CIRCA 1710

Belcombe Court near Bradford-on-Avon was built as a simple stone house between 1722 - 28 by John Yerbury (d.1728), a wealthy clothier. When he died the house passed to his son Francis Yerbury and in 1734 he commissioned the architect John Wood the Elder, then busily engaged in rebuilding Bath, to extend and alter the house, adding a Palladian wing which Wood described in his Essay Towards a Description of Bath, written in the 1740s. Shortly afterwards a small park was laid out on the north bank of the River Avon with various gardens and features which was extended after 1785 with the addition of picturesque walks and rustic arches and caves. The house remained in the Yerbury family until at least 1859 though the park was tenanted from around 1836. In the 20th century Belcombe Court was sold several times but after it was acquired in 1977 by Mr. & Mrs. A. Woodruff the pleasure grounds were restored and the gardens regularly opened to the public (Arthur Hellyer, `Picturebook Garden'. Country Life, 20 July 1989, pp. 72 - 75).