Field House

Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire

Overview

A gracious farmhouse amongst open fields in the South Cotswolds, its architecture typical of the handsome gabled style of the region. The house is surrounded by a large and sunny walled garden and orchard. There is lots to explore nearby in this gentle part of the country including historic market towns and good walking country.

  • Dogs AllowedDogs Allowed
  • Electric Car Charging PointElectric Car Charging Point
  • CotCot
  • Mobile signalMobile signal
  • Fire or StoveFire or Stove
  • Open SpaceOpen Space
  • Logs availableLogs available
  • Parking AvailableParking Available
  • BathBath
  • DishwasherDishwasher
  • ShowerShower

Beds 2 Twin 1 Double

Sleeps
6
4 nights
£1212 equivalent to £50.50 per person, per night

Four small dwellings made into one

This handsome stone house was left to us with the surrounding land by Miss Eileen Jenkins, who had lived here for the previous 20 years. Field House is an unusual building, since although it has been a single house for over a century, it was clearly once four separate dwellings round a narrow yard, each with one room up and one down. But by 1884 the yard had been roofed over and filled with a staircase, and the whole building became one farmhouse. This early conversion works remarkably well, creating well proportioned, sunny rooms with an air of simple elegance.

English Countryside

A house like this can tell us much about the attitude of our forebears to their surroundings, and help us appreciate the worth of their simple values. There is so much to enjoy in these southern Cotswolds as they merge into the childhood countryside of author Laurie Lee around Stroud. There are Roman sites nearby at Chedworth and Cirencester, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge. Westonbirt Arboretum isn't too far away, as is Berkeley Castle. Field House overlooks one of the three courses of the Minchinhampton golf club.

Floor Plan

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Map & local info

Field House stands in a peaceful, rural location in a large and sheltered walled garden surrounded by open farmland high up on the Cotswolds. Its location is ideal for exploring the local area and countryside. 

The picturesque village of Painswick is just a 20-minute drive away, where in early July you can enjoy their Art couture festival. The award-winning Stroud Farmers' Market is perfect for foodies and is held every Saturday. 

The multi-award-winning The Kitchen Cafe comes highly recommended, where you can enjoy fresh local food throughout the day. 

Stroud Fringe Festival is held in the town annually and is not to be missed if it falls during your stay at the Field House. 

If you're feeling active, Field House itself backs on to Minchinhampton Golf Club or Cotswold Water Park is 30 minutes in the car, where there is a wealth of leisure activities to enjoy. 

Woodchester Mansion is also not to be missed; hidden in a secluded Cotswold valley, this Grade 1 listed building is a Gothic masterpiece.  

Discover local walks for dogs with our friends at Walkiees.co.uk, the dog walks community.

Other nearby heritage attractions worth exploring include Chavenage House (3.8 miles), The Wilson-Cheltenham Art Gallery (18.7 miles) and Holst Birthplace Museum (19.4 miles). 

Please Note: The Landmark Trust does not take any responsibility and makes no warranties, representations or undertakings about the content of any website accessed by hypertext link. Links should not be taken as an endorsement of any kind. The Landmark Trust has no control over the availability of the linked pages.

