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Sutton Court

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Southetoun; Stowey Court

In the civil parish of Stowey Sutton.
In the historic county of Somerset.
Modern Authority of Bath and North East Somerset.
1974 county of Avon.
Medieval County of Somerset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST59656045
Latitude 51.34178° Longitude -2.58020°

Sutton Court has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House, and also as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

Former fortified manor, now country house. Early C14 with additions and alterations in c.1450, 1558, c.1700 and an extensive restructuring and restoration by T.H. Wyatt in 1858-60. Squared and coursed sandstone rubble throughout with freestone and ashlar dressings, copings, slate roofs. North front comprises a central 3 storey C14 pele tower with taller circular stair turret and 2 storey ranges linking it to 1558 'Bess of Hardwick Building' to the left and a 4-bay 1858- 60 servants' wing of 3 storeys to the right. Windows to pele tower and right hand linking range are C15 of 2 cusped lights with hoodmoulds, some renewed, some relocated from other areas. 1858-60 doorway to tower. Windows to left hand linking range and 'Hardwick Building' are 4 and 6-light chamfered mullions. 2 storey 'Hardwick' range has diagonal offset buttresses. C18 battlements to pele tower, tall octagonal ashlar stacks. Manor built by William de Sutton, Elizabeth Hardwick, Lady St. Loe owned it in 1558 and the Wyatt restoration and rebuilding was carried out for Sir Edward Strachey. (Listed Building Report)

John Leland stayed at the 'old maner place' of Sir John St Loe and described several places in relation to their distance from 'Southetoun'. An earlier Sir John St Loe, either the one who built Newton castle and died in 1314 or his immediate successor, built a tall, square tower with a circular stair turret. A hall was built behind the tower in the late fifteenth or earlier sixteenth century, the beginning of the early Tudor transformation of the castle to a country house. (Dunning 1995)
Comments

Does seem to have been, when built in the C14, a fortified small solar tower with attached unfortified hall block, in a fashion common in the north of England but relatively rare in the south
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Sources of information, references and further reading
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This record last updated 26/07/2017 09:21:29

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