Norton House was a mansion in Midsomer Norton, Somerset. It was built around 1789 by the Savage family, investors in mines in the Somerset Coalfield. It was demolished in 1937-8 to make way for housing but several features from the house and its estate survive to this day.
A Duchy of Cornwall estate map of 1787 shows the grounds of Norton House acquired by Thomas Savage. Records show plans for the house by Thomas Savage being laid out in 1789 on the land, close to the centre of Midsomer Norton. It is likely there was an earlier house on the site. [1] The Savage family were major investors in mines in the Somerset Coalfield. [2] Woods were planted on adjacent sloping land as a landscape feature when Norton House was built. [3]
Thomas Savage arranged for mine sinkers to build a springhead on a hill overlooking the house, so running water could be supplied to the house. In 2013 the springhead was restored using remnants of the original pipes. With the formation of the Midsomer Norton Water Works Company in 1881, the springhead was no longer required. [4] At that point it appears to have been converted to use as an ice house. For this purpose, the oval outline of the brick-built cistern was covered with a stone vault and buried under a mound of earth to provide insulation against the outside air. The ice would have been obtained in winter from the neighbouring shallow artificial pond nearby which appears to have been created especially for this purpose and survives to this day. [3]
The stone gate piers from Norton House survive in Silver Street, Midsomer Norton and have been incorporated into the gateway of a modern house. Along with the cast iron gates themselves (no longer onsite) they were grade II listed in 1979. The gate piers date to the 1830s; the panelled gate piers have a cross-gabled capping above a honeysuckle frieze while the gates had flower designs between the rails. Norton House lay a short distance to the south of the gate. [5]
Around 1866 an obelisk monument with two marble plaques was built at the site of St Chad's Well near the boundary of the grounds, close to Midsomer Norton town centre, by the mother of Major Frederick Stukeley Savage to her son who had been injured in the Crimean War. The decision to place the monument near the spring, which had long been used by the people of the town, resulted from her son's letters home from the war. He highlighted the problems the soldiers had gaining access to clean water, causing them many deaths from waterborne diseases. Although the Major did return from the war, he was an invalid and died ten years later. The writer Evelyn Waugh whose grandfather Alexander Waugh was the doctor in the town tells how the distraught Mrs Savage visited the memorial daily. "Here, in the evenings, the pathetic, wizened Mrs Savage was conducted in her wheel chair, attended by her faithful henchman, Jonah Shearn. The path to the well was set with shrubs, and if any weed had grown between their stems, the wheel chair was stopped before the offending vegetable, and Jonah, trowel in hand, dug it up and cast it in the stream that babbled by. Then she paused and read the inscription with a far-away look in her eyes. It was her tribute to an only child". The monument survives to this day, next to the Somer Valley FM radio station in the grounds of Somervale School. [6] Also surviving are elaborate enclosure railings and gate, but an original grotto archway of Chilcompton rough stone has disappeared. [7]
In 1874 the house was separated from some of its land when the new Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway connecting Bath and Bournemouth was built across the estate just south of the house. Midsomer Norton railway station Records from 1885-6 also show solicitors' charges for Mrs. Savage (wife of Major Frederick S. Savage) relating to land transactions with the railway company. [8]
When the last of the Savage family died in 1888 the house was sold to Frederick Bird for £3,050 with 27 acres of land attached. When he died in 1904 it was acquired by Gerald Thatcher, the brother of the composer and music administrator Sir Reginald Thatcher and the brother-in-law of coalmine owner Sir Frank Beauchamp, [9] before being sold in 1912 to an individual known as Prince Tschajkowsky, popularly believed to be Russian. He refurbished the house but left within two years with reports of debts and rumours that he was a spy. In World War I the building was used to house Belgian refugees. [1]
Photographs of the house show a typically Georgian mansion in the conventional classical style, with lawns, landscaped gardens and a conservatory. [10]
After WW1 it was used as a school. [2] A proposal was made in 1926 for a "Mentally Defective School" at Norton House. [11] It was demolished in 1937-8 to make way for housing. [2] Most of the grounds are now occupied by the 1930s housing estate Park Way, Somervale School and Silver Street Nature Reserve.
In the early 21st century part of the house's grounds next to the restored Midsomer Norton railway station was designated as Silver Street Nature Reserve. Visitors can view the restored springhead as well as ponds that formed part of the house's landscaped gardens. [12]
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Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Bath and North East Somerset, England, 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Bath, 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Wells, 10 miles (16 km) north-west of Frome, 12 miles (19 km) west of Trowbridge and 16 miles (26 km) south-east of Bristol. It has a population of around 13,000. Along with Radstock and Westfield it used to be part of the conurbation and large civil parish of Norton Radstock, but is now a town council in its own right. It is also part of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset.
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Clutton is a village and civil parish on the eastern edge of the affluent Chew Valley, close to the Cam Brook river, in the Bath and North East Somerset Council area, within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The village lies east of the A37 road between Bath and Shepton Mallet, and is 9 miles (14 km) from Bristol and Bath, and 11 miles (18 km) from Wells. Close by are the villages of Temple Cloud and High Littleton. The town of Midsomer Norton is 5 miles (8 km) away. The parish, which includes the hamlets of Clutton Hill and Northend, had a population of 1,602 in 2011.
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The Bristol and North Somerset Railway was a railway line in the West of England that connected Bristol with Radstock, through Pensford and further into northern Somerset, to allow access to the Somerset Coalfield. The line ran almost due south from Bristol and was 16 miles (26 km) long.
Somervale School is situated in Midsomer Norton in Bath and North East Somerset in South West England. The school, which has academy status, is a specialist Arts College. It is one of two schools in the area, providing secondary education to local children and some pupils who live outside the catchment area. The number of pupils on the school roll is 538. A fall in the number of pupils prompted the school to propose a federation with nearby Norton Hill School in March 2009. This later became the foundation for the Multi Academy Trust, named Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership, with Alun Williams as chief executive officer In October 2010, Somervale School became an academy alongside Norton Hill. Somervale was named amongst the 100 top performing schools based on sustained improvement of results by Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibb in March 2012. Somervale School was awarded 'Good' by Ofsted in January 2013. The school shares its sixth form with federated school Norton Hill. The sixth form is based across both sites and is called the Midsomer Norton Sixth Form.
Norton Radstock College was a further education college in Westfield, Somerset serving Midsomer Norton, Radstock, Westfield, Keynsham and surrounding districts in Bath, Bristol, Wiltshire and Somerset, England. In April 2015 it merged into Bath College, which continued to operate on the Norton Radstock College site as the Bath College Somer Valley campus.
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Westfield is a settlement lying on the Fosse Way between Radstock and Midsomer Norton in Somerset, England. In 2011 it was raised to the status of a civil parish.
Colonel Sir Frank Beachim Beauchamp, 1st Baronet CBE was an industrialist who owned mines in the Somerset coalfield, notably in Midsomer Norton and Radstock. He was the first baronet of the Beauchamp Baronetcy of Woodborough, in the County of Somerset, created for him in 1918. He was also a Conservative county councillor for thirty-nine years.
Midsomer Norton Town Hall is a municipal structure at The Island, Midsomer Norton, Somerset, England. The structure, which serves as the meeting place of Midsomer Norton Town Council, is a Grade II listed building.