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Historic Buildings of Wiltshire
England
Image right - Longford Castle
Image by Peter - originally posted to Flickr as Longford Castle, CC BY 2.0, Wiki Commons
See Historic Buildings of Britain and Ireland - Main Page
The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Wiltshire, with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as appropriate. GENi profiles of people associated with those establishments can be linked to this project and/or to individual projects where they have been set up.
If you have information about any of the Buildings mentioned below please share it here. If you have ancestors linked to any of the places please add them to the project.
Historic houses in alphabetical order
Including Castles, Abbeys, Priories, Manor Houses, Mansions, Stately Homes, Country houses, Estate houses, Courts, Halls, Parks and other listed buildings of historic interest.
Full sizes of the thumbnail images can be seen in the Gallery attached to the project or by clicking the thumbnail image. TIP - Use ctrl+the link to open the image in a separate tab, or use "back" to return to this project page) Sources for the images can be found in the image details as seen in the gallery.
Names with Bold links are to Geni profiles or projects. Other links take you to external biographical web pages. Please copy and paste the bullet used - ● - instead of * when adding items to the list.
A
● Amesbury Abbey
● Ashcombe House, also known as Ashcombe Park; Georgian manor house, set in 1,134 acres (4.59 km2) of land, on Cranborne Chase, in the parish of Berwick St John, near Salisbury. It is listed on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest as a Grade II structure by English Heritage. The first house was built in 1686 by a local squire, Robert Barber. In 1740, the Barber family entirely demolished the 1686 house and rebuilt on the site. In 1750 Anne Wyndham inherited the house. The next year she married the Hon. James Everard Arundell, third son of the 6th Baron Arundell of Wardour. In 1754 the architect Francis Cartwright largely remodelled the interior of the house for the Arundells. In 1815 the Ashcombe Estate was purchased from Lady Arundell by Thomas Grove the younger of Ferne House (Links not established - CJB) for £8,700. Thomas Grove's grandson Sir Walter demolished most of the 1740 house in around 1870. Sir Walter later sold Ashcombe House to the Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton, who in turn sold Ashcombe to Mr R. W. Borley of Shaftesbury after World War I. The current Ashcombe House was originally part of the much larger mid-eighteenth century structure, and is an L-shaped three-bay survival of the eastern wing. There is a five-bay orangery close to the house. Ashcombe House was the home of Guy Ritchie and Madonna. Guy kept the house after their divorce.
● Ashton Gifford House ● Avebury Manor & Garden
B
● Baynton House
● Berry Court/ Berry Court Farm - Donhead St. Andrew/ St. Mary. The Tisbury border with Donhead St. Mary bisects the Lower Berry Court Farm farmhouse and that with Tisbury runs through the old Wardour castle. In 1066 and 1086 the land which later became Donhead St. Andrew parish was in the 40 hide estate still held by the abbey. After the dissolution the land was granted by the Crown to Sir Thomas Arundell in 1544. In 1768 the parish was made up of 1,606a which included 14 farms, some of whom were called Park Gate, Dengrove, Goulds, West End, Collins, Home and Mansfield. Berry Court was a demesne farm whose land in the parish included Berry Wood Copse and Privett Copse with some meadow west of Ferne brook. In 1839 new farms called Glove (later Arundell) and Lower Mill appeared. In the 15th century Lower Berry Court Farmhouse was partly in the parish of Donhead St. Andrew. It was altered in the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries and is made up of dressed limestone and rubblestone with a thatched roof. It is a six bay hall house with a service wing. The interior dates from the 16th and 17th centuries and still retains a medieval roof but the solar range was remodelled. It is a good example of a late medieval hall house and was owned by the Abbess of Shaftesbury until the Dissolution when it became the property of the Arundells of Wardour until the 1930s. As the parish boundary ran through the middle of the house and petty sessions could be held for both parishes in one room! It was also used for payment of tithes. In the 19th century land around Ferne House was imparked. The parkland was reduced in the 1950s when some became part of Higher Berry Court. In 1985 the park contained 175 acres of pasture and woods which were leased to Higher Berry Court Farm and Dengrove Farm.
Connections found
- - Thomas Grove of Berry Court around 1522±;
- 1841, 1851 (see attached documents) - Candy Family.
