ST0821 : Cothay Manor gatehouse
taken 8 years ago, near to Appley, Somerset, England
Cothay Manor was built in the 1480s and enlarged in the early 17th Century and restored and enlarged in 1926-7. It is considered by some to be one of the finest examples of a small medieval manor house in the country.
Grade I listed – see Link. The gatehouse is separately grade II* listed – see Link.
A previous house on the site was owned by the Cothay family. In the early 14th Century it came into the ownership of the Bluett family by marriage, and the present house was subsequently built by family member Walter Bluett. The early 17th Century alterations were carried out by William Every who acquired the property in the late 16th Century.
The 1920s restoration, which included the addition of the north and south wings, was carried out by the then owner Colonel Reginald Cooper DSO, who was a friend of, among others, Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West of Sissinghurst in Kent and Major Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire. It was Cooper who laid out the gardens, predating the gardens at Sissinghurst by around 10 years.
Subsequent owners were the artist and art collector Sir Francis Cook and then Edward du Cann MP. In 1993 it was sold to Alastair and Mary-Anne Robb who rebuilt the gardens based on Cooper’s original structure, with further additions. The 12 acre gardens consist of separate “rooms”, with much informal planting.