Nettlecombe Court

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Nettlecombe Court
Somerset

Nettlecombe Court Field Centre
and the Church of St Mary the Virgin
Location
Grid reference: ST056377
Location: 51°7’52"N, 3°21’0"W
Village: Nettlecombe
History
Country house
Information

Nettlecombe Court is a grand country house, park is an old estate on the northern fringes of the Brendon Hills of Somerset, within the Exmoor National Park. The estate is alone in the hills, a mile west of Monksilver and three and a half miles south of the village of Williton.

The house is a Grade I listed building.[1]

The 16th-century Elizabethan, Tudor and Mediæval architecture with Georgian refinements includes a mansion, Mediæval hall, church, monumental oak grove, and a farm.

The house is surrounded by 150 acres of estate parkland situated within the Exmoor National Park, once a part of the estate. It lies sheltered at the northeast incline of the Brendon Hills. The park surrounding the house is Grade II listed on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[2] Nettlecombe Park blends into woodlands.

The house today served as the Leonard Wills Field Centre for field scientists who wish to study the surrounding natural environment, which is the best example of this type of ecosystem remaining in England. Today, nearby hills and woodlands, including Exmoor, have provided opportunities for general scientific introductory field courses on environmental themes and botany. Habitats include marine, freshwater and heather moorland and the surrounding settlements range from hamlets to villages to the country town of Taunton. An archaeological excavation on the edge of the property, near the sea coast, has revealed the remains of Danish Vikings who were defeated there around 900.

History

Nettlecombe Court in Somersetshire (1793)

Nettlecombe was originally spelled Netelcumbe and by 1245 Nettelcumbe meaning, just as it seems, 'Nettle Valley.[3]

Nettlecombe has never been bought or sold. It was held before the Norman Conquest by Godwine, son of King Harold. William the Conqueror assumed possession of Nettlecombe after defeating Harold at the Battle of Hastings.[4] In 1160, King Henry II granted the estate to Hugh de Raleigh in perpetuity.[5] It passed to Warine de Raleigh, and on through direct blood heirs until the 19th century, a claim strengthened by marriages between deep ancestral cousins.

The estate became a seat of the Trevelyan baronets (previously spelled as Trevilian), who also held another manor at Basil, by the marriage of Sir John Trevilian in 1481 to Lady Whalesborough, heiress of Nettlecombe through her Raleigh maternal line. Nettlecombe was held in continuity by Trevilian successors until the 20th century following the death of Joan Trevelyan and her husband Garnet Wolsey.[6]

The house became a boarding school for girls (St Audries Junior School) in the late 1950s. Since 1967 it has been the home of the Leonard Wills Field Centre run by the Field Studies Council an educational charity.[7] The house is surrounded by Nettlecombe Park, a 223 acre Site of Special Scientific Interest.

House

Nettlecombe Court Field Studies Centre

Nettlecombe Court is an Elizabethan country mansion, in addition to earlier-built structures including a late mediæval hall, entrance front, porch, a great hall, and church.[8] A Tudor parlour was added in 1599. In the 1640s there were further additions to the rear of the great hall following a fire started by roundheads opposed to George Trevelyns support of the monarchy during the Civil War.[9]

During the reign of King George I, between 1703 and 1707, the South West front was extended.[8] The south-west wing was decorated in the 1780s and the north east service range was added in the early 19th century. The house contains plaster work from each of these eras.[10]

In the 17th century an organ built by John Loosemore was installed,[11] at a cost of £100. This was converted from a single-manual to two-manual operation in the 1830s. In the 1980s this was restored at the John Loosemore Centre in Buckfastleigh.[12]

Family

Nettlecombe is first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was stated to be held by the King, and in the charge of his Sheriff for Somerset, William de Mohun.[13]

A family lineage published in Nettlecombe Court shows that the estate passed into the Trevelyan family in 1452, upon the marriage of heiress Elizabeth Whalesburgh to a knight companion of the king: Sir John Trevilian,[5] 'Esquire of the Kynge's Body' to King Henry VI, Gentleman Usher of the King's Chamber.[14] He also served as a Member of Parliament representing Somersetshire[15] and as Sheriff of Cornwall.[16] In the 17th century, the spelling of Trevilian became variably spelt as Trevelyan.