Clear directions
Essential Info
What you need to know about this building
  • Yes. You are welcome to bring up to two dogs. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog. Please contact booking enquiries if you have an assistance dog, for which there is no charge.
  • Directly from the main road.
  • Stroud – 4 miles.
  • There is parking for one car in the garage adjacent to the property and several other cars in the courtyard.
  • There is gas central heating, an open fire and a stove.
  • Logs may be purchased and delivered under a private arrangement. Further details will be provided with your booking confirmation.
  • To check up-to-date mobile network coverage in the area, visit signalchecker.co.uk. Due to the location and structure of many of our buildings, signal strength may differ to those indicated.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • The kitchen is fully equipped with all plates, cutlery, fridge etc. There is also an electric cooker and a dishwasher.
  • There are two bathrooms, one with a free-standing shower and one with a bath.
  • No.
  • There is a large enclosed garden.
  • There is a Type 2 Electric Vehicle charge point, delivering a 7.2kW charge, at the property. You will need to request this facility at the time of booking to ensure the outlet has been enabled for your arrival. There is a small charge to cover the cost of electricity provided.
Booking and Payment
  • If the weather is bad, please contact our booking office who will be able to tell you whether the Landmark is accessible. If the housekeeper can safely get to the building to prepare it then we consider that it is open and available for guests. However if we cannot undertake a changeover then we will do our utmost to transfer your stay to another Landmark, depending on what we have available. It may not be of a similar size or in the same part of the country as your original booking. If the building is accessible but the customer cannot travel due to poor weather in his/her local area then please be aware that Landmark will not provide a refund. However the customer may be able to claim on his/her own travel insurance. We recommend that all guests take out travel insurance when they first secure a booking.
  • We accept Maestro (if issued in the UK), Visa, MasterCard, direct transfer and sterling cheques drawn on a UK bank. Cheques should be made payable to the Landmark Trust except for Lundy stays and boat/helicopter tickets which should be payable to The Lundy Company Ltd. All payments must be in sterling.
  • The key arrangements will be included in the Further Infomation document which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • If your stay starts more than two months from the date you make the booking, you are required to pay a deposit of one third of the cost of your stay (or £100 per booking, if greater) at the time of booking. Camping on Lundy and The Bunk House at Llwyn Celyn must be paid for in full at the time of booking.
  • If you wish to cancel or change your booking, please contact our Booking Office on 01628 825925
  • At the moment we only accept payment in sterling.
  • Our housekeeper will leave the key in a suitable place, the details of which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • It depends. Some of our most popular Landmarks are booked up a long time in advance, but many can be booked at short notice. We will always have Landmarks free for the coming weekend so it’s always worth checking our availability list.
  • No, Landmarks are available to be booked for anyone.
  • No, all the information you need can be found on our website, although we’d like you to buy one anyway as it will be a pleasure to own!
Staying at a Landmark
  • Some of our Landmarks are suitable for people with disabilities or limited mobility. However, many Landmarks have steep or narrow staircases, uneven floors and thresholds, changes of level, low ceilings or beams, as well as indistinct colours on steps and in corridors. We recommend that you call Booking Enquiries on 01628 825925 if you would like to find out the suitability of a particular Landmark for anyone with a specific disability.  Further information on access when visiting Lundy can also be found here.
  • Yes, Landmarks are only available as self-catering accommodation. We do not offer bed and breakfast.
  • Landmark does not provide catering, but we can recommend Greycoat Lumleys who can arrange for expert and well-trained staff to cater for one evening or for your entire holiday. Their cooks and chefs are able to work with you to meet your specific requirements
  • You may bring up to two dogs to properties where dogs are allowed (please see specific property details for exemptions however dogs are not permitted on Lundy except assistance dogs). They must be kept off the furniture and under proper control. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog. Please contact booking enquiries if a registered assistance dog is supporting one of the guests, for which there is no charge.
  • Apart from two dogs (see above) no other pets are permitted.
  • Arrival is from 4pm and departure is by 10am.
  • We do not carry insurance for breakages. However we appreciate that accidents do sometimes happen. If you have a breakage during your stay, please let the housekeeper know and if appropriate we reserve the right to invoice you accordingly.
  • Yes, most of our Landmarks are perfect for children, with gardens to play in and secret places to discover. Our furniture is surprisingly robust and we positively encourage families to stay. However, some of our buildings may not be suitable for small children; for example, some of them have steep or uneven spiral staircases. We recommend that you call the Booking Enquiries team if you would like to find out the suitability of any of our Landmarks for young children.
  • Unfortunately, most of our Landmarks are not licensed for weddings. However, you may get married on Lundy.
  • All our larger Landmarks are perfect for gatherings of family or friends. You may invite an additional two guests to visit you during your stay, however they must not stay overnight. This is very important because our fire regulations specifically note the maximum number of people in any one building. In addition our properties are prepared, furnished and equipped for the number of people specified and greater numbers cause damage and excessive wear and tear to vulnerable buildings. Should this condition be ignored we shall make a retrospective charge per person per day (whether or not they stay overnight) for each guest over the permitted limit, the charge being pro-rated on the total cost of your booking.
  • We deliberately do not provide televisions and find that most people appreciate this.
  • One of the challenges of restoring unloved buildings is gaining access to them. We frequently have to negotiate rights with our neighbours and share tracks with them. In many cases tracks do not belong to us and we have no right to maintain them. Wherever possible we work with our neighbours to provide you with a good quality surface, but where this is a problem then you will be warned at the time of booking.
  • Yes, we have standard electricity sockets for UK appliances. If you are coming from outside the UK, you will need to bring your own adaptor plug(s). If you are visiting one of our European properties we have standard European electricity sockets. If you are visiting from the UK, you will need to bring your own adapter plug (s).
  • Landmark’s electrical systems have not been designed to provide continuous power from one socket over several hours.  If an ordinary socket is used to charge an electric vehicle, there is significant risk of an electrical fire and consequent danger to life.  Therefore, we are unable to allow electric vehicle charging from most of our Landmarks at present.

