COURT - In the act, of being an Hotel. by ladymagpie

COURT - In the act, of being an Hotel.

This upsets my love of history and historic buildings when I see them taken over and converted into luxury hotels. Yet there is advantage of it being Winter with no leaves on the trees to spoil the view.

It is Stonehouse Court where the lord of the manor looked over his land and servants. There has been a Court here since 1086 and was listed in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book. This present house was built in in 1601 but had to be restored in 1908 after a big fire.

I well remember the last old lady who lived here when this front garden had beautiful lawns and ornamental ponds, my Brother pushed me in one once.

Seriously, this is best viewed with the magnify button above the picture. See also the 12th July for my capture in the back garden.
It does at least preserved them though, I see it is grade II listed so they won't get away with too many changes
Incidentally you should offer them your photographic services, the shots on their website are awful
January 20th, 2014  
@claireuk Thanks Claire, just had a look and many pictures are out of focus, I'll go and offer my services (that's as a photographer).
January 20th, 2014  
Love the way you capture the present and the past in your photos, Heather. Well done, and so interesting to read.
January 20th, 2014  
Such a gorgeous building - I can understand why it would be much better preserved in its original glory...however, coming from an area that tears down or leaves abandoned many building and historical grounds without much thought, I wish they would convert to nice hotels!
January 20th, 2014  
@congaree @linnypinny Thank you both, the place has a lot of history for me since the 1950's, it was in my childhood playing area.
January 20th, 2014  
Love visiting your town and local area! Thank you for offering up some history along with the photos. It makes for a very interesting visit!
January 20th, 2014  
Another super capture and love your bit of history.
January 20th, 2014  
Gorgeous capture of this old building
January 20th, 2014  
A lovely old building,love the tall chimneys!!
January 20th, 2014  
@featherstone @thresheg @joeyc Thank you all for your comments and view.
January 20th, 2014  
@carolmw Thank you Carol, appreciated.
January 20th, 2014  
Wonderful architecture well captured
January 20th, 2014  
@killeen Thanks David
January 20th, 2014  
Lovely framing with the branches. I don't mind them being Hotels if they are done tastefully but I always think they should put the arking further away so the house front can be viewed without all the tin boxes ;-)
(Linda, @se7en , Fridays)
January 20th, 2014  
@happysnap Thank you Linda, I didn't pan to the left where they had built a large very modern conference and wedding hall.
January 20th, 2014  
A lovely building!
January 20th, 2014  
It's a lovely building
January 20th, 2014  
This is so neat! I agree with @happysnap about the parking. I'm glad they are preserving the house and making a separate building for conferences. I'd rather see it preserved than taken down altogether, but that is just me. I really like how you captured and framed it - looks to me like a picture post card. I like it!
January 20th, 2014  
@windridge @virtualbrownie @kchuk Thank you all for taking time to have a look.
January 20th, 2014  
What a great old house
January 21st, 2014  
@philcameron59 Thanks Phil, it certainly is.
January 21st, 2014  
Except for the cars we could squint and think of this wonderful building in an earlier time. A bygone era. Cost to keep them running must be out of this world.
January 21st, 2014  
What a wonderful old house. I enjoyed your nostalgic write up also. Thank you for sharing this.
January 21st, 2014  
@kathiecb @khawbecker Thanks for looking and commenting, glad you like this old building.
January 21st, 2014  
fav what a beautiful building and photo
January 21st, 2014  
Thank you for the captures and history behind the buildings that you include. It is a shame that they have converted it to a hotel, but at least they have preserved the building.
January 21st, 2014  
Nice capture of an interesting old buulding
January 22nd, 2014  
@gerry @connie865 @ourrube Thank you all for your comments.
January 22nd, 2014  
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