Brympton d'Evercy

Brympton d'Evercy (also known as Brympton House) is a manor house near Yeovil in the county of Somerset, England. It has been described as the most beautiful house in England, in a country of architecturally pleasing country houses; whatever the truth of that statement, in 1927 the British magazine Country Life published a set of three articles on the house, in which Christopher Hussey, near the start of his 50-year career as a notable architectural authority and documentor of British country houses, described Brympton d'Evercy as "The most incomparable house in Britain, the one which created the greatest impression and summarises so exquisitely English country life qualities". Hussey's articles remain the only detailed account of the mansion. During its long history Brympton d'Evercy has belonged to six families, the d'Evercys, the Stourtons, the Sydenhams, the Fanes, the Weeks (from 1992 to 2007) and the most recent owner who purchased the property in 2007.

The building was started by the D'Evercy family around 1220, and slowly expanded between then and the 18th century. For 750 years it remained little known, and little recorded. For a few years after World War II Brympton d'Evercy was a boys' school, before being reclaimed by its owners as a private house. Today occasionally hired out as a location for filming or a hospitality event, it remains essentially a private residence.

The house is part of a complex consisting of the mansion, its stables and other outbuildings, the parish church and a curious building today known as the "priest house". Little remains of the original D'Evercy manor built between 1220 and 1325, as the present house has evolved on the same site.

Brympton d'Evercy was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Brunetone, meaning 'The brown enclosure' from the Old English brun and tun.

The village of Brympton is larger today than at any time in its history. Until the 20th century, it barely qualified as a village, having been deserted in the 14th century. Thereafter the village consisted of a few cottages scattered along the long drive to the secluded mansion, a few of which can be discerned in the view by Knyff (illustrated right). Today a new urban area known as Brympton is a suburb of Yeovil, and has encroached on the seclusion of the house.

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