IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Urchfont, DEVIZES, SN10 4RF

See Image; between the manor and the B3098 are these attractive lawns and trees.

The south side of the building, shown more clearly in Image, seen past ornamental trees. See also Image

The road west of Urchfont bends past cottages at New End.

The brick cottage also appears in Image On the left is the B3098.

Urchfont Manor is used for residential craft courses.

The building was originally constructed as Urchfont House in 1678 for William Pynsent, a wealthy London barrister who had purchased an estate of 1600 acres in Urchfont. Some nine years later, after Pynsent had gained further political and social status, a large extension was erected on the east side. Please see Image This is the west façade of the original square structure and incorporates parts of an earlier building, most notably a large Tudor fireplace, and its associated chimney stack, which lie in what is now the entrance hall but must originally have been the kitchen. After Pynsent's death the house passed to his son, also a William Pynsent, who in 1765 willed the property to William Pitt The Elder, who was shortly to become the Prime Minister. Pitt owned the property only briefly before selling it to the Duke of Queensbury in 1767 whereupon, since the Duke already held the Manorship of the parish, it became Urchfont Manor. After passing through several tenants and other owners it was eventually bought in 1945 by Wiltshire County Council who converted it onto an adult education college, a function that it has to this day.

This is the east façade of the manor house, whose history is briefly told here Image This side of the building, although built only about nine years after the original house, is markedly different, its seven bays with a pediment over the three central ones in the then very modern Wren or Queen Anne style being designed to create the impression that the house was much larger than it really was. The rear of the north end of this extension can be seen in the other image and demonstrates the difference between the two parts of the building. The manicured lawn in front is a croquet pitch.

A view of a sculpture exhibition held in 2018 in the grounds of Urchfont Manor. The house was built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was rebuilt between 1678 and 1700 by Sir William Pynsent, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament for Devizes, in the Restoration style.