Hatch Court in the parish of Hatch Beauchamp, [1] in Somerset, England, is a grade I listed [2] mansion built in about 1755 in the Palladian style with Bath Stone by the wool merchant John Collins to the design of Thomas Prowse. The site had been occupied since the mediaeval era by various forms of the manor house of the manor of Hatch, the caput of an important feudal barony first held by the Anglo-Norman de Beauchamp family in the 11th century. [3]
John Collines was a wool merchant who built the house in about 1755. [4] He employed as his architect Thomas Prowse a Member of Parliament who designed houses for his friends and had previously designed the nearby Temple of Harmony [5] and had been consulted regarding the building of Hagley Hall in Worcestershire. [6]
The two-storey Bath stone building is in the Palladian style with four square angle towers each of three storeys. [7] The main entrance is via a loggia of five round-headed arches. [6] [8] The interior includes a large hall and a staircase with stone treads and wrought iron balusters. [6]
The gardens contain a walled vegetable garden. [9] [10] During the 18th century extensive pleasure gardens existed which included a grotto with a pool and fireplace. [11] [12]
The stable block was built in about 1820 following the demolition of the original stable block designed by Prowse. [13] At the same time a horse engine house was built as a horse mill to power farm machinery, since used for storage, but some of the original machinery including the drive shaft is still in situ. [14]
The gardens were restored by Dr Robin Odgers and his wife Janie, who occupied the house from 1984 to its sale in 2000. [15] There are listed, Grade II, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England. [16]
The house once contained a small military museum commemorating the life and work of Brigadier Andrew Hamilton Gault, a decorated Boer War hero [17] who served as Member of Parliament for Taunton and as a member of the Quebec Chamber of Commerce. He was the founder of the last privately raised regiment in the British Empire, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. [18] [19] Hamilton Gault was buried on the estate. [20] His wife continued to live at Hatch Court until 1972. [15]
Stourhead is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about 4 km northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I listed 18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, one of the most famous gardens in the English landscape garden style, farmland, and woodland. Stourhead has been part-owned by the National Trust since 1946.
Ashill is a small village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated 7 miles (11.3 km) south of Taunton, and three miles north-west of Ilminster. The parish includes the hamlet of Windmill Hill and has a population of 529.
John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp de Somerset was an English peer.
Prior Park Landscape Garden surrounding the Prior Park estate south of Bath, Somerset, England, was designed in the 18th century by the poet Alexander Pope and the landscape gardener Capability Brown, and is now owned by the National Trust. The garden was influential in defining the style known as the "English landscape garden" in continental Europe. The garden is Grade I listed in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
Hatch Beauchamp is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated 5 miles (8.0 km) south east of Taunton. The village has a population of 620.
Curry Rivel is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Somerton and 10 miles (16.1 km) east of Taunton in the South Somerset district. The parish has a population of 2,148. The parish includes the hamlet of Burton Pynsent.
The titles Baron Beauchamp and Viscount Beauchamp have been created several times throughout English and British history. There is an extant Viscountcy of Beauchamp, held by the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford.
Blagdon is a village and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Somerset, within the unitary authority of North Somerset, in England. It is located in the Mendip Hills, a recognised Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. According to the 2011 census it has a population of 1,116. The village is about 12 miles (19 km) east of Weston-super-Mare on the A368 between Churchill and Compton Martin.
Andrew Hamilton Gault was a Canadian Army officer and British politician. At his own expense, he raised the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the last privately raised regiment in the British Empire. Hatch Court in Somerset today once housed a small museum commemorating Gault's military career. From 1924 to 1935 he was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Taunton, Somerset. Returning to Quebec after World War II, Gault vigilantly defended his estate of Mont Saint-Hilaire from expropriation by mining interests and bequeathed it to McGill University to help ensure its preservation.
Marston Bigot is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Trudoxhill in the Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is near Nunney and 3 miles (5 km) south of Frome. In 1931 the parish had a population of 117.
Stoke sub Hamdon Priory is a complex of buildings and ruins which initially formed a 14th-century college for the chantry chapel of St Nicholas, and later was the site of a farm in Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, England. The only building remaining from the college is a great hall and attached dwelling, dating from the late 15th century. The hall is designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, while the outbuildings and gateway are Grade II listed. The whole site has been scheduled as an ancient monument. A number of the farm buildings are in poor condition, and have been added to the Heritage at Risk Register.
Shepton Beauchamp is a village and civil parish, 1 mile (2 km) from Barrington and 4 miles (6 km) north east of Ilminster between the Blackdown Hills and the Somerset Levels in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England.
North Cadbury is a village and civil parish 5 miles (8 km) west of Wincanton, by the River Cam, in the Unitary Authority of Somerset, England. It shares its parish council with nearby Yarlington and its civil parish includes the village of Galhampton, which got its name from the settlement of the rent-paying peasants, and the hamlet of Woolston.
John de Beauchamp, 2nd Baron Beauchamp of Somerset was an English peer and was feudal baron of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset.
Earnshill House in Hambridge, near Curry Rivel, Somerset, England is a manor house, set in parkland. It was built in 1725 for Henry Combe, a Bristol merchant by John Strachan. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
Marston Bigot Park encompasses approximately 222 hectares (2,220,000 m2) and includes Marston House, Marston Pond and the remains of the medieval shrunken village of Lower Marston. It is in the village of Marston Bigot within the English county of Somerset, England. The house is a Grade II* listed building.
There are over 670 scheduled monuments in the ceremonial county of Somerset in South West England. The county consists of a non-metropolitan county, administered by Somerset County Council, which is divided into five districts, and two unitary authorities. The districts of Somerset are West Somerset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Mendip and Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on 1 April 1996 following the breakup of the county of Avon, are North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. These unitary authorities include areas that were once part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974.
The feudal barony of Hatch Beauchamp or honour of Hatch Beauchamp was an English feudal barony with its caput at the manor of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset. The site of the mediaeval manor house, to the immediate south of the ancient parish church of St John the Baptist, is today occupied by Hatch Court, a grade I listed mansion built in about 1755 in the Palladian style.
