Property description
Location & Amenities Portman House is approached off the A37 via a five bar gate, leading to driveway parking for numerous vehicles. Further gates lead to the southern courtyard (around which is arranged the B&B accommodation and the barn) or along the northern boundary to the rear gardens.
Situated in the village of Pylle, on the A37 trunk road which links Bristol and Bath with Yeovil and the A303. Approximately 2 miles south of Shepton Mallet and adjacent to the western entrance to the Royal Bath & West Showground. Ideally placed for visitors to Wells, Glastonbury and Cheddar.
Accommodation Main House
Ground Floor
Five reception rooms, main entrance hall, side hall, large kitchen, utility room, bathroom, separate W.C. Currently used as a mixture of owners accommodation and space for guest dining. Access to first floor and cellars.
First Floor
Sitting room, three ensuite bedrooms, kitchen, landing/study areas. Currently arranged as owners accommodation (akin to a one bedroom apartment), with two additional ensuite bedrooms for guests/B&B.
Cellars
Two large rooms under ground floor dining room and breakfast room, with double door access to the side.
Detached B&B complex
Four ensuite rooms (currently arranged as three twin rooms and one double room) plus boiler room and linen store. No longer being run as a business due to health reasons and currently accepting only a very limited number of repeat bookings at £55 per person per night. Active marketing ceased some 5 years ago. Additional detached stable block used as freezer room (unconverted).
Barn/Skittle Alley
Currently comprising of rear hall from main house, second kitchen/prep room, large open barn and separate barrel storage. Planning permission in place (ref/no 094361/006, granted on 23/01/06 as part of the change of use of the whole property) to convert this space into two 2 bedroom holiday cottages with private entrances and gardens.
Gardens Rear Garden - 167ft x 125ft
Side Gardens - 128ft x 39ft
Primarily laid to grass, enclosed by hedging and fencing. Gated access for vehicles along the northern boundary of the property past the main house. Further pedestrian access between the B&B complex and barn. West facing and previously used as a Caravan Club Certified Location with 5 pitches (and 4 electric hook-ups) for touring caravans
Agents Notes Barn conversion permissions limit occupation of proposed holiday cottages to 28 day stays as a maximum.
For room dimensions, please see our floorplans.
Historical Notes
Recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Pille ('the creek' from the Old English pyl or from the Celtic pwl). Part of the manor of Pilton at the time of the Domesday. Little remains of the old village barring the church (St Thomas à Becket, rebuilt in 1868 for the Portman family but a 15th-century tower from the earlier church remains) and Pylle Manor. The old name for the roadside section of Pylle is Street on the Fosse (the A37 follows the line of the Roman Fosse Way). The village was part of the Portman Estates, with William Portman living at the manor around 1737. The first William Portman (died 1557) was a Chief Justice and the son of John Portman. His family was long established in Somerset, having given its name to the former manor and present village of Orchard Portman, and he served as Justice of the Peace for that county from time to time. He was a barrister who was successful enough to be personally known to King Henry VIII. In 1532 he acquired 270 acres adjacent to the NW of the City of London, which estate stretching from today's Oxford Street to the Regents Canal, known as the Portman Estate, is still held by his descendants the Viscounts Portman.
Portman House was the home of one of the estate managers for the Portman family and the older cottages in the village follow the numbering traditions of Portman estates around the country (each village on the estate numbered the houses in a different hundred Pylle must have been eighth on the list). In later life, the house was the Portman Arms Inn.
Pylle railway station was on the Highbridge branch of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. It opened in 1862 and closed in 1966.
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