South Wraxall Manor
| South Wraxall Manor | |
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| Location | South Wraxall, Wiltshire, England |
| Coordinates | 51°23′16″N 2°14′28″W / 51.38778°N 2.24111°WCoordinates: 51°23′16″N 2°14′28″W / 51.38778°N 2.24111°W |
| Owner | John Taylor and Gela Nash-Taylor |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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South Wraxall Manor is a Grade I listed country house which dates from the early 15th century, located at South Wraxall in the English county of Wiltshire, near Bradford on Avon. According to popular legend, South Wraxall was the house where the first tobacco was smoked in England, by Sir Walter Long and his friend Sir Walter Raleigh (although this has also been said of other houses related to Raleigh).
The first known member of the Long family to own land in South Wraxall was Robert Long, a lawyer who was on the Commission of the Peace in 1426 and represented Old Sarum in Parliament in 1414, and Wiltshire between 1421 and 1442. He had a house there in 1429 and a few years later he exchanged lands in Wraxall with the Abbess of Shaftesbury. He died in 1447. His great-great grandson Sir Robert Long altered the doorway to the Long chapel in 1566, having his initials and badges carved into the stone above it.
Over the generations, the Long family acquired more and more land, until eventually they owned all the property within South Wraxall that had once belonged to the Priory of Monkton Farleigh. The manor was passed down through the Longs of Wraxall until it reached Walter Long who died unmarried in 1807, and his unmarried sister Katherine continued to live in it till her death aged 97, in 1814. By his will it then passed to his cousins, Richard Godolphin Long of Rood Ashton, and his brother John. It was over 150 years before another member of the Long family lived at the manor for any length of time.
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Wikipedia