Newton Surmaville

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Newton Surmaville is a small park and house south of Yeovil, Somerset in the district of South Somerset

Robert Harbin born in 1526, was a mercer by profession, who lived and died in Yeovil [1] He is buried in St. John the Baptist Church. His house, located at the inner edge of Yeovil town and named Newton Surmaville, was completed in 1612 Robert was granted his coat of arms in May, 1612 and given the title "Gentleman". He was not knighted.

The house was built between 1602 and 1612, but was extensively altered and enhanced in the 1870's. The lanscaped grounds and 2 hectares of pleasure gardens slope down to the River Yeo. The pleasure gardens included five ponds, a boathouse, a curving Lime avenue canter and a walled kitchen garden, accessed via circa 1700 gates [2]

It still stands as a habitable mansion and was occupied by a distant Harbin relative, Mrs. Sophia Rawlins [3]

Sophia Rawlins died, many years after her husband, at the age of 97, late in the summer of 2006. This magnificent if somewhat unloved and under utilised, at least in recent years, property is currently being brought back to life by Niall Warry and his partner Angela who are working hard to make the most of the property for Niall and his sister who have inherited the estate.

The estate comprising the main house with its magnificent original furniture and excellent and ecclectic library of many 1,000s of volumes are likely to be brought to market by auction in the late spring or early summer of 2007.

The house itself, although much dated and in need of TLC, is very livable in, not merely inhabitable; with hot water and heating systems that are perfectly functionary though dated. The Jacobean heavily carved furniture is so at home in the panelled rooms, beset with a continuum of family portrails, and to sleep in the grand splendour of the four poster beds with their authentic linen drapes and covers seems natural rather than pretentious.

The large children's dolls houses on the upstairs landing juxtaposition with the militaria of the Local Militia raised by The Harbins and the splendid pewter dinner service with its 20inch plates on the lower floor. Or the juxtaposition and incongruity of the tanks for oil hidden in the interior service courtyard alongside the boiler room designated as a sanctuary for its small colony of bats.

The house has a sort of ruritanian magnificence with a non stop dash from room to room with wheelbarrows to keep them supplied with logs for the huge open fires, and century old machinery to control the brambles of the walled garden and prevent nature encroaching fatally on the fabric of the house itself.