Springtime at Stourhead
Stourhead, Stourton, Wiltshire UK.
A National Trust Property.
Built somewhere around the mid 18th Century as a "Watch Cottage" or hut for the estate staff, although the 1841 census states that it was actually lived in by two servants, and in 1851 by two elderly females described as "almswomen". In the early 19th Century it was the fashion to "pretty up" basic buildings, and the porch and Gothic style windows were installed, the area of dense trees around it was cleared and landscaped and the cottage became a feature of the garden.
Following renovation in the early 1900s it became a summer house and was used by Lady Alda Hoare as a favourite place to write her letters. But post WW2 it was used as a place where estate gardeners could brew up some tea and warm themselves in front of the fire. By 2004 the cottage was in a state of collapse with rotten roof timbers and cracked walls due to subsidence. It was restored over the next four years and is now once again a pretty feature of the Stourhead estate.
Information courtesy of www.geograph.org.uk
Springtime at Stourhead
Stourhead, Stourton, Wiltshire UK.
A National Trust Property.
Built somewhere around the mid 18th Century as a "Watch Cottage" or hut for the estate staff, although the 1841 census states that it was actually lived in by two servants, and in 1851 by two elderly females described as "almswomen". In the early 19th Century it was the fashion to "pretty up" basic buildings, and the porch and Gothic style windows were installed, the area of dense trees around it was cleared and landscaped and the cottage became a feature of the garden.
Following renovation in the early 1900s it became a summer house and was used by Lady Alda Hoare as a favourite place to write her letters. But post WW2 it was used as a place where estate gardeners could brew up some tea and warm themselves in front of the fire. By 2004 the cottage was in a state of collapse with rotten roof timbers and cracked walls due to subsidence. It was restored over the next four years and is now once again a pretty feature of the Stourhead estate.
Information courtesy of www.geograph.org.uk