- Orchardleigh Estate
-
Orchardleigh House 
The stable block
Location within SomersetGeneral information Town or city Frome Country England Coordinates 51°15′40″N 2°19′19″W / 51.2611°N 2.3219°W Completed 1856 Design and construction Client William Duckworth Architect Thomas Henry Wyatt Orchardleigh (also spelled Orchardlea) is a country estate in Somerset, approximately two miles north of Frome, and on the southern edge of the village of Lullington. It comprises a Victorian stately home, an island church, and an 18-hole golf course. Various accommodation is provided, both in the house itself and at adjacent lodges and cottages in the extensive grounds.
The Church of St Mary dates from the 13th century and is Grade I listed.[1]
The parish was part of the hundred of Frome.[2]
The old mansion was just south of the church. Its heyday was the time of Thomas Champneys (1st Bt.; High Sheriff of Somerset 1775–1776), but all that remains of that period is the boathouse, rotunda, the Lullington gateway and the 1820s Tudor lodges. It was demolished and the present house built in 1856 by Thomas Henry Wyatt for William Duckworth. The new house is described by Pevsner as "picturesque, irregular, and in a mixed Elizabethan style", and is a Grade II* listed building.[3]
In 1986 the last male Duckworth descendant died, and work started on redevelopment, after the sale of the furniture and fixtures. The developer’s loans were called in by the bank in 1989 and work ceased for 13 years before it restarted to build the current hotels and golf courses.
The boathouse[4] is included in the Buildings at Risk Register produced by English Heritage.[5] The estate also contains a bridge incorporating a sluice,[6] a semicircular bridge,[7] a garden house,[8] a keepers lodge [9] and a stables and coachhouse,[10] which all date from the same period as the main house and are also listed buildings.
Within the grounds, which were landscaped – possibly by Humphrey Repton – and are included in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England,[11] is the Wood Lodge Summerhouse.[12]
See also
References
- ^ "Church of St Mary, causeway bridge, and gates". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267143. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
- ^ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Miscellaneous/. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
- ^ "Orchardlea House, forecourt walls and gates". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267139. Retrieved 20 November 2007."Church Lodge". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267144. Retrieved 20 November 2007."Temple Lodge". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267145. Retrieved 20 November 2007.. More generally, see Pevsner N, North Somerset and Bristol, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1958, p 241.
- ^ "Boathouse". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267148. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
- ^ "South West England". Heritage at Risk. English Heritage. p. 181. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/HAR_Register_South_West_2009/southwest-2009-har-register.pdf. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
- ^ "Bridge and sluice at NGR ST 7818 5100". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267149. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
- ^ "Bridge on approach road to Orchardlea House at NGR ST 7858 5168". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267147. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
- ^ "Garden House and attached house to rear". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267142. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
- ^ "Keepers Lodge". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267151. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
- ^ "Stables and coachhouse". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267141. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
- ^ "Orchardleigh". Parks and gardens UK. http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,2511/Itemid,292/. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
- ^ "Wood Lodge Summerhouse". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=267150. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
External links
Categories:- Grade II* listed buildings in Somerset
- Grade II listed buildings in Somerset
- Listed buildings at risk in Somerset
- Buildings on the Buildings at Risk Register
- Estates of the United Kingdom
- Country houses in Somerset
- Frome
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