STOKE ST MARY AND DISTRICT HISTORY GROUP

ORCHARD PORTMAN HOUSE

The Tudor mansion of the Portman family rose on a site west of the parish church about the middle of the 16th century, and was almost certainly the work of Sir William Portman, Lord Chief Justice of England (d. 1557).  It  was left to succeeding generations to enlarge the house on the grand scale, and it may have been another Sir  William, the 6th baronet (1644 - 1690), who added the range of buildings which dominates John Kip’s engraved  view of the house, c. 1708.  These additions had vanished by the early 19th century, and the Tudor house itself  was demolished in about 1843.

No trace of the buildings remain on the site, which is the current location of Taunton Race Course.

Click the mouse over one of the pictures above  to see an enlarged version of it.  You may need to scoll down the page a little.

THE PORTMAN COAT OF ARMS

Portman2 Portman3 Portman1 Portman5 Portman6 Portman4

Inventory of Orchard Portman House

taken on 22 August 1690

on the death of  Sir William Portman