Stonehouse Court was the Manor House that controlled the surrounding estates under the feudal system of the time and settlement at Stonehouse is recorded in the Domesday Book. The rights and tenements of the Manorial Lordship were granted to William D’ow by his cousin William The Conqueror.

In 1281 the rights were granted to John Giffard whose family were in and out of favour with the King with monotonous regularity.

The last of the Giffards, also John, plotted with the Earls of Lancaster and Hereford against Edward II and in 1322, John was taken prisoner at Boroughbridge and afterwards taken to Gloucester, where he was hung, drawn and quarterd.

On the death of Edward II the estate was granted to John, Lord Maltravers, by Edward III. This was the same Maltravers who played a full part in the foul murder of Edward II. In 1338 he earned the Kings displeasure, once more the estate was seized and granted this time to a Hugh de Spencer and Maurice Berkeley “to hold it against the Welsh on a payment of a rose annually”. Hence today the town’s coat of arms is the rose. Maltravers soon regained the Kings favour and the Manorial rights were regranted to the family in 1357. A daughter, Eleanor married John Fitzalan whose own lineage descended through the Earls of Arundel and thus the Manor came to them.

The period of occupancy of the Earls of Arundel is undoubtedly the most interesting in the history of the house. The Arundels have always been a powerful force in the history of our monarchy, as Earls and later, Dukes; as Fitzalans, as Mowbrays and as Fitzalan-Howards. Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Arundel, Duke of Norfolk, was a close friend of Sir Thomas Moore who was beheaded for refusing the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Mowbray himself was later beheaded for some other treasonable offence.

In 1559 the Arundels sold the Manor to a William Stanford and a William Fowler for £1092 16s 2d and in 1568 William Fowler succeeded wholly to the rights and tenements of the Manor. It was William Fowler’s son, Steven, who rebuilt the house in 1601.

During the 18th and 19th centuries the area prospered greatly from the woollen trade and in 1943 a canal was cut through the south of the estate. In 1862 a railway line was navigated through the north of the estate to link Stonehouse with Nailsworth but the decline of the woollen trade meant the canal and the railway fell into disuse. The canal last carried freight in the 1930’s and the railway in 1966.

The Manor had by 1907 passed down a female line of the Fowlers by various family marriages until it was sold that year to a local businessman, a Mister Winterbotham. He and his wife, Caroline, had occupied the house for only a year when disaster struck. In the early hours of the morning of 30th May 1908 fire gutted the house, leaving only the exterior walls and the main interior walls intact. The Winterbothams immediately set to rebuilding the house.

The fire is responsible for the unauthenticated ghost of Stonehouse Court. The butler, John Henry is supposed to have been infatuated with Caroline Winterbotham. On seeing her arm-in-arm with her husband he flew into a fit of jealous rage, retired to his room at the top of the house and supposedly set fire to his bed. Two scullery maids trapped in the fire were burnt to death. In a fit of remorse John Henry hanged himself and is now said to haunt the Crellin Tower.

Carol Winterbotham occupied the house until her death in 1975 at the age of 100. The house went to business use and taken as a hotel in 1983. Even now there have been very few changes and the house is much as it was after it was rebuilt and still includes some of the original Tudor panelling which survived the fire of 1908.