History

The name of the Estate is said to derive from Sir Walter Tyrrell who fired the infamous arrow that killed William II. Tyrrell fled the scene and is said to have had his horse re-shod by a blacksmith in the village of Avon before crossing the river at Tyrrell’s Ford.  From here he escaped to Poole and, it is believed, caught a boat to France.
 
In later years The Avon Tyrrell Estate was owned by the Fane family of Clovelly in North Devon and used as a sporting estate.  The Manners family married into the Estate and in the 1890’s Lord Manners built Avon Tyrrell House, designed by the well known Victorian architect Lethaby.  It is said that the house was partially paid for out of winnings from The Grand National in 1882.  This was the year in which Lord Manners not only owned but also trained and rode the winner, Seaman.  
 
Avon Tyrrell House was lived in by the Manners family until just before the Second World War when it was requisitioned.  It is now occupied by two charities: Youth UK and The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy.  
 
The church of All Saints Thorney Hill was built in 1900 by Lord and Lady Manners to commemorate the death of their daughter, Christine in India aged seventeen.  In 1914 their son, the heir to the Avon Tyrrell Estate, John Manners, was killed in the first weeks of the First World War.  A bronze by MacKennal was commissioned for the church and, in the 1920’s Phoebe Traquair painted the west wall of the church with a mural depicting the family and well known people of the age.
 
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