Intellectual salon

In the 19th century, Lady Trevelyan made use of the family estates Wallington and Nettlecombe with its great house and 20,000 acres of land, to host a sophisticated intellectual and artistic salon of the day, renowned for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.[17] The sister of Lord Thomas Macaulay, eminent historian as author of the History of England, Hannah Macaulay, married into the Trevelyan family resulting in another eminent historian George Macaulay Trevelyan, whose ancestors lived at Nettlecombe.[18][19]

Arms and legend

One version of the Trevelyan arms

Nettlecombe Court has several emblems and carvings bearing the image of a horse rising from the sea, which are the Trevilian family arms, found throughout the house. The source story of the arms is the Lyonesse legend of Trevilian: Lyonesse is said to have been a beautiful land lying in the west between Land's End and the isles of Scilly, and the legend of this land became part of Arthurian legend, and of the legend of Tristan and Isolde. The stories relate that the seas rose and that Lyonesse was overwhelmed and sunk beneath the waves in a single night, and that the sole survivor of the land was a man by the name Trevilian, who escaped by riding his white horse through the rising waters to higher ground before Lyonesse was submerged.[20] The Trevilian family were quick to claim descent from the legendary horseman , hence their coat of arms bearing a white horse issuing forth from the sea. In some cases the Trevilian white horse arms may be seen combined at Nettlecombe with other related family arms, indicating marriages to Raleigh, Luttrell, Wyndham, Chichester and Strode.

Park

Nettlecombe Park, extending over 223 acres is important for its lichen flora.[21] Records suggest this site has been wood pasture or parkland for at least 400 years. There are some very old oak pollards which may be of this age or older. The oldest standard trees are over 200 years of age. The continuity of open woodland and parkland, with large mature and over-mature timber, has enabled characteristic species of epiphytic lichens and beetles to become established and persist. Many of the species in the park are now nationally scarce because this type of habitat has been eliminated over large areas of Great Britain. The park was notified as an SSSI in 1990.[22]

Nettlecombe is known to have had a deer park by 1532. In 1556 it covered 80 acres and in 1619 70 acres.[23] In the 1690s large areas of parkland were enclosed and four new gardens created, including a water garden, which has now disappeared but is remembered in the name 'Canal Field'.[24] The park was extended in the 18th century which included the removal of the houses that made up the village. In 1792 Thomas Veitch laid out the landscape in the style of Capability Brown including the construction of a Ha-ha between the deer park and the meadows.[25] This included the removal of cottages and relocation of the residents.[21] The parkland is now listed, Grade II, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest.[26]

Within the grounds is the Church of St Mary the Virgin which is also a Grade I listed building.[27]

Oak trees

A mature tree at Nettlecombe Park

Nettlecombe Park is 223 acres of undulating parkland boasting monumental solitary trees and treegroups. It was probably once an oak forest in the main. Today, among these, oaks and sweet chestnuts are still the most common. Several sessile oaks are outstandingly large and were famous from ancient accounts for their great size. Nettlecombe oaks once provided tall strong trees for shipbuilding. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, timber hewn from the oaks of Nettlecombe were hand-selected to help build the ships of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada.[28][29] A number of other English ships that sailed the world to establish British colonies, its navy, and trading empire were built making use of prime Nettlecombe oaks. In the 19th century very good prices were offered to the Trevelyan baronet to cut down and sell the great oaks, but the owner left them standing and the trees have been protected ever since. Some have now grown to a girth of 23 feet.[30] Today, Nettlecombe acorns are sold to nurseries to begin new sapling oak trees.[31]

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Nettlecombe Court)

