The Lost Mansion of Simonsbath

Only a few rooms remain of the grand house planned by the Knights. It was intended to be a very large house with splendid gardens, plantations and rides. Clearly the Knights were influenced by other great houses they had seen. A cousin Richard Payne Knight was a landscape gardener and two other cousins were Elizabeth Knight mother of Thomas Johnes, creator of Hafod, and Mary Knight, wife of Copplestone Warre Bampfylde of Hestercombe. Their great late 18th-century estates undoubtedly inspired John Knight to attempt something similar. A painting in the house gives an indication of a terraced landscape down to the river.