Compton Bassett village lies c. 3.5 km. ENE. of Calne. The land of Compton Bassett was possibly part of the large estate called Calne held by the king from the 9th or 10th century. If so, two thirds of it had been granted away by 1066, the other third by 1086. The village evidently originated as two spring-line settlements. The church, Compton Bassett manor house, and the rectory house stand close together on Upper Greensand at the mouth of a coombe. The buildings of Compton Cumberwell manor stood at the mouth of another coombe a little further north-east although little is known of this.
Alan Basset (d. 1232 or 1233) and Gilbert Basset (d. 1241) may have occupied a house at Compton Bassett, and in 1553 a manor house, evidently timber-framed, was said to need 260 oaks to repair it. A house standing in 1659, presumably a replacement of that of 1553 and later called Compton Bassett House, was apparently on a 'U'plan; the principal approach to it was through its courtyard, which was open to the south-east. Its main range, lying north-east and south-west, had a hall at its north-east end and, south-west of the hall, a screens passage with an entrance at the west corner of the courtyard. The lord of the manor, Sir John Weld, was said in 1672 to have spent nearly £10,000 on building and, between 1663 and 1672, the courtyard was built over and the house was made rectangular with sides of 130 ft. and 110 ft. and given projecting corner towers. Towards the end of the 19th century the rest of the house was encased in brick, and embattled parapets were added; those changes were presumably made by George Walker Heneage (d. 1875), who restored the house. In the early 1930s Compton Bassett House was demolished, and in 1935 its stable block was converted to a house, also called Compton Bassett House and extensively altered c. 1990. A levelled area south-east of the site of the old house may be the site of an early 17th-century outer court. In 1929 or 1930 E. G. Harding sold Compton Bassett House with 783 a., of which no more than about half lay in Compton Bassett parish, to Guy Benson. In 1948 he sold that land in portions. The new Compton Bassett House and the parkland and woodland immediately south-east of it, c. 50 a., was later and until 1992 owned by the architect Sir Norman Foster, in 1994 belonged to Mr. J. Pringle, and in 2001 belonged to Mr. P. Cripps. The former member of the boy band Take That, Mr. Robbie Williams bought the house and approx. 70 acres of parkland and woodland in February 2009 and still owns the property today. |
