Fyne Court is a National Trust-owned nature reserve and visitor centre in Broomfield, Somerset, England. It was formerly an estate, and large English country house, belonging to the Crosse family. Andrew Crosse conducted a series of experiments with electricity, including the development of large voltaic piles, at the house during his ownership in the early 19th century. The main building of Fyne Court burnt down in 1894. The buildings which survived the fire have been used as offices and a visitor centre by organisations such as the Somerset Wildlife Trust and Quantock Hills AONB Service since it came into the ownership of the National Trust in 1967. It is surrounded by a large country estate of woodland, ponds and meadows. Within the grounds are a folly and boathouse. History The nature reserve is set in parkland which was originally the pleasure grounds of a large house belonging to 19th-century scientist and pioneer in electricity, Andrew Crosse. His family had owned the house from its construction, Fyne Court having been built in around 1629 by an earlier Andrew Crosse, who had purchased part of the manor of Broomfield. The house had been enlarged and extensively remodelled by Andrew Crosse (1704-66), great-uncle of the scientist, who also completed a fashionable Arcadian garden including five linked ponds, a serpentine lake, and additional tree planting. Having lost his parents, his father in 1800 and his mother in 1805, Crosse took over the management of the family estates at the age of 21. Among his experiments Crosse erected "an extensive apparatus for examining the electricity of the atmosphere," incorporating at one point an insulated wire some long, later shortened to , suspended from poles and trees. Using this wire he was able to determine the polarity of the atmosphere under various weather conditions. His results were published by his friend George Singer in 1814, as part of Singer's Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry. Along with Sir Humphry Davy (who visited Fyne Court in 1827), Crosse was one of the first to develop large voltaic piles. Although it was not the largest he built, Henry Minchin Noad's Manual of Electricity describes a battery consisting of 50 jars containing of coated surface. Using his wires Crosse was able to charge and discharge it some 20 times a minute, "accompanied by reports almost as loud as those of a cannon". He became known locally as "the thunder and