Stourhead House

Stourhead (/ˈstaʊərˌhɛd/) is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about 2 ¹⁄₂ miles (4 km) northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton , gardens, farmland, and woodland. Stourhead has been part-owned by the National Trust since 1946.

House

The Stourton family had lived at the Stourhead estate for 500 years until they sold it to Sir Thomas Meres in 1714. His son, John Meres, sold it in 1717 to Henry Hoare, son of wealthy banker Sir Richard Hoare. The original manor house was demolished and a new house, one of the first of its kind, was designed by Colen Campbell and built by Nathaniel Ireson between 1721 and 1725.

Gardens and monuments

Stourhead has a magnificent 18th-century pleasure garden landscaped around a lake and complete with temples, grottos, statues and monuments such as the old Bristol High Cross.