Mells Manor House, Frome, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Manor house gardens laid out in the early 16th century and around 1902-10 with advice from Sir Edwin Lutyens.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Mells Manor House is located in the Mendip village of Mells, 300 metres north of Selwood Street and about 60 metres west of St Andrew’s church. The gardens cover roughly 1 hectare and are set back 20 metres north of the public highway which forms the southern boundary of the property. The southern boundary of the site here registered is formed by a 3 metre high stone wall which separates the gardens from a former stable, now a shed, and yard at a lower level, except for the western 50 metres where the road forms the southern boundary of the drive enclosure. The eastern boundary is a 3 metre high stone wall, the northern 100 metres (approximately) of which is the boundary with the church, and the southern 40 metres is the boundary with the gardens of properties in the village, including the Talbot public house. The western boundary is formed by a 1 metre high stone wall west of a rectangular enclosure containing the entrance drive and car-parking area. The northern boundary is marked by a 4 metre high stone wall at the northern edge of the north garden and a 2 metre and 3 metre wall at the northern edge of the drive enclosure west of the house. The land drops gently from north to south, a drop accommodated in the gardens and for the buildings with shallow level terraces. To the east, south, and west the setting is the historic stone-built village of Mells, crowded around the narrow Selwood Street. To the north are flat open fields, including Manor Meadow, under grass.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Country Life, 42 (17 November 1917), pp 444-8

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (1958), p 226

J Harvey, Medieval Gardens (1981), pp 136-41

J Harvey, Restoring Period Gardens (1988), p 30

M McGarvie, 'Notes towards a history of Mells Park', in Frome Society Year Book 4, (1992), pp 31-40

Maps

Estate map of Mells, 1682 (Horner family archive; redrawn modern version at Somerset Record Office, DD/X/MGR 4)

Tithe map for Mells parish, 1841 (Somerset Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1891; 1931 edition

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1902

Archival items

Sir Edwin Lutyens, Plan of gardens at Mells Manor, around 1900 (Horner family archive)
 

Description written: November 2002

Amended: March 2003

Edited: September 2004