Shapwick Manor

Shapwick Manor is a manor house that has been converted into a school. Originally built in the medieval period for the Almoner of Glastonbury Abbey, it was rebuilt in the early 17th century for the Bull family. Henry Bull, a barrister and Member of Parliament for Somerset, resided here in the mid-17th century. The manor was restored and extended in the mid-19th century, likely for the Strangways family.

The exterior features colourwashed coursed and squared rubble, with some render on the left return, and slate roofs with coped verges that have bases for finials. The building has an Elizabethan asymmetrical frontage and is two storeys high with a layout of three bays, one bay, and two bays. The first floor has windows under front-facing gables, with the left three bays showcasing 4-light reserved chamfer stone-mullioned windows. Each light has a 19th-century casement with horizontal glazing bars and stopped labels. The right two bays contain stone-mullioned windows with two, three, and four lights, also featuring stopped labels, with the leftmost first-floor window topped by a low pedimented gable.

At the centre, there is a projecting two-storeyed gabled porch with a two-light reserved chamfer stone-mullioned window on the first floor and a hollow-moulded segmental-headed outer door opening in a dressed stone surround. Three two-stage buttresses are positioned between the left three bays. The left return has a layout of two, three, and one bays, with some ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned windows and stopped labels, as well as a 19th-century five-light canted bay. A glazed verandah supported by slender iron supports is also present.

Inside, the manor has been significantly remodelled in the mid-19th century in a Jacobean style. Notable features include two fireplaces with carved wooden mantelpieces that have busts, an 18th-century panelled room on the left of the ground floor, an 18th-century staircase, and an 18th-century strongroom with a cast-iron door.