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. Hestercombe House is today the headquarters of the local 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 the trust that is restoring the gardens received a grant of £3.7 million.

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: Government

Primary Current Ownership Use: Other

Ownership Details: Owned by Somerset County Council and used as the local fire brigade headquarters. The Gardens are being restored by the Hestercombe Gardens Project.

House Open to Public: Grounds Only

Phone: 01823-413-923

Fax: 01823-413-747

Email: info@hestercombe.com

Website: http://www.hestercombe.com

Historic Houses Member: Yes