Sutton Court

Has been described as a Certain Fortified Manor House, and also as a Certain Pele Tower

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameSutton Court
Alternative NamesSouthetoun; Stowey Court
Historic CountrySomerset
Modern AuthorityBath and North East Somerset
1974 AuthorityAvon
Civil ParishStowey Sutton

Former fortified manor, now country house. Early C14 with additions and alterations in c.1450, 1558, c.1700 and an extensive restructuring and restoration by T.H. Wyatt in 1858-60. Squared and coursed sandstone rubble throughout with freestone and ashlar dressings, copings, slate roofs. North front comprises a central 3 storey C14 pele tower with taller circular stair turret and 2 storey ranges linking it to 1558 'Bess of Hardwick Building' to the left and a 4-bay 1858- 60 servants' wing of 3 storeys to the right. Windows to pele tower and right hand linking range are C15 of 2 cusped lights with hoodmoulds, some renewed, some relocated from other areas. 1858-60 doorway to tower. Windows to left hand linking range and 'Hardwick Building' are 4 and 6-light chamfered mullions. 2 storey 'Hardwick' range has diagonal offset buttresses. C18 battlements to pele tower, tall octagonal ashlar stacks. Manor built by William de Sutton, Elizabeth Hardwick, Lady St. Loe owned it in 1558 and the Wyatt restoration and rebuilding was carried out for Sir Edward Strachey. (Listed Building Report)

John Leland stayed at the 'old maner place' of Sir John St Loe and described several places in relation to their distance from 'Southetoun'. An earlier Sir John St Loe, either the one who built Newton castle and died in 1314 or his immediate successor, built a tall, square tower with a circular stair turret. A hall was built behind the tower in the late fifteenth or earlier sixteenth century, the beginning of the early Tudor transformation of the castle to a country house. (Dunning 1995)

Gatehouse Comments

Does seem to have been, when built in the C14, a fortified small solar tower with attached unfortified hall block, in a fashion common in the north of England but relatively rare in the south

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceST596604
Latitude51.3417816162109
Longitude-2.58019995689392
Eastings359650
Northings160450
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 600-2
  • Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 224
  • Dunning, Robert, 1995, Somerset Castles (Somerset Books) p. 66
  • Pevsner, N., 1958, Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (Harmondsworth) p. 267
  • Collinson, J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset (Bath) Vol. 2 p. 96 online copy

Antiquarian

  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England  (Sutton Publishing) p. 429
  • Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 103 online copy

Journals

  • 1910, Country Life Vol. 27 p. 126-131