IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Barkleys Hill, BRISTOL, BS16 1AD

Former farm house, now converted into apartments. The tower at left is a Grade II listed building, part of Stapleton castle, a former folly in the grounds of Stoke Park House. Tower and screen wall. Mid C18. By Thomas Wright. Random Pennant rubble and dressings. Round tower. 2 set-backs articulate the tower; varied fenestration. Lancet doorway with double door and barred tympanum, and lancet windows with alternate blue and red voussoirs with tooled faces. Screen wall to left to the base of a second tower, with 2 crossed arrow slits low in the wall, now incorporated into a late C19 house (not included). INTERIOR not inspected. Probably an eye-catcher as part of Thomas Wright's landscape park for Stoke Park House, and related to his Ragged Castle at Badminton. Illustrated by Loxton c1900. (Loxton S: Bristol: 1900-1910: W 1387; Bristol As It Was: Bristol's Suburbs Long Ago: Bristol: 255).

Formerly a farm house which has now been converted into apartments.

Heading to Bristol

The farm is a private social enterprise and Care Farm, providing support and training to adults with learning disabilities and autism, and is a part of Brandon Trust, a learning disability charity. It has a farm shop open to the public.

Grade II listed. Formerly known as: Stapleton Grove BELL HILL. House, now hospital offices. c1764. For Joseph Harford. Bath stone ashlar, copper roof. Double-depth plan. 2 storeys, basement and attic; 5-window range. Mid Georgian style. Central Doric portico with 4 columns on pedestals, entablature and cornice, with ramped steps either side, a glazed door with fine bars and an elaborate fanlight forms the entrance to the piano nobile with narrow lights either side, and steps either side down to basement door with a floating cornice on brackets; central first-floor window with shouldered architrave and cornice on consoles, the remaining windows plain with aluminium frames; C20 copper mansard attic and right-hand extension. Rear entrance with 6 steps and an iron handrail to an Ionic porch, with BEECH HOUSE inscribed on the entablature; semicircular doorway and 6-panel door. INTERIOR: fine hall divided by fluted Doric columns and a curved entablature with triglyphs, which continues round the room. Acanthus ceiling rose, panelled shutters, reveals and soffits, panelled doors. Elliptical arch to the fine lateral dogleg stair, with wreathed, veneered rail and fluted banisters. HISTORICAL NOTE: built by Joseph Harford as Stapleton Grove. The home of Raja Rammohun Roy Bahadoor, the noted Hindu reformer, now buried at Arno's Vale Cemetery, Bath Road, Brislington (qv). (Harford A: Annals of the Harford Family: London: 1909-). Now Private Housing

Elm Tree Farm is a private social enterprise and Care Farm, providing support and training to adults with learning disabilities and autism, and is a part of Brandon Trust, a learning disability charity.