Earlier Houses: The current house incorporates a small part of an earlier, probably Elizabethan, house.

Built / Designed For: Nathaniel Cripps

House & Family History: Upton is a surprisingly grand house of seven bays and three stories with a palace-like ashlar façade, very likely designed by a provincial architect. The house is most notable for its Baroque plasterwork and its entrance hall, which soars to two stories and features giant fluted Corinthian pilasters. During the time Upton was the home of Sir Kenneth Clark (he leased the house between 1939 and 1943), many of the great and good of the artistic community came to stay, including Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Eddy Sackville-West, and William Walton. The Clarks gave up the lease of Upton when the government requisitioned the house for the Women's Land Army during World War II.

Comments: Nicholas Kingsley, writing in "The Country Houses of Gloucestershire: Volume Two, 1660-1830," says that Upton is a house of "...Palladian magnificence humanised and provincialised by Baroque features."

Country Life: CLIII, 390, 1973.

House Listed: Grade II*

Park Listed: Not Listed

Current Seat / Home of: Roger Seelig; here since 1983.

Past Seat / Home of: Nathaniel Cripps, 18th century; Cripps family here until 1818. J.W. Biederman, 1823-31. Maurice Maskelyne, 1856-66. Major General Sir Arichibald Little, 1866-90; Major A.C. Little, 1890-1934. Sir Kenneth Clark, 1939-43. Charlotte St. Clair, mid-20th century; St. Clair family here until 1983.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No