Barrington Court

Barrington Court is a Tudor manor house begun around 1538 and completed in the late 1550s, with a vernacular stable court (1675), situated in Barrington, near Ilminster, Somerset, England.The house was owned by several families by 1745 after which it fell into disrepair and was used as a tenant farm. After repair by architect Alfred Hoare Powell (1865–1960), it was the first house acquired by the National Trust, in 1907, on the recommendation of the antiquarian Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley (1851–1920). In the 1920s the house was renovated, the stable block turned into a residence and several outbuildings, gardens and gateways constructed.The house was originally surrounded by a medieval deer park and in the 17th century a formal garden was constructed. This had largely disappeared until a new garden was laid out by garden designer Gertrude Jekyll (1843—1932) in an Arts and Crafts-style. It now contains walled kitchen gardens, fruit orchards and ornamental gardens.HistoryThe estate had been occupied since the 11th century and by the 14th century included a substantial house to the north east of the present building, where traces of a moat can still be seen. In 1446 the owner, Giles Daubeney, 6th Baron Daubeney, died at Barrington and left it to his son, another Giles Daubeney, who was a courtier, diplomat and military commander under Edward IV and Henry VII.