Farleigh House

Farleigh Hungerford Castle, sometimes called Farleigh Castle or Farley Castle, is a medieval castle in Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, England. The castle was built in two phases: the inner court was constructed between 1377 and 1383 by Sir Thomas Hungerford, who made his fortune as steward to John of Gaunt. The castle was built to a quadrangular design, already slightly old-fashioned, on the site of an existing manor house overlooking the River Frome. A deer park was attached to the castle, requiring the destruction of the nearby village. Sir Thomas's son, Sir Walter Hungerford, a knight and leading courtier to Henry V, became rich during the Hundred Years War with France and extended the castle with an additional, outer court, enclosing the parish church in the process. By Walter's death in 1449, the substantial castle was richly appointed, and its chapel decorated with murals. The castle largely remained in the hands of the Hungerford family over the next two centuries, despite periods during the War of the Roses in which it was held by the Crown following the attainder and execution of members of the family. At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, the castle, modernized to the latest Tudor and Stuart fashions, was held by Sir Edward Hungerford. Edward declared his support for Parliament, becoming a leader of the Roundheads in Wiltshire. Farleigh Hungerford was seized by Royalist forces in 1643, but recaptured by Parliament without a fight near the end of the conflict in 1645. As a result, it escaped slighting following the war, unlike many other castles in the south-west of England. The last member of the Hungerford family to hold the castle, Sir Edward Hungerford, inherited it in 1657, but his gambling and extravagance forced him to sell the property in 1686. By the 18th century, the castle was no longer lived in by its owners and fell into disrepair; in 1730 it was bought by the Houlton family, Trowbridge clothiers, when much of it was broken up for salvage. Antiquarian and tourist interest in the now ruined castle increased through the 18th and 19th centuries. The castle chapel was repaired in 1779 and became a museum of curiosities, complete with the murals rediscovered on its walls in 1844 and a number of rare lead anthropomorphic coffins from the mid-17th century. In 1915 Farleigh Hungerford Castle was sold to the Office of Works and a controversial restoration programme began. It is now owned by English Heritage, who operate it as a tourist attraction, and the castle is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The Anglican Church of St Leonard in Farleigh Hungerford, within the English county of Somerset, was consecrated in 1443. It is a Grade II* listed building.It was once within the outer walls of Farleigh Hungerford Castle but is now separated from it by the main road. Thomas Hungerford did not want the local peasants entering the chapel within the castle, and wanted to use it as his chantry, and as a result organised the construction of the new church.The church has a perpendicular style West Tower in three stages, with a pair of stone gargoyles on each face. There are the remains of some 14th-century stained glass in the north window of the nave and in the east Chancel window which are of Flemish origin. The church also contains a 17th-century wooden altar rail carved with open work scrolls and figures. The pulpit dates from the early 18th century and is carved with eagles and angels.The church underwent Victorian restoration in 1856.The parish is part of the benefice of Hardington Vale within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Farleigh Hungerford (grid reference ST800576) is a village within the civil parish of Norton St Philip in the Mendip district, in Somerset, England, 9 miles southeast of Bath, 3½ miles west of Trowbridge on A366, between Trowbridge and Radstock in the valley of the River Frome. Within this small village are the notable ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle, which played a significant part in the English Civil War. Evidence has also been found of occupation during Roman times; the foundations of a villa were excavated in a field just north west of the castle in 1822. From 1985 to 2010 the village was the venue for the annual Trowbridge Village Pump Festival.

Ravenscroft School (founded 1931 at Yelverton, Devon, and until 1978 known as Ravenscroft Preparatory School) was an independent day and boarding school, initially for boys only, but from 1964 co-educational. From 1945 onwards its premises were in Somerset, England. It closed in July 1996, when most staff and pupils transferred to the new Farleigh College.

Iford Manor (grid reference ST802589) is a manor house in Wiltshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building sitting on the steep, south-facing slope of the Frome valley, in Westwood parish, about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town of Bradford-on-Avon. Its Grade I registered gardens are open to the public from April to September each year. Iford was rated as among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by Condé Nast Traveler in 2020, with the manor taking "center stage".

The Village Pump Festival is a folk music festival that takes place near Trowbridge, England. It has its roots 53 years ago in a barn at the Lamb Inn, Trowbridge, and later moved a few miles outside the town to Stowford Manor Farm at Farleigh Hungerford. The music covers a variety of genres from folk and roots to blues, celtic and Ceilidh with a variety of other entertainment including a family field, with puppetry and story telling.

Tellisford is a village and civil parish 6 miles (10 km) north-east of Frome in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the village of Woolverton.

Tellisford Mill is a 55 kilowatts (74 hp) installed capacity micro hydro run-of-the-river power station on the site of a former watermill in the village of Tellisford in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The mill lies on the River Frome, 5+1⁄2 miles (9 km) north-east of the town of Frome. Part of the Mendip Power Group, the mill was restored to power in April 2007 using a German-made 55 kW vertically mounted Kaplan turbine, which is expected to produce on average 270 megawatt-hours (970 GJ) per year. The turbine replaced a 6 kW (8.0 hp) Francis turbine built in 1895.Tellisford Mill is also home to a photographic studio.

