Canon Frome Court, Canon Frome

Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: 3 Jul 2002

A handsome Georgian house, the central three bays projecting slightly under a pediment, and the central bay set in a graceful blank arch including a Venetian window. The architect was "almost certainly" Anthony Keck, the client was, certainly, Richard Cope Hopton, and the date was 1786-93. Grade II listed. In a departure from the usual alternative uses - school or hotel - having been one of the former, the house is now occupied by "a farming cooperative and intentional community" (as opposed to those communities formed by people accidentally coalescing) and owned by the Windflower Housing Association. Keck (1726-97) was one of a breed of skilled, provincial builder-architects who, during the C18th and early C19th, created substantial parts of the built fabric of the country that we see today. He established a practice in Gloucestershire and worked mainly there and in Worcestershire and Herefordshire. He designed a number of pleasing medium-sized country houses, that mainstay of successful Georgian architects, and was also involved in designing locks on the Stroudwater Canal.

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