Shorwell, near Newport
Isle of Wight
England
Circa Date: 1615-29 w/20th century additions and alterations
Status: Fully Extant
House Open to Public: By Appointment
Country House: Yes
A 1796 engraving of the house from "Angus's Views of Seats." By kind permission of a private collection.
The house from an early 19th century illustration
Earlier Houses: The current house was built on the site of a 13th century monastic building.
Built / Designed For: Sir John Leigh, Deputy Governor of the Isle of Wight
House & Family History: Northcourt is the largest of the Isle of Wight's Jacobean manor houses and was the seat of the Leigh family, for whom it was built, for 175 years. In the 1790s the Leighs sold up to Richard Briel, a noted art collector and friend of Horace Walpole. In the 19th century Northcourt was the seat of General Sir James Willoughby Gordon, who had been quartermaster general to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War of 1812. His granddaughter, Mary Gordon, was a cousin of the poet Algernon Swinburne, who was a frequent visitor to the house and wrote much of his epic poem "Atalanta in Corydon" in the library at Northcourt.
Architect: Edwin Landseer Lutyens
Date: 1905House Listed: Grade II
Park Listed: Grade II
Current Seat / Home of: John and Christine Harrison; here since 1984.
Past Seat / Home of: Sir John Leigh, early 17th century; Barnabas Evelyn Leigh, early 18th century; Leigh family here until the 1790s. Richard Briel (Bull), late 18th-early 19th centuries. Benett family, 19th century. General Sir James Willoughby Gordon, 19th century; Sir Henry Percy Gordon, 19th century. Alexander Henry Leith, 5th Baron Burgh, early 20th century.
Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust
Primary Current Ownership Use: Bed & Breakfast
Ownership Details: Today NorthCourt Manor B&B
House Open to Public: By Appointment
Phone: 01983-740-415
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.northcourt.info/
Historic Houses Member: Yes