About
A family-owned and run business with over 25 years' experience of making wedding day dreams come true.
St Audries Park is part of Country House Weddings Ltd, a family-owned and run wedding venue group that has collectively held over 10,000 weddings in its four exclusive-use venues since its conception. The chairman and founder, Harry Bramer, still presides over the business today, with the help and support of his family and an accomplished team, all of whom are dedicated to one thing: your perfect wedding.
Our most recent achievement was being voted 'Best Coastal Wedding Venue 2019' at the British Wedding Awards 2019'. Our beautiful venue was also voted ‘Best UK Wedding Venue’ by readers of Wedding Ideas Magazine at the Wedding Ideas Awards 2013 and highly commended in the Best Wedding Venue category for the Perfect Wedding Awards 2012.
Finally, at The British Wedding Awards 2017, St Audries Park managed to get shortlisted as one of the final 14. We were pipped at the post by our sister venue Clearwell Castle, but we couldn't have picked a better venue to lose to!
The history of St. Audries Park
Records of St Audries Park can be traced back as far as 1086, when it was mentioned in the Doomsday Book. William de Mahon held Cantocheve (as it was then known) and detailed people, animals, farm implements, 50 acres of woodland and 16 acres of meadow. The name Cantocheve derives from canto cuan – meaning ‘hill country’, referring to the beautiful Quantock Hills that loom above the estate.
Three hundred years later, the Malet family holds ownership of the estate, now known as West Quantoxhead. The family are descendants of Guillaume Malet, a kinsman of William The Conqueror.
The estate stays with the Malet family for almost 500 years, and one of its descendants, Michael Malet, renames it St Audries Park as a tribute to the Anglo-Saxon Saint Audrey (pictured).
Sir Peregrine Fuller-Palmer-Acland (pictured) buys the land and property for his daughter Isabel.
In 1849, Isabel marries Sir Alexander Bateman Periam Acland-Hood takes up residence at St Audries. The architect John Norton is commissioned to carry out a programme of rebuilding, refacing, and extension that included new frontages on the south-west and south-east aspects, allowing for the Great Hall and Minstrels’ Gallery. The work culminates in the beautiful mansion we see today.
John Norton is commissioned to rebuild, in the same style and stone of St Audries Park, the beautiful parish church of St Etheldreda, aka St Audrey (pictured).
In 1934, the estate is divided, and the main house becomes a Girls’ School run by Misses L and K D Townsend, and St Audries Farm is sold to its tenant.
St Audries Park is purchased by Harry Bramer and his company Country House Weddings. The estate joins Leez Priory and Clearwell Castle to form the UK’s premier wedding venue collection.
A stunning former royal palace, Gosfield Hall in Essex, becomes the most recent addition to the CHW portfolio.
St Audries Park is voted Best UK Wedding Venue by readers of Wedding Ideas Magazine – one of the most prestigious wedding venue awards in the UK.
St Audries Park makes strides towards restoring the original estate, purchasing Church Lodge (pictured) and Peregrine House. These properties are restored and provided as accommodation for wedding guests.
The rapid expansion of St Audries Park continues with the addition of Windsor House and its 12 luxury en-suite rooms.
The most recent addition to our accommodation offering, The Walled Garden Rooms are located on a quaint cobbled street and offer four characterful en-suite rooms that look out over the old walled garden of St Audries Park.
St Audries Park is voted Best Coastal Wedding Venue at the British Wedding Awards 2019 – one of the most prestigious wedding awards in the UK.
Williton Lodge joins the estate! Taking over from Holly Cottage as St Audries Park’s exclusive night-before cottage, this secluded Gatehouse lodge offers 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, perfect for a larger wedding party to stay onsite, ready for the big day!
Since opening the estate gates as an exclusive use wedding venue, over 2000 weddings have been held at St Audries Park. Here’s a taster of what a real wedding is like at our dream venue.