ONE of Somerset’s most intriguing country houses, Grade I-listed St Catherine’s Court stands in 14 acres of famous gardens and grounds, overlooking a hidden wooded valley some five miles north of the World Heritage city of Bath. Originally built as a priory grange for the monks of Bath Abbey, the manor takes its name from the Grade II*-listed, 12th-century parish Church of St Catherine, which is within the grounds.
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted the manor to his tailor, John Malte, whose son, also John, an Elizabethan courtier, sold St Catherine’s Court to John Blanchard in 1591. Blanchard’s son, William, remodelled the house in the early 17th century and, in 1610, the porch was added and a terraced garden was laid out. Following several generations of Blanchard ownership, the house passed to the Parry family, who failed to maintain it and, by the 18th century, it was in a serious state of disrepair. In 1841, Col Joseph Holden Strutt, a long-standing MP, bought St Catherine’s Court and renovated the house and church. The manor remained in the Strutt family until 1976.
In 1984, St Catherine’s Court hit the headlines when British actress Jane Seymour and her then husband, David Flynn, bought the house and lavished a reputed £3 million on its refurbishment. However, the couple spent little time there and, following their divorce and Ms Seymour’s marriage to American film producer James Keach, the manor was rented out as a film set, recording studio and wedding venue. Finally, in November 2007, Ms Seymour sold St Catherine’s Court to an unknown buyer.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.