ARCHITECTURE

Architecture: Text

"ASHTON COURT IS AT ONCE EXCITING, PUZZLING, NEGLECTED AND INTENSELY SAD. ... DELIBERATE HISTORICISM AND IMPORTED FITTINGS MAKE INTERPRETATION A MINEFIELD. ... PARTS OF THE BUILDING ARE A SHELL AND IN DANGEROUS CONDITION DESPITE THE BUILDING'S GRADE 1 LISTING".

A view of the Mansion today through the 4th dimension of time.

In the following Architecture Trails we look at some of the alterations and additions that have been made over the centuries to the many buildings of Ashton Court. Unlike the owners of Blaise Castle and Kingsweston, the Smyths did not tear everything down and build completely new with the arrival of a new fashion or a major dowry. They changed a little at a time.

It is thought the manor of Estune, recorded in the Domesday book was on the same site as today's Ashton Court Mansion. The surviving core of the medieval manor house dates from around 14th - 15th century. We currently know of remodelling in the late 16th, early and late 17th, late 18th and early and late 19th centuries.

Quote from: Andrew Foyle - Pevsner Architectural Guides. Bristol 2004

Architecture: About

OUTSIDE ARCHITECTURE TRAILS

Take a tour of the outdoor frontage of Ashton Court

WEST TRAIL

This frontage has remained largely the same for the last 200 years. Some of the buildings are very ancient but most of the windows display 19th century fashion for Gothic Revival. Before that things looked very different, much of it hidden behind an enclosing wall.

The distinctive yellow colour of the west front was said to be chosen from paint scrapings of early render coats.

Take a closer look at the west front here

SOUTH TRAIL

This is an extreme frontage, and surely designed to impress when viewed from a distance. The SE and SW wings only match very superficially but the current buildings span 250 years of construction, 2 major styles, and 2 different types of building materials. Like the west front, things looked very different in the past.

We have a good idea of how the SE wing used to look but we are still trying to find out about the SW wing.

See how it was transformed.

EAST TRAIL

The East side of Ashton Court is a designed frontage within a yard created for stabling horses and housing coaches for the Smyths and their visitors.

The building is contemporary with the SE wing but replaced an earlier building and saw later changes that are hard to detect today.

See an early 19th century design proposal by Humphry Repton.

Trail coming soon ...

NORTH TRAIL

This trail takes a look at the back of the buildings. It includes modern buildings and gives us clues to the past: where some of the demolished buildings were and how the buildings would have been seen by the estate workers for centuries.

Trail coming soon ...