Manor House

Manor House came to the University in 1919 through the generosity of Sir George Wills (1st Bart.), and was furnished partly from funds raised by concerts given by the famous Bristol contralto, Dame Clara Butt (Mrs Kennerley Romford). The building was erected close to the site of the mediaeval manor house, burned by Prince Rupert in 1643 during the siege of Bristol. Purchased by the Society of Merchant Venturers in the late 17th century the site remained ruinous for many years. In 1701 a lease for five lives was granted to Whitchurch

Phippen "of the site or ruins of the Great House at Clifton heretofore

burnt down, and since called the Old Castle, late in the holding of Mary

Hodges". The new manor house was built in the early 18th century and

extensively altered and extended in the mid-18th and 19th centuries. In the

19th century it was successively the home of the notable scientists, Dr William Budd, F.R.S., who discovered the origins of typhoid, and Professor John Beddoes, F.R.S., the social anthropologist who wrote The Races of Man. In the 1890s the house became a school preparing young gentlemen for colonial civil service examinations and for the army and navy. The school closed in 1915, and

the house became the home of The Red Maids' School, evacuated from Westbury while their buildings were used as a Red Cross Hospital during

the Great War. Manor House was extensively refurbished by the University

in the summers of 1997 and 1998, and officially reopened in April 1999. A further refurbishment both inside and outside was undertaken from the 2023-24 academic year, with the planned reopening for the 2025-26 academic year.