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Westwood Manor House

Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

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Westwood Manor House is a late medieval building next to the parish church in Lower Westwood.

A manor house, belonging to the Priory of St Swithun at Winchester, may have existed here previously, but the present house (the hall range) was begun by Thomas Culverhouse in 1480 and a wing had been added on its west side early in the next century by the Horton family. A hundred years later John Farewell (died in 1642) inserted a floor into the hall to create an upper chamber and built the tw0-storey porch and stair turret. Another wing at a right angle to the east end probably held kitchens and other service rooms, but was demolished in the late 19th century.

The house declined as a tenanted farmhouse until purchased by Edgar Graham Lister in 1911. Lister had much restoration work carried out on the house, importing panelling from Keevil Manor House and laid out the gardens. He covenanted it to the National Trust in 1943 and it has belonged to the Trust from after his death in 1956.

The garden is not large, but is filled with topiary of yew trees that have been clipped into many forms, some into cones or cubes, others into the shape of a building. The garden’s design dates from about 1913, after the house became the property of Edgar Graham Lister.

The house is open to the public- see the National Trust website (opens in a new tab)