Ralph Allen’s house at Prior Park was built on land acquired by Allen, in 1728, which formerly belonged to the Prior of Bath. The house, designed by John Wood, was ready for occupation by 1741 ( a year before Ralph Allen became Mayor of Bath) and the landscaped gardens (designed by the poet Alexander Pope and the eminent landscape gardener Capability Brown) covered 28 acres of Widcombe hillside.
The Abbey cemetery, located at the junction of Perrymead and Prior Park Road, was paid for by Lord Middleton and the Rev W.J Brodrick (Rector of Bath). Laid out by John Loudon (1783 – 1843), with a Norman style chapel by Manners, it was consecrated in 1844. (Haddon – Portrait of Bath).
Perrymead – the name derived from the site having been a portion of the Priors Orchard or Mead. Bishop Robert in the twelth century granted “a tithe of the Vines at Lyncumb to the monks of Bath”. (R.M Peach – Street Lore of Bath)
Perrymead Court was once called Perrymead Villa and was built in conjunction with Perrymead House in 1725. It was home to the Italian composer Venanzio Rauzzini from 1787 to his death in 1800. Joseph Haydn is said to have stayed at the property in 1794.
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