The Abbey is 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 ...

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. Built on the site of a 12th-century chapel, which might be incorporated in fragments, the main building dates to the 16th century.

Building

The building is constructed from roughly cut

blue lias The Blue Lias is a geological formation in southern, eastern and western England and parts of South Wales, part of the Lias Group. The Blue Lias consists of a sequence of limestone and shale layers, laid down in latest Triassic and early Jurassi ...

, dressed with

ham stone 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 w ...

. The roof is clay tiles, with octagonal ashlar chimneystacks and

rubble stone Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an i ...

chimneystacks. The majority of the house is two storey high, with a three-story block at the end. The entrance is through a 20th-century porch. Inside there is pre-

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

work with Elizabethan paneling. The ceilings are beamed with exposed joists. The fireplaces throughout the house are moulded cambered arches, whilst the drawing room's fireplace has an oak

overmantel The fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a hood that projected over a fire grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fireplace, and ca ...

Above the drawing room was a room known as the 'great chamber' which would have occupied the entire upper floor before being partitioned. The Abbey was designated a Grade I

on 17 April 1959.

History

The building was a large rectory house, described as a mansion in 1549. The house had become known as 'Abbey Farm' by 1849 and took its name from the fact that it was the site of the

Chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...

Chapel of the Holy Spirit, founded in 1237, of which some fragments may be incorporated; however the building has never been an abbey. It underwent extensive restoration and rebuilding in the late 16th century. The house was restored again in 1902 for Claude Neville of Butleigh Court, probably by C.E. Ponting, who also restored

Lytes Cary Lytes Cary is a manor house with associated chapel and gardens near Charlton Mackrell and Somerton in Somerset, England. The property, owned by the National Trust, has parts dating to the 14th century, with other sections dating to the 15th, 16 ...

in the same parish. The northern part of the house was damaged by fire in the 1960s and plainly restored.

References

* Pevsner, Nikolaus. (1958). ''The Buildings of England: South and West Somerset''. p. 120. {{DEFAULTSORT:Abbey, Charlton Adam Houses completed in the 16th century

Charlton Adam Charlton Mackrell is a village in civil parish of The Charltons, in the county of Somerset, England, situated east of Somerton, Somerset, Somerton in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 1,020. The parish consists of tw ...

Country houses in Somerset Grade I listed houses in Somerset