Court House

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Court House in East Quantoxhead

The Court House is a mansion in the village of East Quantoxhead in the western English county of Somerset . The building, with a medieval tower and other parts from the 17th century, is listed by English Heritage as a Grade I Historic Building.

The manor belonged to the Luttrell family who had owned Dunster Castle since they received it in 1070. From the medieval manor house, which was built around 1400 to replace a house from 1273, only the tower has survived to this day. George Luttrell and his second wife Silvestra Capps had most of the current building added in the 1620s. Until the 20th century, the manor was used as a farm and then again as an apartment for the last descendants of the Luttrells.

The house has a main hall with a gallery and a large kitchen wing. The interiors are known for their stucco friezes . There are 2 hectares of gardens around the manor house, which in turn are surrounded by 1.2 hectares of light forest.

history

For generations since 1070, East Quantoxhead has belonged to the Luttrells, who also owned Dunster Castle.

The first mansion was built in 1273. In the late 14th or early 15th century it was replaced by a newer house, of which only the four-story tower with battlements remains today . The rest of the current building was erected in the 17th century.

When George Luttrell inherited Dunster Castle, the castle was in ruins and so the family preferred to live in the courthouse. George Luttrell's first wife and mother of his twelve children died in the 1620s. He married Silvestra Capps , who persuaded him to expand the existing building by adding a wing in the southwest and a new vestibule. The extensions and alterations, which the house had essentially achieved its present form, were completed in 1628. After Silvestra Capps' death in 1655, the house was leased as a farm and in the following centuries some minor damage was caused by its use as a granary. The only structural change was the installation of a large barn door for loading and emptying the granary. In the 1860s, quarter sessions were held in-house; hence the name “Courthouse” (German: courthouse), which it has carried since then.

In the 20th century the house was used again as a residential building. Lieutenant Colonel GW Luttrell and his wife lived there. In 2011 and 2012, repairs were carried out on the masonry and the roof was re-covered.

architecture

Front facade

The two-story house is built around an inner courtyard. The front is in Jacobean style ; the main entrance is mediated by a two-story vestibule. The main hall has a gallery on the upper floor, which is reached via an oak staircase in Tudor style . The kitchen has two fire pits, one of which is 3.8 meters wide and could be used to roast a whole cow. The outside kitchen was used for making cider and contained a large apple press. A small room next to the kitchens was used as a detention cell for drunks awaiting their verdict.

At the bottom of the tower there is a courtyard for cockfighting . Other “sporty” memorabilia are barrel staves made of oak, which were used to “glide” for catching conger eels with dogs on the nearby beach at Kilve .

The interior of the house is known for its stucco friezes . In the hall, the surround of the fireplace from 1629 bears the Luttrell coat of arms, flanked on both sides by soldiers. It was created by two Flemish workers employed by George Luttrell. They and their descendants remained in western Somerset and are credited with stucco work in all of the large houses in the area, e.g. B. in the Court House and at Dunster Castle. Biblical scenes are depicted in the friezes in most of the rooms of the house. In the salon there is a representation of Christ with the children, in the north bedroom the entry of Christ into Jerusalem and in another room the removal of Christ from the cross. The scenes come from the book Vita, Passio, et Resurrection Jesu Christi , which was published in Antwerp in 1566 .

Gardens

The park around the house

The gardens cover an area of ​​two hectares and are surrounded by 1.2 hectares of light forest. The present gardens were laid out in the 1950s. Acid earth was used to create a Cornish garden with camellias , rhododendrons , magnolias , pale-flowered hydrangeas , herb bed borders , and a traditional kitchen garden .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Court House. (No longer available online.) In: Images of England. English Heritage, archived from the original on October 16, 2012 ; Retrieved March 21, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  2. ^ East Quantoxhead. Quantock Online, accessed March 21, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Eric R. Delderfield: West Country Historic Houses and their families . Volume 2: Dorset, Wiltshire and North Somerset . David & Charles, Newton Abbott 1970, ISBN 0-7153-4910-4 , pp. 40-45.
  4. ^ Survey (2003), Court House, East Quantoxhead. (No longer available online.) Somerset County Council, archived from the original March 4, 2016 ; accessed on March 21, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / webapp1.somerset.gov.uk
  5. ↑ a b R. W. Dunning (eds.), AP Baggs, RJE Bush, MC Siraut: Parishes: East Quantoxhead. In: A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 5. Institute of Historical Research, 1985, accessed March 21, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Oliver Garnett: Dunster Castle . National Trust, London 2003, ISBN 1-84359-049-2 , pp. 39-40.
  7. ^ A b Michael Cyril William Hunter: Printed Images in Early Modern Britain: Essays in Interpretation . Ed .: Ashgate Publishing. 2010, ISBN 978-0-7546-6654-7 , pp. 66 .
  8. ↑ Case Study. Court House. East Quantoxhead. (PDF) Ellis & Co., accessed March 21, 2016 .
  9. ^ Court House . National Heritage List for England. Historic England. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  10. ↑ Grahame Farr: Somerset Harbors . Christopher Johnson, London 1954, pp. 119-120.
  11. ^ East Quantoxhead Court House. Gatehouse, accessed March 21, 2016 .
  12. ^ Court House. National Gardens Scheme, accessed March 21, 2016 .

Web links

Commons : Court House, East Quantoxhead  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 10 "  N , 3 ° 14 ′ 18"  W.