Cothelstone Manor - Tours and History

Cothelstone Manor History

Private Group Tours

A private group tour will give your Group or Society access to a house not normally open to the public. You will hear about the history of the house and church from its beginnings in 1066 through the turbulence of the English Civil War to its renaissance in the nineteenth century.

We also like our guests for the day to be able to relax and see how the house is lived in today, so our group tours always includes a delicious tea or lunch served in the house itself.

We have welcomed groups from, amongst others, the Friends of the Historic Houses Association, John E Vigar's Historical Appreciation Society, The Friends of Bristol's Museums and other private Groups and Societies. We normally cater for groups of between twenty five and fifty people and discuss the details with you well beforehand so that your visit is tailored to suit your group.

The Manor was given to Sir Adam de Coveston by William the Conqueror in 1066 and his descendants were to live there until the end of the Civil War. John Stawell, the last Stawell to live in the Manor House, was born in 1599 and was only four when his father died.

The Civil War

On Thursday 4 August 1642 the first blood of the Civil War was shed in Somerset at Marshalls Elm near Street. Patrols were being sent out from Wells to guard the City against surprise attack. Sir John was leading a patrol of eighty horse and fourteen dragoons when they encountered 600 Parliamentarians coming from Taunton and South Petherton , led by John Pyne. Twenty Royalist Troopers armed with carbines were placed in ambush and the 600 advanced on their supposed weak enemy. When they came within reach of the ambush the Troopers opened fire and caused the Parliamentarians to throw down their arms and fly. Seven men were killed and 18 more wounded, who were to die later.

At the end of the War, on 15 July 1646 , Sir John went to London with a copy of his terms of surrender from Sir Thomas Fairfax. He was told he must swear an oath for parliament. However he refused, was commited as a prisoner to Ely House, in Holborn and his estates were sequestered. On 13 August 1646 he was summoned to the Bar of the House of Commons, where he declined to kneel when ordered to do so by the speaker and he again refused to take the oath. He was immediately committed to Newgate Prison for high treason. Although orders for his trial at Somerset Assizes were repeated on several occasions, no proceed ings followed. In July 1650 Sir John was removed from Newgate to the Tower of London and on 17 December was brought to trial, but the judges neither acquitted nor condemned him.

Destruction and Rebirth

In 1651 his lands and estates were advertised to be sold. The Manor House had been largely destroyed by cannon fire, on the orders of Cromwell.

The 29 May 1660 saw Sir John Stawell one of the 100 knights who, at Charing Cross, welcomed King Charles II on his first entry into London. Sir John was again returned to Parliament as Knight for Somerset on 1 April 1661 but his health had suffered through the deprivations of his long imprisonment, and he died aged 62 on 21 February 1662.

For nearly two hundred years the remnants of the Manor House, which had been repaired and reduced in size, probably in 1681, the date over the fireplace in the hall, were lived in as a farmhouse.

Two men were hanged from the arch of the gateway to Cothelstone Manor following the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth at Sedgemoor in 1685 and the crushing of the Monmouth rebellion.

The estate was purchased by Edward Jeffries in 1791. At the time of its sale the estate consisted of 11 farmhouses, 54 cottages and two dwelling houses. It was passed to his grandson, Edward Jeffries Esdaile (d 1867), who built a new residence, Cothelstone House (1817/20, demolished c 1962). In 1856 the Manor House was restored, by Edward Jeffries Esdaile, to the style in which the Stawell's had lived before the Civil War. His descendants own the Manor House today.

Entrances and Approaches

The Manor House is approached by a straight tree-lined avenue which passes through a three-arched gateway (mid C16, listed grade II*). It was originally erected to stand across the road rather than the drive but was relocated before 1908

The drive passes beneath an arched gatehouse (mid C16, listed grade I) which leads to an enclosed rectangular forecourt with a turning oval. Either side of the drive are lawns, with young trees in straight lines replacing an avenue shown on the OS 1st edition map of 1887. The lawns are flanked by stone walls.

Location and Setting

Cothelstone Manor occupies a position at the foot of the south-west slopes of Cothelstone Hill and is situated north-east of the village of Bishop's Lydeard. The gardens lie to the north and east of the house and are bounded by stone walls on four sides with a straight drive.

The church of Thomas à Becket is immediately north of the house, the north-west boundary wall of the Manor garden forming the south-east boundary of the churchyard.

Principal Building

Cothelstone Manor (listed grade II*) is a part rubble and part red sandstone and tile-roofed house built on a Ushaped plan. The projecting wings have gabled ends and there are gabled mullion windows in the central block, all with ball finials. According to Country Life (1908), the Manor is a late Tudor replacement of an earlier house constructed by one of two Sir John Stawels. Pevsner (1976) says that the current building is difficult to date and states that the rear half of the house is largely a C19 reconstruction, earlier illustrations showing that part in ruins.

The listed building description describes the house as mid C16, largely demolished 1646 and rebuilt 1855-6; the rebuilding was by E J Esdaile. During the rebuilding works, evidence, in the form of foundations, was found to support the tradition that one wing had been destroyed by Cromwell. The Manor and Gatehouse are notable for their unique window mullions, formed of rounded and banded pilasters.

Gardens and Grounds

Steps lead up from close to the north-east corner of the Manor to a rectangular walled garden, on a raised terrace adjacent to the north-east of the house. The garden, laid out on a northwest/ south-east axis parallel to the house and drive and is divided into two rectangular areas. The northern portion contains the Banqueting Hall (early C17 with C19 additions) on the north-east boundary wall, now two dwellings but previously one house, possibly a dower house,. The southern portion, once a bowling green, contains a gazebo (late C16, listed grade II*) in the north-east corner against the north-east boundary wall.

With acknowledgements to David J Hinton and the Somerset Historic Environment Record