Orchardleigh Estate

Orchardleigh House
Location within Somerset
General information
Town or city Frome
Country England
Coordinates 51°15′40″N 2°19′19″W / 51.2611°N 2.3219°W / 51.2611; -2.3219
Completed 1856
Client William Duckworth
Design and construction
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. The privately held estate comprises a Victorian country house, the Orchardleigh Lake with its island church, and an 18-hole golf course.

Orchardleigh is available for weddings and other events. Various accommodation is provided, both in the house itself and at adjacent lodges and cottages in the extensive grounds.

Within the old estate are the Orchardleigh Stones, a probable neolithic burial chamber which was excavated in 1803 and 1804, when human bones and cremation urns were discovered.[1]

The Church of St Mary, Orchardlea, dates from the 13th century and is Grade I listed.[2] The churchyard contains the grave of the poet Sir Henry Newbolt.

The parish was part of the hundred of Frome.[3]

The old Orchardleigh House was just south of the church. Its heyday was the time of Sir Thomas Champneys, 1st Baronet, High Sheriff of Somerset in 1775, but all that remains of that period is the boathouse, rotunda, the Lullington gateway, and the Tudor lodges dating from the 1820s. The old house was demolished and the present one 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.[4]

In 1986, Arthur Duckworth died, and Orchardleigh was soon sold. Work started on redevelopment, but in 1989 the developer’s loans were called in by the bank and work ceased for 13 years. In 2002, a new scheme was started to build the current hotels and golf courses.

The boathouse[5] is included in the Heritage at Risk Register produced by English Heritage.[6] The estate also contains a bridge incorporating a sluice,[7] a semicircular bridge,[8] a garden house,[9] a keepers lodge [10] and a stables and coachhouse,[11] 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,[12] is the Wood Lodge Summerhouse.[13]

The gardens and pleasure grounds are listed, Grade II*, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Orchard Leigh Stones". Pastscape. English Heritage. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Church of St Mary, causeway bridge, and gates". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  3. ↑ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Orchardlea House, forecourt walls and gates". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007."Church Lodge". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007."Temple Lodge". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.. More generally, see Pevsner N, North Somerset and Bristol, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1958, p 241.
  5. ↑ "Boathouse". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  6. ↑ "South West England" (PDF). Heritage at Risk. English Heritage. p. 181. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  7. ↑ "Bridge and sluice at NGR ST 7818 5100". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  8. ↑ "Bridge on approach road to Orchardlea House at NGR ST 7858 5168". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  9. ↑ "Garden House and attached house to rear". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  10. ↑ "Keepers Lodge". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  11. ↑ "Stables and coachhouse". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  12. ↑ "Orchardleigh". Parks and gardens UK. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  13. ↑ "Wood Lodge Summerhouse". Images of England. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
  14. ↑ "Orchardleigh". National Heritage List for England. Historic England. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
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