Stoke Edith House
Stoke Edith House is a derelict country house with surrounding park in Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, England. The present 17th century quadrangular mansion was preceded by a multi-gabled, Elizabethan home. Set within gardens, it was destroyed by fire in 1927. History Stoke Edith was the principal manor of Sir Henry Lingen (1612 – 1662), Royalist cavalier. He and the resident rector, Henry Rogers, denounced for their political leanings, knew the property could be victimized at any time. Lingen's widow, Alice Pye of the Mynnd, sold the manor in the 1670s to the ironmaster Thomas Foley, who settled it on his second son Paul. Paul obtained licence from James II to empark up to 500 acres at Stoke Edith. After a visit by the leading garden designer, George London, in 1692, the park and gardens were remodelled to his suggestion, and it is likely that pleasure grounds would have been laid out around the house in a series of formal compartments with geometric walks, flower-beds and fountains. Paul rebuilt the timber-framed ancient mansion, Stoke Court, from 1695, when he became Speaker, and it was mostly complete by 1698. It was finished by his son, Thomas, Auditor of the imprests. The house, subsequently