Leigh Court - Rebuilding

Rebuilding

After the estate of some 2,500 acres (10 km2) was sold to Philip John Miles (1773–1845) in 1811, he demolished the original building around 1812 and in 1814 rebuilt the seat a quarter of a mile further north-east, to designs by Thomas Hopper, that were based on plans which Hopper had previously drawn for Pytminster House, Wiltshire. Philip Miles died in 1845, leaving Leigh Court to his eldest son, William Miles, for whom the Miles Baronetcy of Leigh Court, Somerset was created in 1859. In 1884 the second Baronet, Sir Sir Philip Miles, entertained the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

Externally the architectural style of Leigh Court is Palladian. The house, built of Bath stone, has a hipped slate roof with a glazed and coffered area over its Great Hall. The south-east and north-west elevations are identical, with the central three bays slightly advanced with a detached portico of four, unfluted Ionic columns, with plain entablature and pediments. The north-east elevation is of seven bays with the central bays recessed behind four Ionic columns. To the south-west are attached nine-bay service wings of two storeys.

The impressive, largely intact interior is Greek Revival. The square entrance hall has a central ring of eight marble Ionic columns which support a saucer dome. In addition it contains decorative anthemion friezes and a stone and marble patterned floor. The morning room in the east corner is in a late 19th century Adam/Wyatt style.

The mansion housed a collection of over a hundred paintings representing many Old Masters - Domenichino (including the St John the Evangelist sold in 2009 for £9.2 million), Titian, Poussin, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens, Claude Lorrain (including the Altieri Claudes) and Van Dyke, as well as numerous family portraits, however the majority of the more famous paintings were sold between 1884 and 1898. It was possible to visit the house to view the art collection on Thursday afternoons upon application to the Miles family's business offices at 61 Queen Square, Bristol (formerly the house of Philip John Miles's father, William Miles). The Great Hall which has a double staircase still contains an original pipe organ built by Flight and Robson of London. In addition to being played manually, it could originally be set to play the overture and a duet ("Ah, Perdona") from Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito. The grounds were originally landscaped by Humphrey Repton. At the turn of the 19th century a 2-acre (8,100 m2) walled garden was built to provide food for the estate.

The Miles family continued to occupy the house until 1917 when, in common with many such houses, it had become oversized for modern living; with onerous death duties to pay, it was put into a period of institutional use as a hospital.