Steepleton House

The land was owned by the Daccombe family before 1378 through the marriage of Thomas Daccombe to Agnes, heiress of William de Stupelton, establishing their possession for over two centuries.

Sir William Pitt of Stratfield Saye brought the estate from the Daccombe family in 1623. His son George Pitt later sold it again in 1654 to Thomas Fownes, a wealthy Parliamentarian merchant from Plymouth.

Thomas Fownes substantially rebuilt the house keeping only a few rooms and the cellars of the original Tudor house and constructed a square villa of Marnhull ashlar stone using an Italianate design with an open-air interior courtyard.

His descendant, also Thomas Fownes, married Meloria Fitch in 1728 and the heraldry in the dining room celebrates this. Thomas pioneered the breeding of foxhounds at Steepleton and together they began modifying the house in 18th-century fashion in the 1730s until the work was halted due to financial difficulties.

The house was sold in 1745 to Julines Beckford, (brother of William Alderman Beckford of Fonthill) when the brothers returned from Jamaica. Julines replaced the courtyard with an internal staircase, added the wings of green sandstone, relocated the entrance to the south facade, and enhanced the surrounding landscape.