Newark Park's

From a Tudor hunting lodge to a private home full of treasures, this National Trust house has plenty of stories to tell

- Lawrence Alexander

Newark Park’s romantic crenellated walls of soft-hued stone have gazed out over the lush Ozleworth valley towards the Mendip Hills for hundreds of years. Built around 1550, they have an ancient feel, enhanced by mysterious woodland paths, half-wild borders and crisp, formal gardens, but this former hunting lodge is a house of many eras. Some are very modern indeed.

The core of the building is Tudor, built for Nicholas Poyntz, an Elizabethan courtier. Poyntz didn’t quarry the stone for his “New Worke” himself, instead looting the newly dissolved Kingswood Abbey – just the other side of Wotton-under-Edge – for materials.