NORTH CADBURY COURT

The Montgomery family are the owners of North Cadbury Court. It’s been their family home for more than 100 years, but with a history dating back to 1300. It was initially a medieval hall built by the de Moels and the original magnificent roof trusses are visible in several rooms today.

In 1337 it was sold to William Botreaux from Cornwall and a descendant, Elizabeth, rebuilt the neighbouring church in the early 1400s. She founded a college for priests in 1427 in the house, although this was never established.

Sir Francis Hastings leased the building from his brother the Earl of Huntingdon and in 1580s built the large Elizabethan mansion, before it was sold in 1596 to Matthew Ewens, a Baron of the Exchequer.

In 1610 it was purchased by Richard Newman, who had the misfortune of being imprisoned by Oliver Cromwell for lending his support to King Charles I but was forgiven a little later by King Charles II. The house and estates stayed in the Newman family for another 150 years.

The Bennett family purchased the house and its lands in the 1760s and it remained in their family for the next 100 years. During that time they added a ballroom and the very attractive Georgian style south façade. Their coat of arms can still be seen above the main door.

In 1910 the house and estate was purchased Sir Archibald Langman, who as a Londoner yearned for the rural pursuits. He, with his young wife Eleanor, became active on the farm and started making the Cheddar cheese for which the estate is now world famous.

The church of St Michael the Archangel stands in a large churchyard approached from an avenue on the southern edge of the village. It forms with the Elizabethan North Cadbury Court and the Georgian former Rectory ‘an uncommonly fine picture’ in the words of Nikolaus Pevsner.

Built by Lady Elizabeth Botreaux in 1420, it was intended ‘to establish therin a perpetual college of seven chaplains, one to preside and to be called the Rector of the College of St Michael the Archangel’. But the priests seemed never to have arrived.

Danny & Cassandra have qualified as members of the Church of England Camelot parish and will have their wedding ceremony conducted by a Vicar.

Fun fact: it is rumoured Jane Austen often visited North Cadbury growing up, you’ll notice the church monuments have the same names as her characters in Pride and Prejudice.

Steeped in history and mythology, the site of the long-forsaken Cadbury Castle hill is visible from the house upstairs windows. A military stronghold for over 4000 years, the first earthen ramparts were raised in the Stone Age.

Cadbury Castle is not actually a “castle”. There are no walls or towers or moats, and it was constructed centuries before the earliest motte-and-bailey castles appeared. Cadbury is actually a hilltop fortress, similar in construction to pre-Roman ditch-and-bank citadels that have been found elsewhere in England.

But to medieval scholars, Cadbury Castle, as an obvious fortified place where a powerful local ruler made a military stand against the Saxons, was enough to tie it to the Arthurian legend. In local lore, the hill became the site of the mythical Camelot (the local river was the Cam, but it’s unclear if that name came before or after the legend). When a member of King Henry VIII’s court named John Leland visited Cadbury in 1542, he heard all the local tales and published them; soon maps began appearing with the name “Camelot”.

Today, both Cadbury Castle and the nearby village of Glastonbury are popular tourist destinations, trading on their association with the Arthurian legends.

Cadbury chocolate was created by a British man named ‘John Cadbury’ who lived in Birmingham.

There’s seemingly no correlation with the chocolate and this village or estate; however, this is not going to stop us from provide our favourite Cadbury chocolates all weekend!