| Nettlecombe Court | |
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Nettlecombe Court Field Centre |
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Location within Somerset
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| General information | |
| Town or city | Williton |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | |
Nettlecombe Court is a large country mansion in the English county of Somerset. Nettlecombe Court was originally built as a manor house, becoming a girls' boarding school in the early 1960s and since 1967 has been the Leonard Wills Field Centre run by the Field Studies Council. The house is surrounded by Nettlecombe Park, a 90.4 hectares (223 acres) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The house and park are set in a secluded valley on the northern fringes of the Brendon Hills, within the Exmoor National Park. They are within the civil parish of Nettlecombe, named after the house, and are approximately 3.6 miles (5.8 km) from the village of Williton.
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Nettlecombe Court has a late medieval hall, with the entrance front, porch, great hall and parlour added in 1599. Around 1641 there were further additions to rear of great hall, and between 1703 and 1707 the South West front was extended. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.[1]
As stated in Nettlecombe Court, by R. J. E. Bush,"Nettlecombe is first mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, when it was stated to be held by William the Conquerer, and in the charge of his Sheriff for Somerset, William de Mohun." A family lineage published in Nettlecombe Court shows that the estate passed into the Trevelyan family in 1452, upon the marriage of Elizabeth Whalesburgh to John Trevelyan. It remained as a family estate in the Trevelyan family until the mid nineteen hundreds.
Nearby hills and woodlands, including Exmoor National Park, provide excellent opportunities for general introductory courses on environmental themes. Habitats include marine, freshwater and heather moorland and the surrounding settlements range from hamlets to villages to the country town of Taunton.
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
| Area of Search | Somerset |
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| Grid reference | ST055375 |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 90.4 hectare (223.4 acre) |
| Notification | 1990 |
| Location map | English Nature |
Nettlecombe Park is important for its lichen flora. Records suggest this site has been wood pasture or parkland for at least 400 years. There are some very old oak pollards which may be of this age or older. The oldest standard trees are over 200 years of age. The continuity of open woodland and parkland, with large mature and over-mature timber, has enabled characteristic species of epiphytic lichens and beetles to become established and persist. Many of these species are now nationally scarce because this type of habitat has been eliminated over large areas of Great Britain.[2]
The park was notified as an SSSI in 1990.
Within the grounds is the Church of St Mary the Virgin which is also a Grade I listed building.[3]