Clevedon Court

Much of the present house was built in the early 14th century by Sir John de Clevedon (d. 1336). There is speculation that it may lie on the site of a Roman building, based on excavations to the south of the house in 1961/62. The house incorporates remnants of a 13th-century building which lie at an angle to the rest of the house. It was situated nearly two miles inland from the parish church of St Andrew, which stands on the coast. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the manor of Clevedon was granted by the King to Matthew de Mortagne, who in turn granted it to his sub-tenant, Hildebert. It is thought that Sir John was a descendant of either Matthew or Hildebert. Perhaps because of the…

The site faces south, with its back to Court Hill, and the road may have passed east–west within 15 m of the front door. The great hall, screens passage, porches and chapel blocks have all survived from the early 14th century and the square headed chapel windows contain reticulated tracery of the decorated period. Apparently typical of its period, it would have transformed the living arrangements of the Wake family who built it. Presumably at the same time, the front of the solar block and east wing were "Elizabethanised" with new windows, and the gable end of the kitchen block at the eastern end was decorated with finials. There is little evidence of the building work that must have been…