Court House - Gloucestershire - United Kingdom

Court House
Manor Farm
Near Uley
Gloucestershire
GL11 5BZ
Contact: Estate Office
Tel No: 01453 860261
Sleeps: 4+

This is a charming Stuart garden building of about 1620, architecturally listed Grade I. It has been imaginatively converted to provide a chic little cottage for two to five, like a dolls' house.

Downstairs you will find the kitchen and bathroom, with a little loggia restored as an attractive dining room. The glass doors, divided by a simple Tuscan column, here frame the view of the east wing of the manor house and its yew trees immortalized by the etching of the artist F.L. Griggs. Upstairs a spiral staircase, excessively narrow, leads to a sitting room in the old Justice Room on the first floor, with the main bedroom with double bed (and a basin) beyond.

The stairs wind up again to two cosy bedrooms on the second attic floor -- with low ceilings for Stuart statures. The first, with a single bed or twin childs' bed under the eaves, leads through the trusses to the larger one, curtained off, with a 4ft double bed. The oval bull's-eye windows enjoy delightful views to Uley, whose church spire can just be seen among the trees below the bare summit of the hill fort at Uley Bury. The Court House has its private entrance, sun terrace and garden to the west. There is a baroque sundial on the wall.

This dignified building adjoins the manor gardens and forms part of the composition so well known in the books on the Cotswolds. It is set as a banqueting house or gazebo, but is traditionally known as the 'Court House', because here the successive lords of the manor of Owlpen would have held their Court Leet or 'Halimote', trying their servants and tenants for petty offences, and also administering the custom of the manor and collecting their rents and feudal dues. Court records survive among the many archives in the muniment room at Owlpen. It is screened to the east by a phalanx of mighty yews (seen right in the photo), known affectionately as the 'ballroom', or sometimes the 'yew parlour', or 'wilderness'.

Prices range from £520 to £835 depending on season. See our website for more details.

OWLPEN has long been recognised as one of England's most romantic manor houses. In 2006 it was voted one of finalists in the Country Life - Savills award for "England's Favourite Manor House".

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