Elmore Court 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 ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

, located at Elmore in the

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

district of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England. The original building dates from between 1564 and 1588.

History

The property has been the family seat of the Guise baronets for nearly 800 years. It was first granted by John of Burgh, who was part of the court of Henry III, with the rent set at "One clove of Gillyflower" each year. The current house was built between 1564 and 1588, and it was altered during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Guise Mausoleum, built in 1733, is in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, the local church. The Guise family was non-resident from about 1685 to about 1845, when Sir John Wright Guise, 3rd Baronet, took up residence. The house had been used as a school from 1778, originally under the Revd. Charles Bishop (died 1788), and later under the Carveth family until about 1830. Its most distinguished pupil was the future surgeon William Lawrence. From 1921 until 1970, the home was owned by

Sir Anselm Guise, 6th Baronet Sir Anselm William Edward Guise, 6th Baronet (18 September 1888 – 12 September 1970) was an English soldier, landowner, and magistrate, of Elmore Court, Gloucester. He was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1926. Life Guise was the son of S ...

. The current owner, Sir Anselm Guise, 9th Baronet, inherited the estate in 2007 from his uncle, the 7th Baronet, with the

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

cy going first to Anselm's father, Sir Christopher James Guise, 8th Baronet (1930–2022). In 2008 and 2011, Elmore Court was the subject of a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

television programme presented by hotelier Ruth Watson as part of her '' Country House Rescue'' series. In February 2013, Anselm Guise's plans for a sustainable new wedding reception venue called The Gillyflower at Elmore Court featured in the BBC2 TV programme, '' Permission Impossible: Britain's Planners''. Elmore Court and The Gillyflower opened for weddings and events in November 2013.

Rewilding Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. It is also d ...

began in 2020 with 250 acres of the estate, regenerative farming began in 2022 through a collaboration with Wildfarmed, and the building of treehouses overlooking revived wetlands will be complete in 2023.

Architecture

The two and three-storey

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

building consists of a central hall with cross-wings. The centre of the front of the building has a 19th-century porch with Doric columns. The

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 ...

gates at the entrance of the driveway are 300 years old and originally sited at Rendcomb. The walls to the south of the main building were constructed in the early 18th century.

References

External links

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Elmore Court
Country houses in Gloucestershire Grade II* listed houses in Gloucestershire