History
The unusual name Curry Rivel, comes from the Celtic word crwy, meaning boundary and Rivel from its 12th-century landlord Sir Richard Revel.
Curry Rivel was part of the hundred of Abdick and Bulstone.
Earnshill House was built in 1725 by John Strachan for Henry Combe, a prominent Bristol merchant.
Burton Pynsent House was built around 1756 for William Pitt, after he inherited the estate from Sir William Pynsent. It formed part of a wing on a larger earlier house, that was demolished around 1805. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. The grounds were laid out in the mid 18th century by Lancelot Brown and William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and include early 20th century formal gardens designed by Harold Peto. The Chatham Vase is a stone sculpture commissioned as a memorial to William Pitt the Elder by his wife, Hester, Countess of Chatham. It was originally erected at their house in Burton Pynsent, in 1781, and moved to the grounds of Chevening House in 1934, where it currently resides.
The 140 feet (43 m) Pynsent Column (also known as the Curry Rivel Column, Burton Pynsent Monument, Pynsent Steeple or Cider Monument) stands on Troy Hill, a spur of high ground about 700 m north-east of the house. It was designed in the 18th century by Capability Brown for William Pitt. It was restored in the 1990s by the John Paul Getty Trust and English Heritage.
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