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5 unusual facts about Sutton Court


South Somerset by-election, 1911

Sir Edward Strachey the Liberal MP since 1892, was raised to the peerage as Baron Strachie, of Sutton Court in the County of Somerset and accepted a seat in the House of Lords.

Sutton Court

Sutton Court is a large English house remodelled by Thomas Henry Wyatt in the 1850s from a manor house built in the 15th and 16th centuries around a 14th-century fortified tower.

The north front comprises a central three-storey fourteenth century pele tower with a taller circular stair turret and two-storey ranges linking it to the 1558 'Bess of Hardwick Building' to the left and a four bay 1858–1860 servants' wing of three storeys to the right.

He introduced a theory of rock formations known as Stratum, based on a pictorial cross-section of the geology under the estate and coal seams in nearby coal works of the Somerset Coalfield, projecting them according to their measured thicknesses and attitudes into unknown areas between the coal workings.

The 4th Baronet who was also Edward Strachey, a Liberal politician, was returned to Parliament for Somerset South at the 1892 general election.


Bishop Sutton

Much of the exploratory survey work which identified the geology of the area was carried out by William Smith, who became known as the "Father of English Geology", building on earlier work in the same area by John Strachey, who lived at Sutton Court.

Church of St Andrew, Chew Magna

In the church are several memorials to the Stracheys of Sutton Court together with a wooden effigy of a Knight cross-legged and leaning on one elbow, in 15th century armour, thought to be of Sir John de Hauteville or a descendant, and possibly transferred from a church at Norton Hautville before it was demolished.


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