Coker Court is a substantial manor house in

East Coker East Coker is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its nearest town is Yeovil, to the north. The village has a population of 1,667. The parish includes the hamlets and areas of North Coker, Burton, Holywell, Coker Marsh, Darvole, ...

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. It was built in the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries and has been designated as a Grade I

listed building 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 ...

. It was erected by the Courtney family who were lords of the manor and rectors of the adjacent parish church. The building is constructed from locally quarried

Hamstone Hamstone is a honey-coloured building stone from Ham Hill, Somerset, England. It is a well-cemented medium to coarse grained limestone characterised by marked bedding planes of clay inclusions and less well-cemented material which weather dif ...

with roofs composed of stone tiles.

History

The Courtney family were lords of the manor in the 14th and 15th centuries and appointed the rectors of the adjacent St Michael and All Angels' Church. They built the present building, on the site of an earlier house during the early part of the 15th century. In 1616 it was bought by archdeacon Helyar who added to the structure of the building. William Helyar supported the king during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. His grandson, another William Helyar, was Member of Parliament for Somerset in 1715. The Helyar family owned sugar plantations in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. The MPs grandson, another William Helyar (died 1820; pictured), commissioned architect Joseph Dixon to design a new wing for the Court, in 1766. The 18th-century portion was built by

Sir William Chambers __NOTOC__ Sir William Chambers (23 February 1723 – 10 March 1796) was a Swedish-British architect. Among his best-known works are Somerset House, the Gold State Coach and the pagoda at Kew. Chambers was a founder member of the Royal Academy. ...

. The house is now divided into several properties.

Architecture

Coker Court is a manor house, constructed in the fifteenth century and now divided into several units. Major additions were made in the eighteenth century and further extensions in around 1900. The house is constructed of locally quarried

rubble with ashlar dressings, with roofs of stone tiles between coped gables. The extension is rendered and has a hipped roof. The chimney stacks are of stone, some of them rendered. The north front is the earliest part of the building, and has seven bays. The east front is the eighteenth century structure and also has seven bays. To the south and west is the four-bay extension erected around 1900 as servants quarters, and now a separate dwelling house. On the north front, bay 1 is the end of the eighteenth century addition and has a blind Venetian window while bay 2 has an

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...

, the two arched windows having tracery and diamond leaded panes. Bay 2 is separated from bay 3 by an angled buttress, and further full height buttresses separate bays 3, 4 and 5, which each have similar windows. Bay 6 has a projecting porch and is separated from bay 7 by another buttress. Bay 7 has twentieth century

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed windows. The interior of the house has some interesting features including Chinese wallpaper and lacquerwork in some upstairs rooms. The house is a Grade I

, and the listing particulars state that it is "A very fine example in which either major portion would merit the high grading".

Film

Part of the 1996 film '' Emma'', based on the novel of the same name by

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

, was shot on location at Coker Court.

References

{{reflist, 30em Houses completed in the 15th century Grade I listed buildings in South Somerset Grade I listed houses in Somerset Hamstone buildings

History

Architecture

Film

See also

References