Westwood Manor is a 15th-century manor house with 16th-century additions and 17th-century plaster-work in the village of Westwood, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England. Pevsner describes Westwood Manor as "a perfect Wiltshire manor house". It has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1956 and was designated as Grade I listed in 1962.Early lessees include Thomas Horton (d. 1530), owner of a cloth mill at Iford, who is thought to have been responsible for improvements to the nearby village church.The house was devised to the National Trust by Edgar Lister, a diplomat at the Ottoman court. The house contains fine furniture, musical instruments and tapestries collected by Lister from 1911 until his death in 1956. He restored the house throughout and adorned the garden with topiary; he was also an expert in needlepoint and upholstered much of its furniture in Florentine work.The property is occupied by a tenant who administers it on behalf of the National Trust, and is open to the public a few days of the week in the summer.

Westwood is a large village and a civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. The village is about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) southwest of the town of Bradford-on-Avon. Upper Westwood, on a ridge crest to the north, was a distinct settlement from Lower Westwood but 20th-century housing filled the gap. The parish includes most of the village of Avoncliff, namely the portion south of the Avon, and the hamlet of Lye Green.

The Friary is a small hamlet outside the English village of Freshford, about 6 miles (10 km) south of Bath, Somerset. Although closer to Freshford it lies within the parish of Hinton Charterhouse. The hamlet consists of two small fields named Church Close and Corn Close, which are bounded to the south by Friary Wood and to the north by the River Frome. There are five detached houses which are accessed by a narrow lane about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long, known locally as the causeway, which descends steeply through Friary Wood from the Warminster Road originally called the Black Dog Turnpike. The name Friary comes from its relationship to the Carthusian priory at Hinton Charterhouse about one mile away, and was where the lay brothers lived. A larger village south of Frome called Witham Friary also has connections to the Carthusians. On some early texts and Ordnance Survey maps it is shown as Friary Green. An early map of Somerset dated 1782 records the name as Friery Green. But today it is known locally as simply Friary or The Friary. There are very little standing archaeological remains of the buildings used and lived in by the lay brothers but there is evidence of contemporary construction in one of the remaining cottages and the remains of a mill adjacent to the river Frome are still visible. The church of Church Close has disappeared and is thought to have been robbed of its stone to build the later mill at nearby Iford. However, examples of the stonemasons' art are regularly unearthered, including window tracery and mullions, and door surrounds which could only have come from a high status building such as a church. There is also evidence of fish ponds and buried walls belonging to other structures built during the lay brothers' occupation. The site has never been subject to detailed archaeological investigation. The lay brothers abandoned the site some time before the dissolution of the monasteries and it later became part of the Hinton Abbey Farm estate. A map of Hinton Abbey Farm dated 1785 shows dwellings now long since demolished together with the names of their occupants or tenants. Two of the names appearing on this map are Swift and Humphrys. These families were related. Both Swift and Humphrys (now spelt Humphries) were living in Friary (in the same dwelling) according to the 1901 census and Humphries were living in the nearby village of Hinton Charterhouse until the late 1900s. One Mercy Swift, recorded on the 1901 census as 14 years old, was still living in Friary until the 1950s when the house she occupied was demolished as unfit. At that time it had neither electricity nor running water. Water had to be fetched from a nearby spring known as Ela's Well which itself has significant legendary connections with the founding of the monastery at nearby Hinton. Ela was Countess of Salisbury and in addition to founding the priory at Hinton she also founded the abbey at Lacock. Today many of the dwellings in Friary still derive water supplies from a local spring although it now arrives via a network of pipes. Mercy Swift's house or at least the ruins of it are still visible alongside the bridle path that links Friary to Freshford and in spring her hidden garden still produces an unexpected show of spring bulbs.

Avoncliff is a small village in west Wiltshire, England, in the north of Westwood parish about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of Bradford-on-Avon. It is the point at which the Kennet and Avon canal crosses the river and railway line via the Avoncliff Aqueduct, which was built by John Rennie and chief engineer John Thomas, between 1797 and 1801. The aqueduct consists of three arches and is 110 yards long with a central elliptical arch of 60 ft (18.3 m) span with two side arches each semicircular and 34 ft (10.4 m) across, all with V-jointed arch stones. The spandrel and wing walls are built in alternate courses of ashlar masonry, and rock-faced blocks. The central span sagged soon after it was built and has been repaired many times.There is a picturesque weir on the River Avon where permission for a micro hydro electric scheme was applied for from the Environment Agency in 2009, but this is still awaited in 2013. This is a popular starting point for walks along both the canal and the river, and also to Barton Farm Country Park at Bradford-on-Avon. Avoncliff is covered by two Parish Councils; Winsley on the north side of the river and Westwood on the south side. The Cross Guns Inn was built in the late 17th century and is a Grade II listed building.