Whilst we can’t confirm the exact year bit was built (British listings estimate that it was 1790 -1800) we pick their story up in 1879 when it was known as “The Lawn.” Samuel Collins, solicitor, owned the property (without the extensions either side) and 2 acres of land across the road, some of it being laid out as an ornamental lawn, (hence the name?) The house was laid out on three levels, basement for the servants to operate from (kitchens, scullery, pantry etc), first floor for the living quarters for the family and various businesses being run from there (solicitors office, doctors surgery, auctioneers office), top floor housing 5 bedrooms and a staircase leading up to 2 attic rooms for the servants.
It was sold to Robert Welch in 1879 and only two years later sold to Giles Burtt. It was Burtt that enlarged the garden by buying one of four cottages owned by William Relleen and building a wall 18 inches thick to define the boundaries. Burtt rented the property out to a fellow surgeon, Edward Stephens, for the best part of 10 years – Stephens having moved here from The Chantry in Court Barton. By the time of Burtts death in 1881 he has disposed of the land across the road and leaves Summerrods to a relative (niece?), Fanny Legg, who holds onto it for another 10 years and then sells it to Henry Hext, Auctioneer of Ilminster. (Oh, to get hold of some of his documents!!)
Hext mortgages the property but fails to keep the payments up and in 1925 the bank repossess – he would have almost paid for it in todays world! The bank sells to Daniel Pring, clerk in holy orders, and in 1937 the trustees of Prings estate sell to William Sanguinetti, OBE. It is Sanguinetti that changes the name to Summerrods.
In 1945 John Napier buys the property but only 2 years later, in 1947, it is sold again – this time to George Swift, a guest house proprietor. Swift has it for four years and during that time Florence Phillips took rooms there, (she once owned the Shrubbery Hotel with her husband,) and in 1949 she buys the property.
The property then stays in the hands of the Phillips family through mother & daughter (Florence Phillips & Eileen Maher) until 1980. During that time it was turned into flats, one part of the garden was sold off to Cecil Rendell – who had a house next door that was eventually pulled down to make way for the entrance to the Summerlands estate – and another smaller part of the garden was sold to The Summerlands Estate Office in order that they could offer a garden to one of the houses being planned on the new estate.
From 1980 it passed through the hands of Rendell, Morgan & Edwards but for the past year it has been in the hands of the Harris family who are lovingly restoring it back to one house – a big project for them!