The Hundred of Tintinhull consisted of the ancient parishes of: Ilchester, Kingston, Montacute, Northover, Stoke-under-Hamdon, Thorne Coffin, and Tintinhull.
Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923), who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset, for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper.
Corkscrew Road, a small road linking Montacute Heights with Gorge Road via a precipitous route with many twists and turns, is a popular route for cyclists and day trippers.
A legend, recorded in the 12th century De Inventione Sanctœ Crucis Nostrœ ("The Discovery of our Holy Cross") or "Waltham Chronicle", relates that, in about 1016, the blacksmith at another estate belonging to Tovi, at Montacute near Glastonbury, found a large black flint (or marble) crucifix buried at the top of a hill, after a dream.
His descendants claimed a connection with the older house of Montagu or Montacute, Barons Montagu and Earls of Salisbury, but there is no sound evidence that the two families were related.
It is interesting that while the latter two are ducal palaces, Montacute, although built by a Master of the Rolls to Queen Elizabeth I, was occupied for the next 400 years by his descendants, who were gentry without a London townhouse, rather than aristocracy.
He returned to Adelaide in 1867 to supply the Montacute goldmine with a ten head stamp battery, which he bought back the following year and installed at the Echunga goldmine.
The fictional location for the earlier Wallace and Gromit film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Tottington Hall, was also based on Montacute House.
Three of Richard's sisters married dukes (the youngest Cecily, marrying Richard, Duke of York), and Richard himself married Alice Montacute, daughter and heiress of Thomas Montacute, the Earl of Salisbury.
Montacute was the third son of William Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu (d. 18 October 1319), by Elizabeth Montfort (d. August 1354), daughter of Sir Piers Montfort of Beaudesert, Warwickshire.
An effigy of Lady Margaret Montacute can be seen in Welsh Bicknor church and her plain tomb is beside the altar in Goodrich church.