Martin Papworth updated from the library at Stourhead about the excavation and David Dawson, Director at Wiltshire Museum showed some of the collections linked to Sir Richard Colt Hoare at the Museum.

During the excavation to find Stourton Castle, a joint online combined talk by David Dawson at Wiltshire Museum and Martin Papworth at Stourhead Library to celebrate the archaeology of Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington. This great house of the Stourton family is described by Sir Richard in his book Modern Wiltshire. However, the location has never been tested by excavation until now.

Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington’s groundbreaking research in archaeology culminated in their great publication Ancient Wiltshire. Sir Richard wrote the book in the library and the finds illustrated by his surveyor Philip Crocker are held at Wiltshire Museum in Devizes.

A key mystery of the National Trust’s Stourhead Estate is the precise location of its predecessor Stourton Castle. Only a single drawing survives and this shows this great medieval residence to have been the size of a Lacock Abbey.

The talk will provide the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of these internationally important pioneer archaeologists of Wiltshire while providing an up to the minute bulletin on the excavations of the old Stourton House in the park, just a few paces from Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s library.

image (c) Wiltshire Museum (DZSWS:1982.7954, by Wheatley, W W (artist); Aubrey, J)