Uphill Castle

Uphill Castle, sounds so grand but really it is a rather lovely two hundred year old house in our village; it was built in 1805 but bought in 1853 by  Thomas Tutton-Knyfton.  I looked in the 1841 census and found that Thomas Knyfton aged forty-one, was living at Uphill Lodge, with Betsy, born in 1776 who was presumably his mother. By 1851, Betsy had died, aged nearly eighty and Thomas had added the name Tutton to the Knyfton part of his name and he was living alone with his servants, Ezekial Meade the butler (what a name!) Elizabeth Colton the housekeeper, Harriet Clements the housemaid and Martha Every the cook. No doubt he needed a butler because Thomas was now the High Sheriff of Somersetshire.

In 1871 Thomas, at the time of the census Thomas is staying in the Queens Hotel in Cheltenham, with many other grand sounding people and also Georgiana S. Knyfton… yes, Thomas has married, in 1855,  Georgiana Sophia Colston. Sadly he died in 1884, and lies in a vault beneath the church tower of the old St Nicholas Church. His widow, Geogiana died in 1890 in Hanover Square in London.

Uphill Castlle is now a lovely hotel; friends who stayed there said the comfort was wonderful, the décor amazing, a first class English or contiental breakfast with every food item you could imagien, and friendly and warm welcome from the owners

If you want to find out more about the interesting Knyfton family, here’s a link:

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/knyfton_family_s_links_with_westbury_sub_mendip_1_306276