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.
Built on the site of a former farmhouse (the
kitchen, Room 5 and the boiler room are from the original building) the house
became L-shaped with the Georgian addition at the front. The old barn interior
wall can still be seen in the garden on the right hand side with the arched exit
now being encompassed in the slope of the garden.
In the early 1800's another wing was added
making the house U-shaped (adding the dining room and Room 2) with the staircase
being replaced by another from an older house.
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.