Real Tennis Court Remains About 100 Metres North East Of Stowe Barton And Wall To East

SS 21 SW KILKHAMPTON

3/14 Real tennis court remains about - 100 metres north east of Stowe Barton and wall to east - II

Remains of real tennis court, partly used as shippon. Late C17. Associated with Stowe, built for John Grenville, Earl of Bath, in 1679. English bond local brick, some polyphant stones. 3 sides of a rectangle in brick walling, the dimensions correspond to the area of a real tennis court, 29.3 x 9.8 metres. Further wall, about 4 metres distant from north wall probably the inner wall forming the side and service penthouses, sloping slate roof across the north and inner wall forms present shippon. South wall has moulded polyphant stones at base on inner side. Remains of cement floor. The tennis court is referred to in Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho! (1855) Chap.VII, where it is mentioned that since the demolition of Stowe in 1739 "the stables have become a farmhouse, the tennis-court a sheep-cote".

Listing NGR: SS2144011297