Estate History

The manor house kitchen dates from 1270 with the rest of the house having additional work carried out through the centuries with the most recent being the sitting room which was built on during the late 1940s.  The Phillips family have owned the estate and 1200 acres since 1923when it was purchased by James and Mabel Phillips (Rupert’s Grandparents) and originally operated with 22 ground staff, two grooms and six house staff.  Parts of the estate have since been tenanted giving more economical management of the 1200 acres.

Rupert and Lizzie Phillips (3rd Generation) married in 1986 and now have a son (Jake) and a daughter (Chloe), born in 1986 and 1988 respectively.

Apart from the manor house, there are two farms and seven cottages, and the water supply for them comes from seven natural springs which feed into a central reservoir.  This is then pumped 800 metres to a main reservoir and subsequently to the properties.

There is an interesting piece of recent history concerning Burnworthy water supply, dating from World War 2.  From information gleaned from German intelligence files, it seems that Burnworthy was targeted as an HQ in the event of an invasion.  The reason being that if local water supplies were tampered with and contaminated, the German Command would be self sufficient with Burnworthy’s private source.

It says much for the German intelligence that they were aware of private water supplies in what was then remote rural Somerset!

What is doubly intriguing is that the army officer who discovered the file in Berlin was none other than James W. Phillips, Rupert’s father.

The supply of water is as excellent and abundant as ever.