Classed as grade II* by the Department of the
Environment, various features are singled out as being of special interest – the
original Mendip lead drainpipes at the front carry the crest of the original
owners and the year of completion, 1732. The walls and pillars with urns topping
them which formed the entrance of the old gardens are also singled out for specific mention.
Stone for the construction of the 4ft thick "rubble" walls
was taken from an outcrop in what is now the garden or, to put it differently,
the house was probably built where the stone was to reduce haulage by slow and
primitive methods.
A small spring rises under the cellar of Bowlish House and
links up with an underground stream routed diagonally across the cellar floor
just under the old flagstones. Thus the temperature of the large cellars is more
constant than otherwise and varies by no more than 2 or 3 degrees either side of
the ideal 50 ºF.
Originally built by a prosperous clothier, one of several who
built large houses along the valley of the river Sheppey. Ownership passed to
the Anglo Bavarian Brewery of Shepton Mallet about the mid 1800’s at which time
the "new" Wells Road, passing through part of Bowlish House property, took off
part of the ‘factory’ rooms.
For eighty years, successive brewery managers (a more senior
position than current usage of the word would indicate) lived at Bowlish House.
After the closure of the brewery in 1920 the house was bought by the Somerset
Brick and Tile Company and the Youngman family occupied Bowlish House until the
death of Harold Youngman in 1954. At this time the house passed to private
ownership and began its latest phase as first, a hotel and subsequently a
restaurant.