Abbots Sharpham Sharpham Park Farmhouse

Abbots Sharpham and Sharpham Park Farmhouse, originally a monastic dwelling and later a country house, is now divided into two dwellings with attached outbuildings. The building likely began in the 15th century, with subsequent alterations in the 16th, 18th, and 19th centuries. It is constructed of coursed and squared rubble, with roughcast to the front elevation. The roofs are slate and pantile, with varying pitches, coped verges and copings, and two prominent pennant roof tiles: one bears the inscription "D.G. 1733", and the other "C.T. 1917." The irregular plan forms an L-shaped frontage, with three storeys, two storeys and an attic, and a further two-storey section stepped down. The main section has five bays, with stepped-back outer bays, featuring 4, 12, and 16-pane sash windows with glazing bars. A three-quarter glazed door is set within a 18th-century stone doorcase with a triangular pediment. A projecting gabled porch shelters the main entrance, featuring a restored stone doorcase with a four-centred head, slab hood on stone brackets, and a plank door with elaborate scrolled medieval hinges. A wing to the left has a four-light stone mullioned window with iron stanchions, and further two and three-light casements. The rear elevation contains chamfered stone-mullioned windows with cast-iron casements and diamond-paned lights. Carved freestone panels with heraldic devices, including a bishop's mitre and a portcullis, are inset within the walls, likely reused from a demolished chapel. The interior of Sharpham Park Farmhouse reveals exposed ceiling beams. Abbots Sharpham features a fireplace with a broad dressed stone surround, a straight flight of stairs with 17th-century balusters, two blocked diamond-mullioned windows, and a panelled room on the first floor incorporating reused 17th and 18th-century panelling, including a stud and panel screen. This was the location where Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury, was arrested before his execution. The house is also the birthplace of Sir Edward Dyer (died 1607), an Elizabethan poet and courtier, and the writer Henry Fielding (1707-1754).