- 1861 Jeffery
- 1871, 1881 Higher Berry Court - James L Jeffrey, farmer (Son George)
- 1891, 1901 Higher Berry Court Farm - George Jeffrey - Sheep dealer, Farmer
- 1911 Tom Keynes family (document attached)
● Biddesden House
● Bishopstrow House
● Bolehyde Manor
● Bowood House
● Boyton Manor In the thirteenth century, there was a castle in the village of Boyton. A one time occupant of the castle was Hugh Giffard and his wife Sibyl, who was the daughter and co-heiress of Walter de Cormeilles. Hugh was father of the Walter Giffard who became Archbishop of York and Chancellor of England. Another son was Godfrey Gifford, Bishop of Worcester and himself also Chancellor of England. From 1876 to 1882, Boyton Manor became the first country house of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest son of Queen Victoria. When he got married, he moved his establishment to Claremont, a house in Surrey, but is still commemorated locally today in the name of a public house called the Prince Leopold in the neighbouring village of Upton Lovell.
● Brownston House
C
● Chalcot House
● Charlton Park
● Clarendon Palace Clarindon Palace masonry footings
● Clouds House
● Coleshill House
● Corsham Court
● Cottles House
● Cricklade Town Wall Crecgelade Urban Defence masonry ruins/remnants
D
● Devizes Castle Vyes; Diuisis; Divisis; Divisas Timber Castle , Masonry Castle , Palace masonry footings
● Draycot House
● Durnford House
E
● Edington Priory Edyndon Palace , Fortified Ecclesiastical site masonry ruins/remnants
F
● Ferne House purchased by William Grove in 1563 from David Brockway's heir on the understanding that the widowed Anne should remain in occupation for life. Purchased in 1902 by Major Albany Charlesworth. When he died in 1914 his executors sold it to the Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton who died in 1940. Nina, Duchess of Hamilton (died 1951) converted Ferne into an animal sanctuary. The house was demolished in 1966.
● Fonthill Abbey
G
● Great Chalfield Manor Fortified Manor House masonry footings
H
● Hartham Park
● Hatch House, Tisbury. Since 1841 part of the Pythouse Estate.
● Heale House
● Hurdcott House
I
● Iford Manor
J
K
● King Johns House, Tollard Royal Palace masonry ruins/remnants
---
L
● Lackham House is owned by the National Trust. The present house was built in the early 1790s by James Montagu (1749-1797) ... see sub-project
● Lacock Abbey
● Lake House
● Littlecote House
● 
Longford Castle
Image by Peter - originally posted to Flickr as Longford Castle, CC BY 2.0, Wiki Commons
Longford Castle located on the banks of the River Avon south of Salisbury, seat of the Earl of Radnor. In 1573 Thomas Gorges acquired the manor (at the time written "Langford"), which was originally owned by the Cervingtons. The existing mansion house had been damaged by fire. In c.1576 Thomas Gorges married Helena Snakenborg, Swedish born dowager Marchioness of Northampton and Lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth. They rebuilt the Longford property as a triangular Swedish pattern castle on the banks of the River Avon. Sir Thomas Gorges, who was now governor of Hurst Castle, persuaded his wife to beg of the Queen a shipwreck he knew from the defeated Spanish Armada. The gift was granted and the gold and silver retrieved from the shipwreck funded the completion of the castle under the final supervision of John Thorpe in 1591. The family lived in the castle for several years before its final completion. In 1717 Longford Castle became the Bouverie home, purchased by Sir Edward des Bouverie from the Coleraines. Jacob, 2nd Earl of Radnor (1749-1828), employed James Wyatt to change Longford into a hexagonal palace "to the despair of future generations", destroying one of the Elizabethan towers and replacing it with a larger one of his own design. He also added two more towers and linked each to each other. Jacob, 4th Earl of Radnor (1815-1889), oversaw the last significant changes to the castle architecture, undertaken by Anthony Salvin. These included the formation of a second courtyard, the doming over of the central courtyard and the addition of a square tower.
● Longleat- family seat near Warminster of the Marquess of Bath.
● Lower Berry Court Farm] (See above)
● Ludgershall Castle Lutgershall Timber Castle , Masonry Castle , Palace masonry ruins/remnants
● Lydiard Park
M
● Maiden Bradley House
● Malmesbury Castle Malmesbir'; Malmesbiria Timber Castle , Masonry Castle masonry footings
● Malmesbury Town Defences Caer-Bladon; Ingleburn Urban Defence - masonry footings
● Manor House Hotel
● Melksham House
● Mompesson House
● Monkton Farleigh Manor
● Monkton House
N
● Neston Park
● Newhouse
● New Wardour Castle
O
● The Old Bell
● Old Sarum Bishops Palace(s) Old Saresbury; Salisbury Palace masonry footings
● Old Sarum Castle Old Saresbury; Salisbury; Salesberia; Sarisberiensem; castellum Saresberiense Timber Castle , Masonry Castle , Palace masonry footings
● Old Wardour Castle Werdour Masonry Castle major building
P
● Philipps House
● 
Pythouse (Pyt House) Tisbury.
