Hatch Court in the parish of

Hatch Beauchamp Hatch Beauchamp is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south east of Taunton. The village has a population of 620. History The manor of "Hache" dates from Saxon times and became the ''caput'' of a feudal barony after ...

, in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England, is a

grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

mansion built in about 1755 in the

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style with

Bath Stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

by the wool merchant John Collins to the design of Thomas Prowse. The site had been occupied since the mediaeval era by various forms of the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

of the manor of Hatch, the ''

caput A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may not ...

'' of an important

feudal barony A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely bee ...

first held by the Anglo-Norman ''de Beauchamp'' family in the 11th century.

History

John Collines was a wool merchant who built the house in about 1755. He employed as his architect Thomas Prowse a Member of Parliament who designed houses for his friends and had previously designed the nearby

Temple of Harmony The Temple of Harmony is an 18th-century folly in the grounds of Halswell House, Goathurst, Somerset, England. Built in 1767, it is a replica of the 1st-century Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome. The Temple stands in Mill Wood, a 17-acre (7 h ...

and had been consulted regarding the building of

Hagley Hall Hagley Hall is a Listed building#Categories of listed building, Grade I listed 18th-century house in Hagley, Worcestershire, the home of the Lyttelton family. It was the creation of George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, George, 1st Lord Lytte ...

in Worcestershire.

Architecture

The two-storey

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

building is in the

style with four square angle towers each of three storeys. The main entrance is via a

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

of five round-headed arches. The interior includes a large

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

and a staircase with stone treads and

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

baluster A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

Outbuildings and grounds

The gardens contain a walled vegetable garden. During the 18th century extensive pleasure gardens existed which included a

grotto A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...

with a pool and fireplace. The stable block was built in about 1820 following the demolition of the original stable block designed by Prowse. At the same time a horse engine house was built as a

horse mill A horse mill is a mill, sometimes used in conjunction with a watermill or windmill, that uses a horse engine as the power source. Any milling process can be powered in this way, but the most frequent use of animal power in horse mills was for gri ...

to power farm machinery, since used for storage, but some of the original machinery including the drive shaft is still ''in situ''. The gardens were restored by Dr Robin Odgers and his wife Janie, who occupied the house from 1984 to its sale in 2000. There are listed, Grade II, on the

Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England #REDIRECT Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England {{R from move ...

Museum

The house once contained a small military museum commemorating the life and work of Brigadier

Andrew Hamilton Gault Andrew Hamilton Gault (18 August 1882 – 28 November 1958) was a Canadian Army officer and British politician. At his own expense, he raised the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the last privately raised regiment in the British Empi ...

, a decorated

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

hero who served as Member of Parliament for

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

and as a member of the

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Chamber of Commerce. He was the founder of the last privately raised regiment in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, the

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI, generally referred to as the Patricias) is one of the three Regular Force infantry regiments of the Canadian Army of the Canadian Armed Forces. Formed in 1914, it is named for Princess Patrici ...

. Hamilton Gault was buried on the estate. His wife continued to live at Hatch Court until 1972.

Sources

*Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327, Oxford, 1960, p. 51, ''Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset'' *Batten, John, ''The Barony of Beauchamp of Somerset'', published in ''Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society'', Vol.36. *Cookson, Christopher, ''Hatch Beauchamp Church'', section: ''Historical Note on the Church and its Associations'', 197

* John Burke (genealogist), Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, p. 872, ''Gault of Hatch Court''

References