STOKE ST MARY AND DISTRICT HISTORY GROUP

The house displays features dating back to Medieval times, in particular an oriel archway of c.1280 which originally led out of the Great Hall. The house underwent a significan makeover in the 1680s but it was betwwen 1725 and 1730 that John Bampfylde took down most of the early part of the house and put on a typical Georgian facade with wings on either side - which still survives. It was shortly after this, in the 1750s, tht the famous landscape garden was created by Coplestone Warre Bampfylde.


Then in 1873, after almost 450 years, in the hands of the Warre family, the house was purchased by Viscount Portman. Lord Portman gutted the house interior giving it an expensive Victorian facelift, including a portecochere at the entrance and an elaborate water tower which was typical of popular picturesque asymmetry of the day.

In 1904, the house was greatly embellished by the addition of the formal garden designed by Edwin Lutyens with planting schemes by Gertrude Jekyll.


HESTERCOMBE HOUSE