C O N T E X T 1 7 3 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 49 Kip’s engraving of Didmarton Manor Both the muchaltered east front and the truncated south front are illustrated in this photo of Didmarton Manor. St Lawrence’s church is in the right-hand corner and the Victorian church is visible at the end of the garden to the west. (Photo: Mike Calnan) The south front of Didmarton Manor. The garden door was once centrally placed. The pleached trees indicate the length of the missing half, reaching to the garden gate in Kip. (Photo: Anthea Jones) 5 son sold the house to Thomas Haines, a wealthy Westbury-on-Trym grocer, alternatively suggested as the builder, by which time architectural fashions were changing; his son was the owner when Kip visited. The boundaries and layout of the site match Kip’s engraving, and can be seen in recent aerial photographs. North of the house Kip drew a barn with typical cart entrance.The barn projects into a close possibly containing stables; an old roof is visible in the aerial photograph beyond the new building. Across the road is the River Boyd, today hardly visible through the trees. In the distance Kip portrayed the curve of the main road, and in the distance fields and low hills of what is now north-east Bristol.To the left (west) of the main house there was a hedged enclosure containing stacks of wood, and an older, smaller house, perhaps the earlier farmhouse, of which there are traces in the grass and in the wall to its rear. Beyond was an orchard, now mainly field. At the back of the house, the garden layout was formal. A central path was lined with beds containing topiary and two large yew trees still stand on each side. The path led to gates and to the vegetable garden, no longer in use, and thence to an avenue, although some large trees are possible survivors. Either side of the path were symmetrical parterres. Espalier trees lined walls, some seemingly reduced in height. Didmarton Manor is a complete contrast, with only a small portion of the Kip house remaining, but much of the garden layout. Kip drew the east front of another early-17th-century gabled house, of two projecting wings and a central range in which the entrance was located. There was a small extension to the right (north) side. The house was probably built by Simon Codrington, who had acquired the manor in 1571 and who presented to the living in 1607; near the entrance Kip drew the small Norman church, which survives, with a wooden bellcote on the single later transept. Didmarton was added to the Badminton estate in mid-18th century and much of the house was demolished by the Duke of Beaufort in the early 19th century. Part of the front survives, with a gable, and there is a trace of the entrance doorway in the masonry. Part of the south wing also survives, but cut back to be slightly recessed behind the unaltered centre front. The south facade drawn by Kip survives as far as the garden door. There are modern additions on the north side. Although the house has undergone drastic changes, the layout of the fairly extensive grounds to south and west are still very close to Kip’s portrayal, while simpler in detail. The owner finds traces of the path across the south lawn, which was lined with topiary in pots interspersed with taller clipped bushes. Another north/south path with fastigiate yews to one side separates the south lawn from a grand double parterre furnished with statues to the west.Today there is an enormously thick yew hedge, almost certainly survivor of the 1712 row; it can be clearly seen on the aerial photograph. Beyond the double parterre Kip drew a mature orchard where a late-Victorian church was built; happily the Norman church next to the manor house was not demolished. One ancient medlar tree possibly marks the edge of the old orchard.The line of the county boundary with Wiltshire a short distance to the south is marked with hedges and trees. Recent designs and planting echo the older layouts. Many more houses today line the village street, which remains an important highway leading fromTetbury to Bath, shown in Ogilby’s 1675 road atlas.
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