01 / Guide
The 2025 restoration and reopening
What changed at the Ditcheat inn after its 2023 closure and 2024 sale, and how to compare the refurbished pub with earlier photographs.
The photographic archive
A photographic record of Ditcheat
Six dated photographs of the Manor House Inn, Ditcheat and the surrounding Somerset landscape, with original sources and reuse credits.
The photographs below capture particular moments in the history of the inn and its surroundings. Start with the view from Wraxall Road and look for the junction between the brick frontage and the stone range. Those landmarks help you recognise the building when a different photographer approaches it from another angle.
The archive includes Andrew Riley’s view from March 2007, Neil Owen’s June 2021 photographs and Ian Capper’s August 2023 view of the inn. They predate the 2025 reopening. A garden arrangement, sign or entrance seen in one of these pictures therefore belongs to the date on its caption. The surrounding views place the pub in the wider setting of the Somerset village.
Select a photograph to open the larger version. Each credit links to the original record and its reuse licence, alongside details of how its image was prepared for this guide.
Plate 01 · 1 June 2021
The inn on Wraxall Road
A summer view from across Wraxall Road, four years before the reopening. The long stone range meets the red-brick frontage at the corner of the plot.
Photograph by Neil Owen — Manor House Inn, Ditcheat · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized, reframed where shown and converted to WebP. These versions carry the same licence.
Plate 02 · 2 August 2023
The inn and the church tower
Across the low garden wall, the pointed windows of the inn sit in the same sightline as the parish church tower. This photograph records the building a few months before its 2023 closure.
Photograph by Ian Capper — Manor House Inn · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized, reframed where shown and converted to WebP. These versions carry the same licence.
Plate 03 · 1 June 2021
Along the garden wall
The road bends away past the inn towards a grey gable. Seen from this direction, the depth of the older range is more apparent than it is in views of the brick end wall.
Photograph by Neil Owen — The Manor House Inn · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized, reframed where shown and converted to WebP. These versions carry the same licence.
Plate 04 · 1 June 2021
St Mary Magdalene’s, Ditcheat
The churchyard gives a different view of the tower that appears behind the inn in photographs from Wraxall Road.
Photograph by Neil Owen — St Mary from the southeast · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized, reframed where shown and converted to WebP. These versions carry the same licence.
Plate 05 · 16 September 2022
The slopes of Ditcheat Hill
Looking up the southern slopes in September, the tracks in the grass draw the eye towards the ridge above Ditcheat.
Photograph by Roger Cornfoot — The southern slopes of Ditcheat Hill · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized, reframed where shown and converted to WebP. These versions carry the same licence.
Plate 06 · 19 March 2007
A March view of the inn
In this March 2007 view the lack of summer foliage makes the shallow curve of the bay and the pattern of windows particularly easy to see.
Photograph by Andrew Riley — Manor House Inn · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized, reframed where shown and converted to WebP. These versions carry the same licence.
The local crops and resized photographs carry the licences shown with the originals. The sharing image uses Neil Owen’s 2021 photograph of the inn under the same Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence.