Ston Easton Park

Grade I listed hotel in Mendip, UK

The current house was built around 1750 to 1760 on the site of a Tudor building. The architect may have been Thomas Paty. It was occupied by the descendants of the commissioning owner, John Hippisley Coxe, until 1956. Since then owners including William Rees Mogg and Peter Smedley have been involved in restoring the house, which is now in use as a private house for events. The two storey house has a symmetrical facade with projecting wings either side of the central doorway with a Tuscan portico. The interior of the stone house is decorated with extensive plaster mouldings to ceilings and fireplaces. The grounds and gardens were laid out by Humphry Repton, but have since been reduced in size.

The Hippisley family had been lords of the manor of Ston Easton and surrounding areas since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid 16th century. They acquired several local manors, some in association with William Rosewell. Preston Hippisley bequeathed the manor of Ston Easton to his daughter who married John Coxe of Leigh, Wiltshire, a Member of Parliament for Milborne Port. Her son John Hippisley Coxe married an heiress, Mary Northliegh of Peamore in the parish of Exminster in Devon, and with his increased wealth commenced the building of the present mansion. They moved from the old manor house next to the parish church of St Mary The Virgin, Ston Easton to an ancient gabled Tudor house and started to convert it into a Palladian mansion with landscaped parkland and gardens. The identity of the architect is not known, and although the design is reminiscent of the work of William Kent modern research tends to suggest Thomas Paty. It is also not known exactly when the house was built. John Hippisley Coxe died in 1769 and his sons Richard and Henry further embellished the house and grounds. Henry Hippisley Coxe employed Humphry Repton to landscape the park, including driveways and a viaduct similar to his plans for Endsleigh Cottage in Devon, although only part of this plan was actually created. In June 2020, as a result of the economic disruption caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, the hotel went into administration. The building reverted to the existing owners, who now rent it out for events and weddings. In 2022 Ston Easton Park was on the market for £6 million.

The two storey house has a symmetrical facade with projecting wings either side of the central doorway with a Tuscan portico. They include terraces and a pleasure ground in a steep sided valley. The grounds are listed Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Some of the earlier parkland is now used for agriculture and the Farrington Golf and Country Club.