The Convent

The Convent is a Grade I listed Gothic fantasy cottage built around 1765 for Henry Hoare of Stourhead House. Constructed from rocky limestone with some flint, it features a thatched roof and stone fantasy stacks. The building is single-storey with attics. The main range has a canted bay with three pointed openings facing south, central French windows flanked by windows with Y-tracery and hexagonal leaded glazing. To the right, there is a large stone stack topped with a central obelisk pinnacle surrounded by four smaller pinnacles.

The lower range to the right includes a central stone porch with a pointed opening and a planked inner door, with pointed windows featuring Y-tracery on either side. The right gable end has a bellcote with a pointed arched opening and a cross finial. The right return features a pointed attic casement and a 20th-century ground floor pointed window. The left return has square corner turrets with pierced pyramidal cappings and finials, three trefoil-headed leaded windows on the ground floor, and a trefoil-headed 2-light window in the attic, with a coped verge to the gable.

The rear range was rebuilt in the 1980s, maintaining a similar rocky style with pointed casements and a pointed moulded doorway. Inside, the drawing room has a groin vaulted ceiling with a pebble-dashed finish and pointed niches on the west wall flanking a window, along with a 1980s gothic fireplace. The dining room features a flagstone floor and stone corbels supporting the ceiling, while the original roof has been retained. Originally, the building was said to have contained painted panels depicting nuns of different orders and stained glass from Glastonbury. The origins of The Convent are not well-documented, but it was likely built as a picturesque pavilion for carriage and riding excursions from Stourhead House.