Orchardleigh Estate
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Orchardleigh (also spelled Orchardlea) is a country estate in
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_ ...
, approximately two miles north of
Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...
, and on the southern edge of the village of Lullington. The privately held estate comprises a Victorian
country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
, the Orchardleigh Lake with its island church, and an 18-hole
golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
. Orchardleigh is available for weddings and other events. Various accommodation is provided, both in the house itself and at adjacent lodges and cottages in the extensive grounds. Within the old estate are the Orchardleigh Stones, a probable
neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
burial chamber which was excavated in 1803 and 1804, when human bones and cremation urns were discovered. The Church of St Mary, Orchardlea, dates from the 13th century and is
Grade I listed 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 ...
. The churchyard contains the grave of the poet
Sir Henry Newbolt Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vit ...
. The Gloucester Lodge gatehouse was built in the early 19th century. The parish was part of the
hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
of
Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...
. The old Orchardleigh House was just south of the church. Its heyday was the time of Sir Thomas Champneys, 1st Baronet, High Sheriff of Somerset in 1775, but all that remains of that period is the boathouse, rotunda, the Lullington gateway, and the Tudor lodges dating from the 1820s. The old house was demolished and the present one built in 1856 by
Thomas Henry Wyatt Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1870–73 and being awarded its Royal Gold Medal for A ...
for William Duckworth. The new house is described by
Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, dan ...
as "picturesque, irregular, and in a mixed Elizabethan style", and 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 ...
. The estate is listed at grade II* on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.


The Duckworth family

William Duckworth (1795–1876) bought the Orchardleigh estate in 1855 and built the house in 1856. He was born in 1795 in
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. His father was George Duckworth who was lord of the manor in Over Darwen in the parish of
Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
. When his father died in 1815 William and his brother Samuel inherited his estates. Samuel died in 1847 and as he was unmarried he also left his fortune to William. When William bought the Orchardleigh estate in 1855 he was an extremely wealthy man and was therefore able to afford the elegant house that still stands. In 1825 he married Hester Emily Philips who was the daughter of Robert Philips who owned an estate in
Prestwich Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford and south of Bury. Historically part of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ancient parish o ...
called The Park. The couple had four sons and one daughter. Their youngest son was Herbert who in 1867 married Julia Prinsep Jackson. They are both shown in the photo on the left shortly after their marriage. The photo was taken by
Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Life Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellectua ...
the author and historian who at this time was a friend of Herbert. They had become friends when students at
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
ten years before. Herbert died in 1870 from appendicitis and Julia was left a widow with three young children:
George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
(1868–1934), later a senior civil servant, Stella (1869–1897) and
Gerald Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and Iri ...
(1870–1937), founder of
Duckworth Publishing Duckworth Books, originally Gerald Duckworth and Company, founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, is a British publisher.Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
. William died in 1876 and his son Reverend William Arthur Duckworth inherited the house. He was born in 1829 and was educated at Eton and then went to Cambridge University. In 1859 he married Edina Campbell who was the daughter of
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell, PC, QC, FRSE (15 September 1779 – 23 June 1861) was a British Liberal politician, lawyer and man of letters. Background and education The second son of the Reverend George Campbell, D.D., and Magdalene H ...
. The couple had five daughters and two sons. The eldest son Major Arthur Campbell Duckworth inherited the house when his father died in 1917. He married in 1897 Viola Davies-Evans who was the daughter of Colonel Herbert Davies-Evans. The couple had three children one of whom was Sylvia Duckworth. In 1924 she married Major Horton Fawkes and the reception was held at Orchardleigh. The wedding which had over 600 guests was reported in numerous papers with photographs. One paper made the following comments.
The bride wore a gown of white satin boute made very simply and embroidered with long sprays of roses worked in crystal, pearl and silver beads through which was threaded a silver sash loosely knotted at the side. Her train was composed of a very beautiful Brussels lace veil lined with chiffon draped from one shoulder which had been worn at her wedding by the bride's great aunt Lady Stratheden.
When Arthur Campbell Duckworth died in 1948 his son Arthur Victor Duckworth inherited the property.


After the Duckworths

In 1986,
Arthur Duckworth George Arthur Victor Duckworth (3 January 1901 – 14 November 1986), known as Arthur Duckworth, was a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shrewsbury at the 1929 general election. He was r ...
died, and Orchardleigh was soon sold. Work started on redevelopment, but in 1989 the developer's loans were called in by the bank and work ceased for 13 years. In 2002, a new scheme was started to build the current hotels and golf courses. The boathouse is included in the
Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...
produced by
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...
. The estate also contains a bridge incorporating a sluice, a semicircular bridge, a garden house, a keepers lodge and a stables and coachhouse, which all date from the same period as the main house and are also listed buildings. Within the grounds, which were landscaped – possibly by
Humphrey Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...
 – and are included in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, is the Wood Lodge Summerhouse. The gardens and pleasure grounds are listed, Grade II*, on the
Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England 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 ...
. Orchardleigh has been used as a filming location, including for the 2009 TV series ''
The Queen In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to: * Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death The Queen may also refer to: * Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...
'' and the 1987 episode of Miss Marple, ''
4.50 from Paddington ''4.50 from Paddington'' is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in November 1957 by Collins Crime Club. This work was published in the United States at the same time as ''What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!'', by Dodd, Mead. Th ...
''. Using public footpaths, there is a pleasant, off-road circuit walk from Orchardleigh House or the Golf Club house around the part of the lake and estate grounds for 1.7 miles.


References


External links

{{commons category
Official websiteOrchardleigh estate
Grade II listed buildings in Mendip District Grade II* listed buildings in Mendip District Grade II* listed houses in Somerset Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Somerset Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in Somerset Country estates in England Country houses in Somerset Frome Gardens in Somerset