Coker Court

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. His grandson, another William Helyar, was Member of Parliament for Somerset in 1715. The Helyar family owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. The MPs grandson, another William Helyar (died 1820; pictured), commissioned architect Joseph Dixon to design a new wing for the Court, in 1766. The…

, circa 1768 ]] 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 Hamstone 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…