Greetings,

My name is Christopher Thompson. I am in a historical education organization that studies the Middle ages. We study and recreate the life and as much of the culture of the middle ages as we can to learn about that time. We also do demonstrations to educate the public about this time period. As I was doing some research into the 14th century I found a cutaway picture of Cothay Manor. Because of my education and enjoyment of architecture I took a fast liking to this Manor. I decide that I wanted to do more research on this Manor and started searching the web.

On my second try I found this web site: http://www.britannia.com/history/chouses/bluett.html and and after a third try I found the Bluett.com page and decide to contact the Bluett family and found out if anyone in the family could help me. I am interested in creating a model of Cothay Manor to show the public what a 14th century Manor house looked like. I read the short article about Cothay on the Britannia page which say that the Bluett family owns the Manor. It also said that your family does not typically have the house open to the public. I want to find out if I can get pictures of the building interior and dimensions of the structure in order to make the model as close to scale as possible.

I contacted Michael Bluett and he said that he is not sure if the Bluetts still own the Manor. He suggested that I come to this forum and post my request for help here. If any one knows who owns Cothay Manor, or if the owner of the Manor could contact me that would be great.

Christopher Thompson

-- Christopher Thompson (angusargyl@aol.com), November 22, 2001

Answers

I'm sorry, Christopher, Cothay has passed out of the family's hands. I think it was when John Blewett died in 1700.

The 1300s was a transitional time for the family, the domesday estates were dissipated on the death of John Blewett of the senior branch in 1317. The junior branch, holders of Raglan castle began aquiring estates in Somerset in that century including Greenham, North Petherton, Cothay and Holcombe Rogus until the estates were split among the daughters of John Blewett in 1700.

-- Matthew Blewett (Matthew.blewett@ondeo-degremont.com), November 30, 2001.

Cadhay is owned by Mr O.N.W.William-Powlett. It was open two years ago for visitors ,we had a most intersting time.

-- Jill Hurst (mjhurst @mjhurst.co.uk), February 07, 2002.

Cothay manor, nr Wellington, 15th century manor house is owned by Mr & Mrs Alistair Robb, phone 01823 672283 or em on cothay@aol.com

gardens are open from may

regards

simon pini

-- Simon Pini (simon@pini.org.uk), May 02, 2002.