    We are working to provide Type 2 Electric Vehicle charge points at our properties where there is private parking.  Where this is available, please request this facility when booking the property to ensure the outlet is enabled on your arrival.  There is a small charge to cover the cost of electricity provided.  Please book this facility in advance.
  • No, we do not allow smoking in any Landmark.
Facilities
  • Sometimes our kitchens and bathrooms have to be imaginatively fitted into the available space in buildings where before there were none, but they are all planned and equipped to a high and modern standard.
  • Yes, Landmarks are fully equipped with sheets and towels. All the beds are fully made up for your arrival. Except for the Llwyn Celyn Bunkhouse.
  • Yes, our kitchens are well equipped with cookers and fridges. There are freezers and dishwashers (in larger buildings) and, where space allows, microwaves as well as a wide and standard range of utensils. A full equipment list is available at time of booking.
  • Logs are provided at many of our Landmarks for an additional cost.
  • Mobile coverage varies. Some Landmarks have an excellent signal, but others have none at all. You can find those with 4G and 5G signal on our Landmarks with mobile signal page and each building has a link to signal checker in the Essential Information so you can check individual service providers' coverage in the area.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • A welcome tray with tea and sugar awaits your arrival and you will find a pint of milk in the fridge. We also provide toilet rolls and a bar of soap per basin, but no other toiletries. Hairdryers are provided.
History

At one time three or four small dwellings

Field House appears to be a straightforward Cotswold stone house dating, at a guess, from about 1830 or 1840. But the reality is more complicated than that. When the recent building work was going on the remains of some small subsidiary staircases were found in the dining room and sitting room, showing there to have been at one time three or four small dwellings here, forming a U shape, overlooking a small yard. Their outlines, one room up and one room down, can be seen quite clearly on the plan of the house.

The yard was later filled in to form a central hall and the existing, rather grander staircase inserted. At the same time, doorways were knocked through from one room to another, to form a single house. This came to be called Field House and was farmhouse to Hampton Field Farm, to which the surrounding fields belonged.

This change had certainly taken place by 1881-2 when the area was first surveyed for the Ordnance Survey, on whose map of 1884 it is marked as Field House and it appears to have the same ground plan as the existing building. But it was also, apparently, a single dwelling in 1839 when the Tithe Map for the parish of Minchinhampton was drawn up because the House and Garden in 'Morris Tyning,' (the name of the field in which Field House stands) is listed in the accompanying schedule as being owned and occupied by John Fowles and there is no indication of it being anything other than an ordinary dwelling.

The building shown on the Tithe Map is different in shape however, and has no outbuildings, which are generally shown on other properties round about if they existed. So it is possible that John Fowles's house was a much smaller building, standing roughly where the range containing the dining room and part of the sitting room is now, with the well-made cellars underneath and these would indicate that it was even at this time something more than a humble cottage.

To this, in the 1840s perhaps, two wings were added and at the same time the original house was divided into two further dwellings but for what purpose, charitable or industrial, remains a mystery - although with the weaving industry long being a main income producer in this area, it could have been connected with that in some way. Whatever they were, within a generation these small dwellings were no longer required and the transformation into Field House was carried out.

There is a tradition that a building has stood on the site of Field House for several centuries and that the vaulted cellars are all that remain of it. This seems not to have been the case, however, because on another map of the parish of Minchinhampton, drawn in 1803, no houses at all are marked in the area, only fields. The only houses in the immediate area to have existed at this date are Crackstone Farm and Peaches Farm, slightly to the north of Hampton Fields, and Aston Farm to the south-east, in the neighbouring parish of Avening. The reason for a hamlet growing up here soon afterwards lies partly in the history of agriculture at this period and partly in the history of the manor of Minchinhampton itself.

The Fowles family seem to have bought several plots of land at Hampton Fields since three others of that name appear on the Schedule besides John Fowles, although he is the only one to both own and occupy his property. A Trade Directory of 1876 lists members of the same family as tailors and bakers in Minchinhampton, so it may be that they were simply investing in the land as a sideline and were not farmers themselves. A Miss Fowles still owned a field to the north of Field House in 1919.

At some date after the Tithe Map Survey of 1839 and before 1890 a change of ownership had taken place however. In 1890 Hampton Field Farm, with other lands, was inherited by George Hoole Lowsley Williams, of Chavenage House near Tetbury, from his great-aunt Miss Harriet Lowsley. The Lowsley family had owned land in the area from the late 18th century, when Joseph Lowsley bought Aston Farm, consisting of 987 acres in the parishes of Avening and Minchinhampton. It had once been part of the Manor of Avening, but had been sold in the 17th century to the Drivers, who had already been tenants there for over a hundred years and who sold it on themselves in the 18th century. The northern boundary of Aston Farm touches Hampton Field at Gillhays Bottom. The Lowsleys subsequently bought Lowesmore as well, which had once been in the same estate as Aston. According to the family pedigree they also owned land in the parishes of Saperton, Frampton Mansell and Tarleton, in addition to Mugmore House to the west of Minchinhampton.

