Southwick Court is a Grade II* listed moated medieval manor house at the centre of a system of fields and water meadows that lie between the town of Trowbridge and the village of Southwick in Wiltshire, England. It has remained a private residence under a succession of owners for at least 800 years. The current house dates from the late 16th century, but its gatehouse is late 15th century. Both were built on the site of an older manor house, dating back to the 13th century or before. Nothing remains of the original house, though the current building sits within the same footprint.
Description
The house is arranged in an L-plan that is typical of the late 16th century. It and its associated garden and orchard are surrounded by a moat, which is fed by a leg of the Lambrok stream originating some distance away to the west of the village of Beckington. This stream surrounds the house and in turn feeds into an adjoining lake, which is enclosed at the northern end by a weir, also dating from the 15th or 16th century. The stream continues beyond the weir into the surrounding water meadows, and then on into Trowbridge where it joins the River Biss.
Internally, the house retains many of its original late 16th and early 17th century interiors, and displays craftsmanship of a high standard. The house has a number of intricate timber features including a late 17th-century carved staircase, framing and Tudor-arched stone fireplaces. Remnants of its origins as a former hall house survive or are still visible, including what appears to be a bread oven in the wall between the two large fireplaces on the ground floor, and traces of a former garderobe (or privy) built into the external north-eastern wall and connected to the moat through a channel which is still visible. The house also retains several stained glass and leaded windows of various styles and ages. Several bear the symbol of the White Rose of York and may have been saved from the original pre-16th century manor house. Some glass may have been brought from Beckington Castle, a nearby property built in the 17th century by members of the Long family, who also owned Southwick Court for many years.
The gatehouse, which may be from the late 15th century, is approached by a small brick-built bridge over the moat which is probably 18th-century; the ensemble is Grade II* listed.
History
Early history
The earliest record of a manor house of Southwick dates to 1274 when two carucates (about 240 acres) of land at Southwick, in what was then the parish of North Bradley, belonged to one William de Greynville. Twenty years later, in 1294, records show a legal agreement between the Rector of North Bradley and William's son Adam de Greynville, who had built a private chapel in the grounds of his house Southwick Court, apparently dedicated to John the Baptist. The Rector of Bradley agreed to allow services to take place in this chapel, on the condition that only members of the Greynville family and "strangers arriving unexpectedly" could attend. The family was also required to provide the Rector "from time to time" with "fit chaplains" who would "do fealty to him". Later, in 1369, Robert Wyvil, Bishop of Salisbury, granted a license for mass to be said in the chapel.
According to a later report, the chapel was "about fortie foote distance from the moate which boundeth the Court of Southwick". Mass continued to be heard in the chapel until the mid 16th century. In the 1540s, one "Sir Hugh" was "a morrowe masse priest who used to say morning masse or service (for high masse he might not say) in the Chapell neare to the Manor house or Court of Southwick, and did them great pleasure and ease until hee ranne away, because he was found in a fault". He reportedly took sanctuary in North Bradley a little "before the King went to Bullen" – a reference to Henry VIII's siege of Boulogne in 1544. "After this no other priest said masse in the Chapell".
The chapel fell into disuse and was later reportedly used as a stable or cowshed before being demolished in 1839. However, building material from this period has been found within the moated complex, including 13th century freestone pillar bases and moulded freestone arches, and it has been suggested that some of the timber framing from the earlier manor house has been integrated into the structure of the existing Southwick Court.