Cricket House
Cricket St Thomas manor house, known as Cricket House, has 14th-century origins, but was rebuilt and considerably modified at the beginning of the 19th century for Sir Alexander Hood under the direction of Sir John Soane. The 19th-century orangery attached to the house was later turned into a parrot house but is now used for bowling by Warner holiday guests. In the grounds is a small garden house known as The Admirals Seat.
The house was used as "Grantleigh Manor", the setting for the television series To the Manor Born which aired from 1979 to 1981. The Manor House was then owned by the father-in-law of the writer Peter Spence. Despite the closeness depicted on screen, the Manor and Lodge are in fact about one mile (1.6 km) apart. The Lodge was given additional features such as gateposts to give the impression it was a gatehouse, following various previous alterations. The house was again used as "Grantleigh Manor" in a 25th anniversary special of To The Manor Born shown in 2007.
In 2009, the estate was added to English Heritage's Heritage At Risk register due to development pressures from various businesses connected with the estate. Its vulnerability was classed as 'high'.
Read more about this topic: Cricket St Thomas
Famous quotes containing the words cricket and/or house:
“All cries are thin and terse;
The field has droned the summer’s final mass;
A cricket like a dwindled hearse
Crawls from the dry grass.”
—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)
“A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that “the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.””
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)