Bitofapilchard
Chamber of secrets.........
...............looking though to the Great Chamber, an impressive room with a barrel ceiling with geometrical plaster decoration featuring John Lyte's arms and those of his wife, Edith Horsey. This ceiling is a rare survival. The wall above the bed displays the royal coat of arms and Tudor roses, signifying Lyte's loyalty to King Henry VIII (whose government Lyte represented in Somerset). The panelling is 17th century, as are the great four poster bed and the tapestries on the walls.
Lytes Cary, Somerset
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Lytes Cary is a manor house with associated chapel and Arts & Crafts gardens near Charlton Mackrell and Somerton in Somerset. The property, owned by the National Trust, has parts dating to the 14th century, with other sections dating to the 15th, 16th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The House is listed as Grade I by English Heritage.
The chapel predates the existing house, and functioned as a chantry chapel, where masses could be said for the souls of the family, both living and dead.
The gardens are listed as Grade II on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
The parkland surrounding the house includes the site of a deserted medieval settlement which is a scheduled monument.
The unusual name derives from the Lyte family who lived at Lytes Cary for over four centuries, and the River Cary which flows nearby. The first documentary evidence is from 1285 when it was known as Kari. William le Lyte was a feudal tenant of the estate in 1286, and the Lyte family occupied and added to the house until the mid 18th century.
The earliest surviving part of the manor and associated buildings is the chapel, which dates to the mid-14th century.
The Great Hall was built in the mid-15th century, and in the early 16th century the entrance porch and oriel room was added to the eastern side of the hall, and the great parlour and little parlour to the south of the hall, with bedrooms above. Sometime after the Lyte family sold the Manor in 1755, tenants moved in and the house gradually fell into disrepair. In 1810 it was reported by a neighbour that the north range 'had lately been destroyed and a farm house built on the site', (this north range is dated by architectural historians to the late 18th century) and by the time John Buckler came to draw the house in 1835 the west range had also disappeared.
In 1907 Sir Walter Jenner of the Jenner baronets and son of the late Sir William Jenner, physician to Queen Victoria, purchased Lytes Cary. At the time of his arrival the Great Hall was being used as a cider store and the Great Parlour was full of farm equipment. Jenner's brother Leopold had just bought and started to restore Avebury Manor in Wiltshire, and Jenner drew inspiration from his brother's work there. He set about restoring Lytes Cary and decorating the interiors in period style, including fine 17th-century and 18th-century oak furniture, antique tapestries and fabrics modelled after medieval textiles. He had the west range rebuilt in a plain William and Mary style by the architect C.E. Ponting, but left the historic core of the house mostly untouched. It incorporates carvings believed to be from the demolished St Benet Gracechurch.
Jenner left the manor to the National Trust after he died in 1948.
Chamber of secrets.........
...............looking though to the Great Chamber, an impressive room with a barrel ceiling with geometrical plaster decoration featuring John Lyte's arms and those of his wife, Edith Horsey. This ceiling is a rare survival. The wall above the bed displays the royal coat of arms and Tudor roses, signifying Lyte's loyalty to King Henry VIII (whose government Lyte represented in Somerset). The panelling is 17th century, as are the great four poster bed and the tapestries on the walls.
Lytes Cary, Somerset
---------------------
Lytes Cary is a manor house with associated chapel and Arts & Crafts gardens near Charlton Mackrell and Somerton in Somerset. The property, owned by the National Trust, has parts dating to the 14th century, with other sections dating to the 15th, 16th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The House is listed as Grade I by English Heritage.
The chapel predates the existing house, and functioned as a chantry chapel, where masses could be said for the souls of the family, both living and dead.
The gardens are listed as Grade II on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
The parkland surrounding the house includes the site of a deserted medieval settlement which is a scheduled monument.
The unusual name derives from the Lyte family who lived at Lytes Cary for over four centuries, and the River Cary which flows nearby. The first documentary evidence is from 1285 when it was known as Kari. William le Lyte was a feudal tenant of the estate in 1286, and the Lyte family occupied and added to the house until the mid 18th century.
The earliest surviving part of the manor and associated buildings is the chapel, which dates to the mid-14th century.
The Great Hall was built in the mid-15th century, and in the early 16th century the entrance porch and oriel room was added to the eastern side of the hall, and the great parlour and little parlour to the south of the hall, with bedrooms above. Sometime after the Lyte family sold the Manor in 1755, tenants moved in and the house gradually fell into disrepair. In 1810 it was reported by a neighbour that the north range 'had lately been destroyed and a farm house built on the site', (this north range is dated by architectural historians to the late 18th century) and by the time John Buckler came to draw the house in 1835 the west range had also disappeared.
In 1907 Sir Walter Jenner of the Jenner baronets and son of the late Sir William Jenner, physician to Queen Victoria, purchased Lytes Cary. At the time of his arrival the Great Hall was being used as a cider store and the Great Parlour was full of farm equipment. Jenner's brother Leopold had just bought and started to restore Avebury Manor in Wiltshire, and Jenner drew inspiration from his brother's work there. He set about restoring Lytes Cary and decorating the interiors in period style, including fine 17th-century and 18th-century oak furniture, antique tapestries and fabrics modelled after medieval textiles. He had the west range rebuilt in a plain William and Mary style by the architect C.E. Ponting, but left the historic core of the house mostly untouched. It incorporates carvings believed to be from the demolished St Benet Gracechurch.
Jenner left the manor to the National Trust after he died in 1948.