Alfoxton House Explained

Alfoxton House
Location Town:Holford
Location Country:England
Coordinates:51.1652°N -3.2201°W
Map Type:Somerset
Client:John St Albyn
Completion Date:1710

Alfoxton House, also known as Alfoxton Park or Alfoxden, is an 18th-century country house in Holford, Somerset, England, within the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The present house was rebuilt in 1710 after the previous building was destroyed in a fire.[1]

History

The poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived at Alfoxton House between July 1797 and June 1798, during the time of their friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[2] Dorothy began her journals here in January 1798 but discontinued them 2 months later to recommence when the couple moved to the Lake District. These were posthumously published as The Alfoxden Journal, 1798 and The Grasmere Journals, 1800-1803.

The building was refenestrated and re-roofed in the 19th century. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[3] During World War II it housed evacuees from Wellington House Preparatory School at Westgate-on-Sea in Kent.[4] After use as a country hotel followed by a period of disuse, the house was sold in January 2018.[5] It was again for sale (with 50 acres) in July 2018,[6] and in 2020 purchased for about £2 million by the Alfoxton Park Trust for use by the Triratna Buddhist Community.[7]

Building

Alfoxton House was built in the 18th century of rendered rubble stone, the main block being on a double-pile plan, i.e. two main rooms on each side of a central corridor. The house is two storeys high, with an attic that includes dormer windows. The frontage includes a central porch with columns, frieze and cornice in a Doric style. There is an extension to the left, originally an orangery, with a steep roof over a verandah. The wall includes the coat of arms of the St Albyn family who owned the house for many years.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Alfoxton Park Hotel. https://web.archive.org/web/20050501020433/http://www.information-britain.co.uk/showPlace.cfm?Place_ID=4555. 1 May 2005 . 31 August 2016. Information Britain .
  2. Web site: Stringston . 31 August 2016. British History Online .
  3. Web site: Alfoxton Park Hotel . 31 August 2016. historicengland.org.uk .
  4. Book: Waite, Vincent . Portrait of the Quantocks . 1964 . Robert Hale . London . 0-7091-1158-4 .
  5. News: Jones . Paul . Derelict Alfoxton Park, Somerset, former hotel and home of poet William Wordsworth, sold . Somerset County Gazette . 5 January 2018.
  6. Web site: Historic Somerset country house hotel and estate for sale | Christie & Co.
  7. News: William Wordsworth's idyllic home to become Buddhist retreat . Simpson . Craig . The Daily Telegraph . subscription . 30 July 2020 . 1 August 2020.