Baynton House is a

Grade II 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, H ...

17th-century

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

Coulston Coulston (until 1934 called East Coulston) is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, five miles northeast of the town of Westbury, just north of the B3098 road. The village lies under the north slope of Salisbury Plain and the paris ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England, about northeast of the town of Westbury.

History

The house was begun by Francis Godolphin in about 1658; it was said to be worth £200. It was inherited by

Elizabeth Godolphin Elizabeth Godolphin (baptised in 1663 – 29 July 1726) was a British school founder and benefactor. She is buried in Westminster Abbey. Godolphin School, Salisbury, is named after her. Life Her birth date is unknown but she was baptised in 166 ...

who married her cousin, Charles Godolphin. She survived him and died in 1726 (making a bequest that in time would create the

Godolphin School Godolphin School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school for girls in Salisbury, England, which was founded in 1726 and opened in 1784. The school educates girls between the ages of three an ...

, Salisbury). Her heir was her nephew William. After the death in 1781 of William Godolphin it was bought by William Evelyn, who enlarged what had been previously a house 'of very small pretensions'. William Long purchased the house in 1796, after his own manor house of Baynton in Edington had been destroyed by fire. He renamed it Baynton House and made alterations which included a new south wing. Parts of the rear of the house probably date from the first building of c.1658, and in the hall there is re-used panelling of the same era. Constructed of rendered brick, with a seven-bay east front, the house sits in parkland, with its own lake. John Long of

Monkton Farleigh Monkton Farleigh is a village and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England, on high ground northwest of Bradford-on-Avon, and a similar distance east of the city of Bath. The parish includes the hamlets of Farleigh Wick and Pinckney Green. In th ...

(nephew of

Richard Godolphin Long Richard Godolphin Long (2 October 1761 – 1 July 1835) was an English banker and Tory politician. Life and career Baptised at West Lavington, Wiltshire a month after his birth, he was the son of Richard Long (died 1787) and his wife Meliora, ...

) inherited the property after the death of the widow of his cousin William Long in 1822, who had left it at her disposal. In 1830, 365 Roman coins known as the Baynton Hoard were dug up in the grounds, 101 of which are now kept in the

Wiltshire Museum The Wiltshire Museum, formerly known as Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Devizes Museum, is a museum, archive and library and art gallery established in 1874 in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The museum was created and is run by the Wiltshire Archae ...

Devizes Devizes () is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-cent ...

. John Long sold the property in 1842, and it subsequently passed to Simon Watson Taylor of

Erlestoke Erlestoke is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain. The village lies about east of Westbury, Wiltshire, Westbury and the same distance south-west of Devizes. HM Pri ...

, from whose heirs it was bought by G. S. H. Pearson about 1915. There was a walled kitchen garden some to the east, near the village of

. The

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

bought the site in the 1930s, and in 1991 it became the home of Erlestoke and Coulston Cricket Club. The house was occupied by R. H. Pearson, who wrote a book named after the house which was published in 1955, recording the lives of the Pearson family. He sold the house in 1964 for £25,000. The house was advertised for sale by public auction at the Red Lion, Salisbury, on 28 July 1966, with sixteen acres of grounds. It was reported to have three reception rooms, a panelled hall, long gallery, and study, six principal bedrooms, six secondary bedrooms, and eight bathrooms. Outside were an Italian garden, a lake, a paddock, an entrance lodge and two other cottages, a hard tennis court, and a squash court.Curtis & Henson, "Baynton House, near Westbury, Wiltshire, an outstanding Georgian manor house", in '' Country Life'', 2 June 1966, Supplement, pg. 7 The house was recorded as Grade II listed in 1968. The house is still a private residence.

References

External links

Image of Baynton House
at Wiltshire Community History, archived in 2016 {{Authority control Georgian architecture in Wiltshire Houses completed in 1658 Country houses in Wiltshire Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire 1658 establishments in England Grade II listed houses