Knatchbull, Stoke St Michael

The Knatchbull Arms began its life as a private house, built in the late 16th century, probably on site of an earlier farmhouse. It would have been one of the grandest houses in the village and was probably occupied by a clothier or coalminer owner. A north wing was added in the 17th or 18th century. The deeds to the Old Post Office dated 1833 refer to the house opposite ‘formerly a house of John James now an inn.' John James lived in Stoke in the 18th century and it was his three daughters bequests that now make up the 'Ann James Charity'. As a public house it has not always been known as the Arms. In 1775 the first meeting to discuss the enclosure of common land on Mendip was held in the 'house of Edward James' now a public house called the Admiral Matthew. By 1804 it was Stoke Inn and by 1841 the Knatchbull Arms, the Knatchbull family being Lords of the Manor. The Hon Nicholas Knatchbull was a direct descendant of the Knatchbull family and was murdered by the IRA along with his grandfather Lord Mountbatten in 1979 in Ireland.