Poundisford Park north of

Pitminster Pitminster is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district. The parish has a population of 956. The parish also includes the villages of Angersleigh, Blagdon Hill and Stapl ...

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 , lor ...

, England is an

English 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 ...

that typifies progressive housebuilding on the part of the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glouc ...

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 c ...

in the mid-16th century. The main house was built for William Hill around 1550 and has been designated as a

Grade I 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 addition to several buildings the park contains formal gardens which were originally laid out in the 17th century set within a

medieval deer park In medieval and Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland, a deer park () was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank, or by a stone or brick wall. The ditch was on the in ...

History

Poundisford was an appendage of the episcopal

Taunton Deane Taunton Deane was a local government district with borough status in Somerset, England. Its council was based in Taunton. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the Municipal Borough of Ta ...

estate, belonging to the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except ...

. The enclosure of the park is variously attributed to Bishop

Henry de Blois Henry of Blois ( c. 1096 8 August 1171), often known as Henry of Winchester, was Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey from 1126, and Bishop of Winchester from 1129 to his death. He was a younger son of Stephen Henry, Count of Blois by Adela of Normandy, ...

(died 1171) or Bishop

Peter des Roches Peter des Roches (died 9 June 1238) ( Latinised as ''Peter de Rupibus'' ("Peter from the rocks")) was bishop of Winchester in the reigns of King John of England and his son Henry III. He was not an Englishman, but rather a native of the Tourain ...

(died 1238). In 1534 the park was divided into two by Bishop

Stephen Gardiner Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483 – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip. Early life Gardiner was ...

. The northern section of the park, including the original lodge, was leased to Roger Hill, whose son rebuilt the lodge. The southern area, as yet without a house, was leased to John Soper, who sold it to Hill's son, William, who built the present Poundisford Park shortly after his return to England. The entrance front is an outstanding example of the approach towards

symmetry Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...

of the

from its former expression of the hierarchy of its interior spaces.Cooper 1999 p. 75. At Poundisford the

great hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the gr ...

rises in the traditional way through two storeys and occupies its traditional place in the central bar of the H-plan. Its entrance porch rises through the facade to a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

that is matched on the opposite side with an oriel similarly rising through both floors to a matching gable. A central gable in the recessed central bay reinforces the symmetry of the entrance front. The two linked properties were passed down in the Hill family until the late 17th century, when the Lodge passed out of the family by marriage. In 1673 the Park was inherited by Sir Roger Hill, who already owned

Denham Place Denham is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, approximately from central London, northwest of Uxbridge and just north of junction 1 of the M40 motorway. The name is derived from the Old English for ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

. In 1704 he sold the Park to Dr Simon Welman, a retired physician who died in 1708, although before he died Welman also bought the Lodge, reuniting the two parts of the estate. When Welman died the Park passed to his elder son, Simon, and the Lodge to his younger son, Thomas. The park was held by Simon Welman's descendants until 1869, when it was sold to the Helyers who owned the Lodge, once again reuniting the two parts. The combined estate then remained intact until 1928, when the Park was sold to Arthur Vivian-Neal. Vivian-Neal, a JP and alderman, and a keen

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

and archaeologist, paid £10,000 for the estate in 1928 and spent even more repairing and modernising the property, employing Anthony Methuen as the architect. The Vivian-Neals lived at Poundisford until 1994, when it was offered for sale at £600,000.

Poundisford Park

The three-storey house was extended with a dining room added to the northeast of the original house in 1692. In 1717 a stable, coach house and barn were added, with the service wing to the southeast of the main block being added between 1717 and 1823. The house is approximately H-shaped with entrances placed to the north and south. The design of the house was influenced by

Barrington Court Barrington Court is a Tudor manor house begun around 1538 and completed in the late 1550s, with a vernacular stable court (1675), situated in Barrington, near Ilminster, Somerset, England. The house was owned by several families by 1745 afte ...

, often dated 1514, Nicholas Cooper suggests that it actually postdates Poundisford by a few years.

Poundisford Lodge

The Lodge, which predates the Park, is around north of the main house. The two-storey building is U-shaped, with the hall range extending from north to south and lateral wings extending to the north-west and south-west. The lodge contains two fine late 16th century plasterwork

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

ed bedrooms and extensive decorative wainscoting. It has been designated a Grade II* listed building.

Grounds

The total site covers around including of gardens and pleasure grounds, and which were enclosed within the medieval park pale, which formed an elliptical shape, of which remains as parkland today. The park pale was a barrier to contain deer made of an earthen bank from to wide and up to high. They have been designated Grade II on the

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

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 ...

. The Poundisford Park Pale, which has been designated as an

Ancient monument In British law, an ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument (e.g. an archaeological site) worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. The ''Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 ...

is included on 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 acti ...

due to scrub and tree growth.

Notes

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References