Dinder House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dinder House, a grade II listed Regency building in the small village of Dinder, in Somerset, was built in 1801 by the Rev William Somerville on the site of a former manor house. The original house consisted of only the center part of the building. An additional wing was added in the 1850s, and a single storey was added to the east side in the early 1900s.

The estate had come into the Somerville family on the marriage of an heiress of the Hickes family to George Somerville (d. 1776), father of the William Somerville who erected the new house in 1801. On the death of William's widow, the estate passed to his nephew, James Somerville Fownes who adopted the surname Somerville, to save its connection with the house.

The last Somerville resident of the house was Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville, who was in charge of the British force that sank the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, near Oran, Algeria, on 3 July 1940. After World War II, Somerville, who was made Lord Lieutenant of Somerset in August 1946, lived in the house, dying there on 19 March, 1949. After his death, the house passed out of the Somerville family.

Dinder House is now owned by Michael and Rosalie Fiennes who bought the house in 1994.