All this property was inherited on the death their father John by Joseph’s grand-daughters, Harriet and Mary Lowsley. Of the two sisters, only Mary married, and George Lowsley Williams was her grandson. When, on Harriet’s death, he inherited her property as well, the divided Lowsley estates were reunited and joined to that of Chavenage, which had been bought by his parents in 1891 from the heirs of the Stephens family - and this is where the family still lives.

Hampton Field Farm must have been acquired by the Lowsley sisters to round off their property and was indeed probably created by them, since the various fields that later belonged to it were previously under a number of different tenancies and could only have been drawn together into one property by its new owners. A possible date for this is 1868, the date of an unspecified indenture referred to in a later conveyance - this would give us the most likely date for converting the four small dwellings into one new farmhouse, with stables and outbuildings.

In 1919 (the date of the conveyance already mentioned), George Lowsley Williams sold his farms in this part of Minchinhampton and Avening. Hampton Field Farm and Matchless Farm were sold as one, consisting of 76 acres. Aston and Lowesmore Farms went at the same time.

Hampton Field and Matchless Farms were bought by Mr Ernest Harman, Innkeeper of Avening. The land was let to a tenant, Thomas Witchell, but it seems that Mr Harman intended it for his son Albert because it was he who was farming there when Mr Harman made his will shortly before his death in 1937.

Albert Harman lived at Matchless Farm and it seems that for some time, perhaps even before the sale in 1919, Field House has not been needed as a farmhouse and had been let to tenants. Certainly in 1926 it was leased for five years at £60 p.a. to Thomas Knox Angus Esq. of Minchinhampton in succession to a previous tenant, Elizabeth Lawrenson.

In his will Mr Harman left Field House and two or three fields round it, not to his son Albert but to his daughter, Florence May Howley. She continued to lease it to Mr Knox Angus and she and her husband also kept an inn in Avening, so they are unlikely ever to have lived in the house, especially since in 1945 Mrs Howley sold it to Francis John Hind Esq. It was probably Mr Hind who laid out the garden, filling it with fragments of ornamental stonework and even a broken Coade-stone tub, which has been taken away for safe keeping. He in his turn sold it in 1961 to Miss Eileen Jenkins, who left it on her death in 1985 to the Landmark Trust - the transfer was completed a year later.

For a short history of Field House please click here.

To read the full history album for Field House please click here.

To download the children's Explorer pack for Field House please click here.

Restoration

Various alterations and additions

Over the years various alterations and additions had been made to Field House, such as a rather grandiose porch joining the former coach-house to the main building and a lean-to conservatory on the west side. Some of the leaded glass in the windows had been replaced by plate glass. Inside, a long dining room had been formed by removing the partition between the two rooms on the east side of the house. We felt that the building would look better if the additions were removed and a rather simpler passage/porch building made using local materials.

The coach-house was given a new arch and a partition taken down so that it could be used as a garage. The north wall, where it projects, was rendered in cement, which this was taken off and the stonework behind repaired and re-pointed.

Apart from this the only work that was done to the exterior was to improve the arrangement of the windows. The two windows on the north side, lighting the bathrooms, were reformed to be level with each other. Some small windows lighting the attics were blocked and on the west front a new door opening was made, with a window over it, centred on the gable above (a plumb line was hung down to make sure that the measurement was accurate). The stone surrounds for both of these were new, the design copied from those on the south side of the house. The two small windows on either side of the new door, however, were moved from the demolished porch. New leaded panes were put in all of these and in the two upper windows on the south front into which plate glass had been inserted.

Inside the only alteration was to divide up the dining room again and to have a long sitting room on the south side of the house instead, by opening up the partition between the two rooms there. The fireplace at the south end of the former dining room was blocked up and the surround moved to the present dining room.

Most of the joinery in the house was in good condition with wide elm floorboards throughout and only two new doors fitted. The lower flight of the staircase was also renewed with a new mahogany handrail. The alcove bookcases in the sitting room are new.

Upstairs, no alterations were made at all except to insert wooden fireplace surrounds, which were found in the stables, into the two east bedrooms.

Field House is not a house of great architectural or historical distinction but it is well made of good materials and nothing in it is disagreeable to look at, from the overall design to the minor details. A house such as this can tell us as much about the attitude of our forebears to their surroundings as any building where the great craftsmen or artists of the day were employed.

Availability & booking

Select a changeover day to start your booking...

What's a changeover day? and Why can't I select other dates?Explain MoreQuestion

A changeover day is a particular day of the week when holidays start and end at our properties. These tend to be on a Friday or a Monday but can sometimes vary. All stays run from one changeover day until another changeover day.