Baynton House

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Baynton House is a Grade I[1] listed 17th century country house situated at Coulston in Wiltshire.

Originally owned by the Godolphin family, after the death in 1781 of William Godolphin, it was bought by William Evelyn, who enlarged what had been previously a house 'of very small pretensions'.[2] William Long purchased it in 1796 after his own manor house of Baynton in Edington had been destroyed by fire. He also made alterations and renamed it Baynton House. Parts of the rear of the house probably date from the first building of c.1658, and in the hall there is re-used panelling of the same era. In the late 18th century, the east front of the house was built; it is of five bays and two stories with a central Doric porch. A somewhat later addition is the south wing. [3] Constructed of rendered brick, the house sits in parkland, with its own lake.

John Long of Monkton Farleigh, (nephew of Richard Godolphin Long) inherited the property after the death of the widow of his cousin William Long in 1822, who had left it at her disposal. In 1830 101 Roman coins known as the Baynton Hoard were dug up in the grounds[4], which are now kept in the Devizes Wiltshire Heritage Museum. John Long sold the property in 1842, and it subsequently passed to the Watson-Taylors of Erlestoke, from whom it was bought by G. S. H. Pearson c. 1915. The house is still a private residence.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Baynton House. Images of England. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
  2. ^ Land Tax Assessments; Soc. Antiq. Jackson MSS
  3. ^ 'East Coulston', A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 8: Warminster, Westbury and Whorwellsdown Hundreds (1965), pp. 234-39. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16112. Date accessed: 15 May 2007.
  4. ^ Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine vol 35 (1908) pages 132 to 145

[edit] External links