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Tormarton Court

Introduction

Tormarton Court has a 20th-century garden on former 16th-century rectory glebelands. Features include a beech avenue, mature limes and an orchard.

The following description dates to the time of the last survey (1987). The site may have changed since then:

The garden is laid out to keep maintenance to a minimum. All areas outside of the walled garden are down to grass. To the west of the house, in the rear, there is a half-acre square with a yew perimeter. There are stone steps leading in and out of this area, with small walls surmounted with stone urns.

An avenue of young beeches leads westward to an area beyond the cut grass known as the paddock. Mature limes front the property along Church Street.

The garden displays abundant evidence of an earlier full management regime. Scattered around the site are two dozen disused bee-hives. There is also an overgrown but extensive soft fruit garden, many disused sheds and the remains of glasshouses. The kitchen garden is still in use for growing vegetables, but on a much-reduced scale.

The lawns and trees which form the garden south and west of the house are kept trim and tidy. There is an orchard to the side of the barn. It is still productive, but is in need of management to halt decline.

History

The house was built in the late-16th century. It was altered and enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries and re-modelled around 1812 for Lord William Somerset, the Rector of Tormarton. The house and garden were laid out on the 16th-century rectory glebelands. The barn is dated 1780 in the gable end, and the stable block was built as part of the re-modelling of 1812.

Lord William Somerset was the brother of the Duke of Beaufort and a hunting cleric. The stables have architectural features similar to the stables at Dodington Park. The owner at the time of the last survey (1987), Lady Altringham, is the sister of the Duke of Beaufort. It appears therefore, that the property may have been in the possession of the Beaufort family since 1812.

Lord Somerset laid out the paddock and walled areas in 1813. The present garden was created by Lady Altringham in the 1950s.

To the east of Church Street are extensive medieval village earthworks surrounding St. Mary Magdalene Church. Todmarton appears to have shifted its centre.

Features & Designations

Designations

  • Conservation Area

  • Reference: Todmarton

  • The National Heritage List for England: Listed Building

  • Reference: Todmarton Court
  • Grade: II

Features

  • Rectory (featured building)
  • Description: The rectory was enlarged in 1812.
  • Earliest Date:
  • Latest Date:
  • Kitchen Garden
  • Description: Walled kitchen garden.
  • Orchard
  • Stable Block
  • Building
  • Description: Barn.
  • Boundary Wall
  • Gate Piers
Key Information

Type

Garden

Purpose

Ornamental

Principal Building

Domestic / Residential

Survival

Extant

Hectares

4.05

Civil Parish

Tormarton

References

References