. Abram Lyle and his wife, Elsie Ronalds Lyle (née. Crowdy and known as 'Ronnie') turned the house around and refurbished the court house and renovated Strode House (built by Colonel Strode's son, William III, in 1674) which was originally a stable and coach block. It was at this time that the Lyles contracted Gertrude Jekyll to design the three formal gardens on the property that are maintained by the head gardener. The house was one of the first large properties acquired by the National Trust; it was not anticipated just how expensive repairs and maintenance would be, and even thirty years later it was still used as an example of why the Trust should be wary of taking on other country houses. Barrington Court was occupied by a tenant, Stuart Interiors, that took the lease in 1986 from Andrew Lyle, grandson of Col. Lyle. The company sold reproduction furniture. Stuart Interiors left Barrington Court in December 2008, and although the building has no furniture, it is open to visitors. In 2014 it was the site of filming for the BBC's Tudor-era historical TV serial ''
Wolf Hall ''Wolf Hall'' is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, ''Wolf Hall'' is a symp ...
''. In May 2015 the house was the venue for the BBC programme ''
Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...
''.


Architecture

Like many Elizabethan mansions, Barrington is built in an 'E' shape with large projecting wings with square projections that contain staircases. The house is not truly symmetrical as the hall has two
lights Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision. Light or Lights may also refer to: Illumination * Light bulb * Traffic light Arts and entertainment Music * Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer-son ...
and the buttery one. The south front has seven gables supported by octagonal buttresses and decorated with twisted finials with
ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinat ...
scale-work caps and English
Crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...
s. Its central entry porch leads into a screens passage with the hall on the left and, an innovation, a service passage leading to the kitchen wing that occupies the right wing. A
long gallery In architecture, a long gallery is a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In Britain, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were normally placed on the highest reception floor of English country hou ...
stretches the entire length of the house on the upper floor.


Strode House

The stables – built in 1674 by William Strode III – were converted into a separate house around 1920, under plans drawn up by the architect J.E. Forbes, when the building was given a new west front. The two-storey brick building has
Hamstone Hamstone is the name given to a honey-coloured building stone from Ham Hill, Somerset, England. It is a well-cemented medium to coarse grained limestone characterised by marked bedding planes of clay inclusions and less well-cemented material ...
dressings and a hipped tile roof. Immediately in front of the building is the "fountain court".


Outbuildings

In the 1920s a "motorhouse" was constructed in a Tudor style to match the other buildings. It is a single-storey building with an attic. The front of the building is decorate with heraldic lions. The two-storey agent's house, known as Beechams, was also built in the 1920s. There are also row of six thatched cottages in Tudor style, a farmhouse and a barn dating from the same period.


Gateways and walls

There are multiple gateways around the estate and entrances to the house. The gateway to the west of the forecourt was rebuilt in the 1920s with tall piers and moulded stepped caps, permitting a full view of the symmetrical facade of the house. The gateways to the east of the forecourt and to the east of the south lawn have
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...
gates. The wall around the forecourt is of the same vintage and has rectangular lily ponds at the base.


Gardens

In the 16th century the house was surrounded by a deer park. In the 1550s William Clifton took action, in the Star Chamber court, against local poachers who hunted deer in the park while he was away. The remains of the original gardens include a rectangular raised area or
parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...
by near a liner pond or canal which is by . There is also geophysical evidence of a further 17th-century formal garden. Barrington Court is noted for its Arts and Crafts-style
garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
s for which
garden design Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise. ...
er Gertrude Jekyll provided planting plans. The gardens were laid out in 1917 by J. E. Forbes, of the partnership Forbes & Tate, for Lieut-Col. A. Arthur Lyle. There are a series of walled areas that include a
white garden A monochromatic garden is a garden in which a single color is highlighted. Single-color gardens Such a garden is planted so that it overwhelms the observer with a single color. While this may seem a rather bland approach at first, such gardens w ...
, a
rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
and
iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...
garden and a
lily ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...
garden. The original plans are being used to restore the gardens; however, the planting scheme has been changed from that designed by Jekyll to that designed by Mrs Lyle in the 1960s. The walls of the kitchen garden were built in the 1920s and include two gateways with neoclassical architraves. The gravel paths are laid out in a square with a cross at the centre enhanced by a fountain surrounded by fruit trees, vegetable plots and soft fruits. There are carriage openings with wrought-iron gates. The kitchen garden provides produce for the property's restaurant located in the adjacent Strode House; this includes many types of fruit and vegetables. The local St Mary & St Peter's CE VC Primary School, which has bases at Barrington and Ilton, has a vegetable plot where the children plant, tend and cook the produce; the walls are also strewn with apple, pear and plum trees. Attached to the garden is a squash court. About south west of the house is an unusual multi-faced sundial. It was built of stone and bronze, on a stone column. It is a
dodecahedron In geometry, a dodecahedron (Greek , from ''dōdeka'' "twelve" + ''hédra'' "base", "seat" or "face") or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentagon ...
surmounted by a heraldic lion. It was imported from California by Colonel Lyle in 1920. The gardens are Grade II* listed on the
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...
.


See also

*
List of National Trust properties in Somerset The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty (informally known as the National Trust) owns or manages a range of properties in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. These range from sites of Iron and Bronze Age oc ...


References


External links

{{Commons category, Barrington Court
Barrington Court information at the National Trust
Houses completed in the 16th century Country houses in Somerset Gardens in Somerset Grade I listed buildings in South Somerset Grade I listed houses in Somerset Historic house museums in Somerset National Trust properties in Somerset Tudor architecture Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll Arts and Crafts gardens Rose gardens in England Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Somerset Hamstone buildings