References

  1. ↑ National Heritage List 1173856: Leonard Wills Field Centre(formerly listed as Nettlecombe Court)
  2. ↑ National Heritage List 1001152: Nettlecombe Park
  3. ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. ISBN 0198691033
  4. ↑ Bush, R.J.E (1970). "Nettlecombe Court". Fld Stud 3: 275–287. http://www.field-studies-council.org/fieldstudies/documents/vol3.2_70.pdf. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Parishes: Nettlecombe – A History of the County of Somerset - Volume : {{{2}}} (Victoria County History)
  6. ↑ "Nettlecombe Court, (also known as The Leonard Wills Field Centre), Minehead, England". Parks and Gardens UK. Parks and Gardens Data Services. http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/2391/history. Retrieved 10 July 2013. 
  7. ↑ "Nettlecombe Court". Field Studies Council. http://www.field-studies-council.org/centres/nettlecombecourt.aspx. Retrieved 4 May 2013. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 National Heritage List 1173856: Leonard Wills Field Centre
  9. ↑ Holt, Alan L. (1984). West Somerset: Romantic Routes and Mysterious Byways. Skilton. p. 56. ISBN 978-0284986917. 
  10. ↑ Nettlecombe Court - Exmoor National Park
  11. ↑ Boeringer, James (1989). Organa Britannica: Organs in Great Britain 1660-1860 : a Complete Edition of the Sperling Notebooks and Drawings in the Library of the Royal College of Organists, Volume 1. Bucknell University Press. p. 44. ISBN 9780838718940. https://books.google.com/books?id=Xcra-oJfCYgC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Nettlecombe+Court+architecture#v=onepage&q=Nettlecombe%20Court%20architecture&f=false. 
  12. ↑ Loosemore, W.R.. "Loosemore of Devon — Chapter 6". Loosemore of Devon. http://www.loosemore.co.uk/Chapter6/CHAPTER6text.htm. Retrieved 5 May 2013. 
  13. ↑ Bush, R. J. E.: ‘Nettlecombe Court’
  14. ↑ "The Trevelyans and Nettlecombe Court". Victoria County History. http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/somerset/resources-links/somerset-resources/trevelyans-and-nettlecombe-court. Retrieved 5 May 2013. 
  15. ↑ "TREVELYAN, Sir John, 2nd Bt. (1670-1755), of Nettlecombe, Som.". The History of Parliament Trust. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/trevelyan-sir-john-1670-1755. Retrieved 10 July 2013. 
  16. ↑ Hitchins, Fortescue (1824). The History of Cornwall: From the Earliest Records and Traditions, to the Present Time, Volume 2. Penaluna. pp. 152–153. https://books.google.com/books?id=HtxSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=Trevillian+family+arms#v=onepage&q=Trevillian%20family%20arms&f=false. 
  17. ↑ "Walter Calverley Trevelyan Papers". Archives hub. http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb186-t?page=2. Retrieved 27 May 2013. 
  18. ↑ Vincent, John (19 June 1980). "G.M. Trevelyan's Two Terrible Things". London Review of Books 2 (12): 3–5. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v02/n12/john-vincent/gm-trevelyans-two-terrible-things. 
  19. ↑ "Trevelyan Family Papers". Archives Hub. http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb186-t. Retrieved 27 May 2013. 
  20. ↑ Myths of Cornwall - Lyonesse
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Rose, Francis; Wolsley, Pat (1984). "Nettlecombe Park — its history and its epiphytic lichens: an attempt at correlation" (PDF). Filed Studies 6: 117–148. http://fsj.field-studies-council.org/media/352543/vol6.1_165.pdf. Retrieved 4 May 2013. 
  22. ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Nettlecombe Park
  23. ↑ Bond, James (1998). Somerset parks and gardens. Tiverton: Somerset Books. pp. 57–58. ISBN 0-86183-465-8. 
  24. ↑ Bond, James (1998). Somerset parks and gardens. Tiverton: Somerset Books. p. 69. ISBN 0-86183-465-8. 
  25. ↑ Bond, James (1998). Somerset parks and gardens. Tiverton: Somerset Books. pp. 93–96, 117. ISBN 0-86183-465-8. 
  26. ↑ National Heritage List 1001152: Nettlecombe Court
  27. ↑ National Heritage List 1173837: Church of St Mary the Virgin
  28. ↑ "Francis Trevilian of Nettlecombe Court, 1642". Geni.com. http://www.geni.com/people/Francis-Trevillian-of-Nettlecombe-Court/6000000014170158242. Retrieved 4 May 2013. 
  29. ↑ "Somerset collector squirrels away 10 million acorns". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-15335687. Retrieved 4 May 2013. 
  30. ↑ Bond, James (1998). Somerset parks and gardens. Tiverton: Somerset Books. p. 93. ISBN 0-86183-465-8. 
  31. ↑ "UK acorn picker is responsible for 10 MILLION oak trees". SWNS. http://swns.com/news/uk-acorn-picker-is-responsible-for-10-million-oak-trees-21342/. Retrieved 4 May 2013. 
  • Rose, Francis; Wolseley, Pat (1984). Nettlecombe Park: Its History and Its Epiphytic Lichens — An Attempt at Correlation. Field Studies Council. ISBN 1-85153-165-3. 
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