Barrington Court

Barrington Court is a Tudor manor house begun around 1538 and completed in the late 1550s, with a vernacular 17th-century stable court (1675), situated in Barrington, Somerset.

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 Alfred Hoare Powell, it was the first house acquired by the National Trust, in 1907, on the recommendation of the antiquarian Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley.

It turned out to be a huge financial strain on the N.T., so Col. A. A. Lyle of Tate & Lyle was granted a 99 year lease in the 1920s. He and his wife turned the house around and refurbished the court house and renovated Strode House (built by William Strode in the 17th century) which was originally a stable and coach block. It was at this time that the Lyles contracted Gertrude Jekyll to design the three formal gardens. It now contains walled kitchen gardens, fruit orchards and ornamental gardens.

The Trust has now taken over the property again, but it has no furniture. Art exhibitions are often held there and the bottom picture shows the house cut out in a sheet of paper. The dark areas is wood panelling behind it.

See more here.