Image By Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wiki Commons
The land of the existing building was given to the Pyt family (pronounced pit) in around 1225 by the abbess of Shaftesbury. The Pyts (alias Bennett, as homeage to the Benedictine Abbey of Shaftesbury), then lived continuously on the estate until around 1651. As they were forced to sell in order to pay fines levied against them by Parliament following the Civil war, as the Pyts (alias Bennetts) fought for the Royalists. The house was then bought around the year 1651 by the Grove family, who were close friends of the Bennetts (/Pyts). Though after only fifty-six years in the house they sold it to the Benett family (no relation to the earlier Bennetts) in around 1707. The current Pythouse was built about 1725 (Replacing an earlier, Elizabethan house) and was rebuilt in 1805 by John Benett (1773–1852), the then-owner and amateur architect, who "Palladianized" the house. The house remained in the Benett family until the mid-1950s, when death duties forced its sale. The house was then owned for forty-six years by the Country Houses Association, a charity which ran it as a retirement home. Pythouse (together with 95 acres (380,000 m2) of land) was sold again in 2004 for £7 million and is once more a residential home.
Q
R
● Ramsbury Manor
● 
Reddish House
Image By Fryfilm2000 - Own work, Public Domain, Wiki Commons
Reddish House, also known as Reddish Manor, in the village of Broad Chalke in Wiltshire, England, is an early 18th-century manor house possibly built in its current form for Jeremiah Cray, a clothier. It is a Grade II listed building.
Whilst the history of the property can be traced to the early 16th century, the house as it currently stands appears to have been developed in the early 18th century, when owned by a series of three absentee landlords all sharing the name Jeremiah Clay. The construction and design appear to show a melange of influences of the architectural styles favoured during the reigns of Charles II (1660–1685); William III and Mary II (1689–1702); and Queen Anne (1702–1714)
● Rood Ashton House
S
● Salthrop House
● Salisbury Bishops Palace and Cathedral Close Palace masonry ruins/remnants
● Sedgehill Manor purchased by William Grove in 1578
● Sheldon Manor
● South Wraxall Manor
● Southbroom House
● Stourhead
T
● Tilshead Lodge
● Tottenham House
● Trafalgar House
U-V
● Vastern Manor Vasterne; Fasterne; Fetstern; The Gatehouse Fortified Manor House , Palace masonry ruins/remnants
W
● Wardour castle - King Alfred granted the parish of Donhead to Shaftesbury Abbey in 871-7. He held court at Wardour in a wooden castle. In 1066 and 1086 the land which later became Donhead St. Andrew parish was in the 40 hide estate still held by the abbey. After the dissolution the land was granted by the Crown to Sir Thomas Arundell in 1544. The land of Wardour manor in the parish was made up of parkland for red and fallow deer in the early 17th century. In the early 18th century the land was also used for cattle pastures and mown for hay. The five ponds were partly embanked in the 18th century and further landscaping in the park took place in the later 18th century. Most of the park remained as woodland but the rest was turned to agriculture at this time. In 1768 the parkland surrounding Wardour Castle included 344 acres in the parish of Donhead St. Andrew. By 1839 it had risen to 619 acres. The park descended as part of the Wardour Estate until c.1946.
● Westwood Manor
● Whatley Manor ● Wilton House ● Woodhouse Castle, Horningsham Woodhouse Farm Fortified Manor House masonry footings ● Wulfhall
X-Y-Z
References and Sources
Wiltshire Specific
General
- Stravaiging.com
- Secret Scotland
- Canmore
- Historic Scotland
- National Trust
- English Heritage
- WIKI List of country houses in the UK
- Britain's Finest
- Britain Express
- Lankdmark Trust
- Historic Houses Association - represents 1,500 houses in the UK
- Hudson's Historic Houses and Gardens - UK - guidebook of over 2,000 houses open to the public
- The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses - database of over 7,000 houses
- Lost Heritage - A Memorial to the Lost Country Houses of England - list of over 1,700 houses
- National Trust for Historic Preservation - online database of historic houses in the United States
- WIKI Historic Houses Association
- Historic Houses Association
- WIKI Treasure Houses of England
- List of country houses in the United Kingdom
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Other Pages for Historic Buildings of English Counties
Historic Buildings of Cumberland - Today's Cumbria includes parts of the historic counties of Westmorland and Lancashire
Middlesex inc. London
Rutland now East Midlands
Shropshire (Salop)
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