SUTTON COURT

'Sutton Court', Stowey also known as Stowey Court, is a large house built on the site of a fourteenth century castle, with sections built in the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
It is in the area of North Somerset, England in an area now part of Bath and North East Somerset, nearto the villages of Bishop Sutton and Stowey.

Contents

Construction

History

Listed building

Current usage

References

Bibliography

Construction

Sutton Court is built of squared and coursed sandstone rubble throughout with freestone and ashlar dressings, copings, slate roofs. The north front comprises a central three storey fourteenth century pele tower with a taller circular stair turret and two storey ranges linking it to the 1558 'Bess of Hardwick Building' to the left and a four bay 1858-1860 servants' wing of three storeys to the right. Windows to pele tower and right hand linking range are 15th century of two cusped lights with hoodmoulds, some of which have been renewed, and some relocated from other areas. The doorway to the tower daqtes from 1858-60. The windows to the left hand linking range and 'Hardwick Building' are four and six light chamfered mullions. The two storey 'Hardwick' range has diagonal offset buttresses. There are eighteenth century battlements to the pele tower, with tall octagonal ashlar stacks. The manor was built by William de Sutton for Elizabeth Hardwick. Lady St. Loe owned it in 1558 and the Wyatt restoration and rebuilding was carried out for Sir Edward Strachey.^[1]

History

Wade and Wade in their 1929 book "Somerset" suggest that Bishop Hooper found asylum here during the Marian Persecutions, around 1550.^[2]
About 1558 (former date on a fireplace) Bess of Hardwick and her third husband Sir William St Loe added a north east wing with a parlour and chapel, which includes Tudor buttresses.^[3] The house was then left to her son Charles Cavendish, but later the property passed to the Strachey family. ^[4]
Wade and Wade in their 1929 book "Somerset" suggest that Bishop Hooper found an asylum during the Marian Persecutions.^[2]
From about 1650-1700 it was the seat of Richard Jones and his son Sir William Jones, the Attorney General of England.^[6] Around 1800 it was the seat of the Strachey family including Richard Strachey and his brother John Strachey. Much of the house was remodelled in 1858 by Thomas Henry Wyatt. ³
Life at Sutton Court has been described by John St. Loe Strachey in his autobiographical book 'The Adventure of Living' in 1922.^[7]

Listed building

It is a Grade II
★ listed building.^[8] A curtain wall to north of Sutton Court with a gazebo is also listed.^[9] as is the lodge.^[10]

Current usage

The building is now private apartments set in eight acres (3 ha) of communal grounds, including a trout lake and tennis court. It is run by a management company made up of the residents.

References

1. Sutton Court
2.
3. The Buildings of England : North Somerset and Bristol, Pevsner, Nikolaus, , , Penguin Books, 1958, ISBN 0-300-09640-2
4. Avon Villages, Mason, Edmund J. & Mason, Doreen, , , Robert Hale Ltd, , ISBN 0-7091-9585-0
5.
6. The House of Commons 1690 1715 5 Volume Set p527, Cruickshanks, , , Cambridge University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-521-77221-4
7. The Adventure of Living A Subjective Autobiography (1860-1922), St. Loe Strachey, John, , , , 1922, ISBN 1-4043-5656-8
8. Sutton Court
9. Curtain Wall to north of Sutton Court with gazebo
10. Sutton Court Lodge

Bibliography

★ Chew Magna and the Chew Valley in old photographs, Durham, I. & M., , , Redcliffe Press, 1991, ISBN 1-872971-61-X

★ The Natural History of the Chew Valley, Janes, Rowland (ed), , , , 1987, ISBN 0-9545125-2-9

★ Before the Lake: Memories of the Chew Valley, Ross, Lesley (Ed.), , , The Harptree Historic Society, 2004, ISBN 0-9548832-0-9