Abbotswood, Gloucestershire

Abbotswood is a country house and estate near Lower Swell in Gloucestershire, England. It is a grade II listed building and estate, of medieval origins and with remodelling and garden work to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens from 1901 onwards.

The ownership of lands in the manor of Lower Swell can be traced to the pre-conquest period, when one Ernesi possessed them. In 1086 the manor lands were divided between Raoul II of Tosny and William II, Count of Eu. Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall acquired much of the lands before 1257 for a parkland; in 1257 he endowed Hailes Abbey with the manor, which remained its owner until the English Reformation. In 1545 it passed to the Bishop of London, and in 1591 was conveyed back to the Crown, then passing to one John Carter, and later to his son Giles, who mortgaged it in 1638 to Sir William Courteen. Courteen had assumed ownership by 1659, for he sold the estate to Robert Atkyns, a lawyer and member of the Third Protectorate Parliament for Evesham. Atkyns descendents sold the estate in 1844 to one John Hudson. Hudsen split the estate in 1865, selling 400 acres (160 ha) to the owner of lands in Upper Swell, Alfred Sartoris. Within his now merged estate, Sartoris built in 1867 a new country house, Abbotwood, removed from and on land elevated above the estate farm buildings.

In 1901 the estate was sold to Mark Fenwick, whose wealth derived from his involvement in mining and banking in Newcastle and Northumberland. Fenwick, a keen gardner, found the Abbotwood "far too ugly to live in" and against Lutyens' recommendation that he "blow it up, and start again!", engaged the architect to remodel the house and design gardens on what had been terraced lawns; Fenwick is credited with much of the planting within the estate. In 1946, the estate was sold to Harry Ferguson, the engineer and inventor noted for his role in the development of the modern agricultural tractor and, after the death of his widow, has been sold on a number of times.

...
Wikipedia