House & Family History: Hestercombe is a house in the Free Renaissance style that sports a porte-cochere and an enormous entrance hall. The house's most notable resident was architect, landscape enthusiast, and amateur painter Copplestone Warre Bampfylde. Bampfylde is noted for his designs for cascades at Hestercombe and at Stourhead; he made many drawings of the gardens at Stourhead in the 18th century. In 1977 Somerset County Council purchased Hestercombe House and 11 acres for £50,000 (between 1954 and 2006 the house was home to the Somerset Fire Brigade).

Garden & Outbuildings: The 50 acres of gardens are listed Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens. Coplestone Warre Bampfylde designed the Secret Landscape Garden in the 1750s. Bampfylde devised an ingenious cascade that fell from a great height among rocks; in 1765 he was responsible, together with William Hoare, for constructing a cascade at Stourhead. Sir Edwin Lutyens designed the formal gardens, which were planted by Gertrude Jekyll and finished in 1906. The Secret Landscape Garden was re-opened in the spring of 1997 for the first time in 125 years. In 2003 Hestercombe Gardens Trust received a grant of £3.7 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the restoration of the gardens.

House Listed: Grade II*

Park Listed: Grade I

Past Seat / Home of: Copplestone Warre Bampfylde, 18th century. Edward Berkeley Portman, 1st Viscount Portman, 19th century.

Current Ownership Type: Preservation Organization

Primary Current Ownership Use: Visitor Attraction

House Open to Public: Yes

Phone: 01823-413-923

Fax: 01823-413-747

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.hestercombe.com/

Historic Houses Member: Yes