(1653–1722) published 1712 in Sir
Robert Atkyns's
The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire. Viewed from east Siston Court is a
grade I listed Elizabethan
manor house, built by Sir
Maurice Denys (1516–1563). It is situated on a ridge overlooking the Siston Brook Valley In 1607 when owned by Mr. Weekes who had purchased Siston Court from the Denys family, it was recorded as:
"a new house of stone which cost £3,000 built by Dennis; a park which will keep 1,000 fallow deer & rich mines of coal which yield almost as great revenue as the land" In 1710, during the Trotman period of ownership, the
Britannia Illustrata published an engraving by
Jan Kip (1653–1722) of the house showing it surrounded by extensive formal landscaped gardens. In the following century landscaping resulted in a park-like setting with a more natural garden. The architect
Sanderson Miller, husband of Susannah Trotman, daughter of Samuel Trotman of Siston Court, may have influenced the creation of informal gardens. The 18th century "pepper-pot" lodges and 19th century "The Grange", once a home to the nurseryman, may have been influenced by Miller, whose style included the "ogee-shaped roofs and door heads and Gothic Revival windows alternating with cross-loops." The pair of now empty niches on the internal facades of the wings are similar to the niches on the facade of
Montacute House, Somerset, which contain statues of the
Nine Worthies, dressed as Roman soldiers,
Italian Renaissance in inspiration. Houses were built locally for estate workers at Siston Court in the 18th and 19th century. During the 20th century the estate was subdivided, and farm land was converted to woodland by the Forestry Enterprise or for pony paddocks. Siston Court still retains much of the character of the 16th-century manor house and its original Elizabethan façade. According to a Siston Court servant, she stayed in the "room upstairs called 'the Queen's Chamber'". The Prince of Wales, later King
Edward VIII, visited the Court as guest of the Rawlins family. Mounts Court, demolished in 1922, was another important local mansion house. Sir Maurice Denys's patron was thought to have been Admiral
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley the ambitious and reckless younger brother of Protector
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, brother of Queen
Jane Seymour and uncle of King
Edward VI. Having been refused as a spouse by Princess Elizabeth, he was determined to wed the ex-Queen
Katherine Parr, even before a nine-month delay, considered by courtiers to have been seemly and constitutionally prudent, had expired. It may have been as a result of Denys's complicity in these arrangements that Katherine, widowed by King
Henry VIII in 1547, resided for eight weeks of her future short life in a house within the vicinity of Siston, known as Mount's Court, held by the Strange family. On 23 October 1989, the area was designated as the "Siston Conservation Area" to protect historical sites such as Siston Court and its buildings, and the hamlet of Siston, including St Anne's Church and historic farms, cottages and open fields. ==Church buildings==