Urchfont Manor

A 15th-century house was rebuilt between 1678 and 1700 by Sir William Pynsent, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament for Devizes. His son Sir William Pynsent, 2nd Baronet died without an heir in 1765 and left his estates in Somerset and Wiltshire to William Pitt the Elder, in gratitude for Pitt's opposition to a new tax of ten shillings on each hogshead of cider. Pitt kept the Somerset estates at Burton Pynsent but sold his new property at Urchfont to the third Duke of Queensberry, and the house was then occupied by tenants until it was bought by Simon Watson Taylor in 1843. Around this time, the name of the property changed from Urchfont House to Urchfont Manor. In 1928, his heirs sold the…

The two-storey house is built in brick with stone dressings, in the Restoration style. Professor Mick Aston described it as a notable example of Flemish bond in the Channel 4 programme Time Team. The east front has seven bays, the middle three brought forward under a pediment with attic windows; the central doorway with a curved pediment is of c.1680 and is called "splendidly ornate" by Orbach. There is a large 16th-century fireplace from the earlier house, and a fine 17th-century open-well staircase.