Whittington Court is an Elizabethan manor house, five miles east of Cheltenham in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. Adjacent to the house is the

Whittington Whittington may refer to: Places * Whittington, Victoria, Australia * Whittington, Illinois, United States England * Old Whittington, Derbyshire * New Whittington, Derbyshire * Whittington Moor, Derbyshire * Whittington, Gloucestershire * Whitti ...

parish church which dates from the 12th century and now dedicated to St Bartholomew. The origins of the site are unclear, but probably date back to

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

times; however, in 1948 the remains of a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas ...

were found in an adjacent field. The current building was probably begun by

Richard Cotton Richard Cotton may refer to: *Richard Lynch Cotton (1794–1880), British vicar and academic administrator *Sir Richard Cotton (in or before 1497–1556), courtier in the court of Henry VIII of England *Richard Cotton (geneticist) (1940–2015), Au ...

's son John Cotton in 1556 on an earlier moated site. It was completed in anticipation of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

's visit to the house in 1592 en route to

Sudeley Castle Sudeley Castle is a Grade I listed castle in the parish of Sudeley, in the Cotswolds, near to the medieval market town of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England. The castle has 10 notable gardens covering some 15 acres within a 1,200-acre estate ne ...

. Subsequently, passed to Sir

John Denham John Denham may refer to: * John Denham (died 1556 or later), English MP for Shaftesbury * John Denham (judge), (1559–1639), father of the poet below, and one of the Ship Money judges * John Denham (poet) (1615–1669), English poet * John De ...

, who married Anne Cotton and died 1669, and was Surveyor General to Charles II. It then passed through the female line to the Earls of Derby and by the mid-late 18th century belonged to Thomas Tracey the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

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 of t ...

, who died in 1770. Misses Timbrell and Mrs. Rebecca Lighbourne inherited the property but left no heir, the house passing to Mr. Walter Lawrence Morris and subsequently to his descendants who adopted the name Lawrence. Alterations and additions were made in the 16th, late 17th and early 18th centuries. In the mid-eighteenth century the estate was sold and became part of the Sandywell Park estate. The kitchen wing was added 1929. It 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 I ...

. The interior of the house is

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personif ...

and contain two carved overmantels from Sevenhampton Manor - one showing the arms of Lawrence Washington (1602–1652) (the stars and stripes). A barn dated 1614 and stable block are both grade II listed. Since 1972 a disused gardener's cottage at Whittington Court has been the home to The Whittington Press, a

fine press Fine press printing and publishing comprises historical and contemporary printers and publishers publishing books and other printed matter of exceptional intrinsic quality and artistic taste, including both commercial and private presses. Histo ...

which also publishes the journal ''Matrix'' on printing.

References

{{coord, 51, 53, 4, N, 1, 58, 57, W, type:landmark, display=title Grade I listed houses in Gloucestershire Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Country houses in Gloucestershire Houses completed in 1556 1556 establishments in England