Clapton Court

The first manor house on the site was built by Sir William Arthur in the 13th century. Sir Thomas Arthur was the member of parliament for Somerset in the 1390s. In the 14th century his descendant Richard Arthur added to the house. He married Alice the daughter of James Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley and the entwined coats of arms of the two families appear on the entrance porch. Edward Arthur died in 1592, his daughter married William Winter (or Wynter) of Dyrham Park and the house was passed down in the Winter family. who was a director of the family business, WD & HO Wills. In the late 19th century the court was owned by his son Sir Ernest Wills, 3rd Baronet, who was a director of the…

The house has red sandstone walls, which are supported by buttresses in the northeast corner. The oldest part of the building is the 15th-century three-storey porch tower at the north front of the house. The archway entrance was built in the late 17th or early 18th century.