 Since the Reformation the 13th @-@ century <unk> Chapel in <unk> has been a town hall , <unk> , grammar school , museum , and <unk> before becoming a <unk> hall in 1891 . The house known as The Abbey in Charlton <unk> takes its name from the site on which it was built , the <unk> Chapel of the Holy Spirit , founded in 1237 . <unk> Priory , built around 1400 in East <unk> , was never a priory , and similarly the Abbey Farm House and Abbey Barn in Yeovil which date from around <unk> , have always been in lay @-@ ownership ; " <unk> " was added to their names in the 19th century . The 140 @-@ foot ( 43 m ) Burton <unk> Monument was designed in 1757 , by <unk> Brown for William Pitt , as a monument to Sir William <unk> . King Alfred 's Tower , a 161 feet ( 49 m ) high , triangular edifice , stands near <unk> 's stone , where it is believed that Alfred the Great , King of Wessex , rallied the Saxons in May 878 before the Battle of <unk> . The towers <unk> , Henry Hoare , planned for it to commemorate the end of the Seven Years ' War against France and the accession of King George III . The other Grade I listed buildings in South Somerset are manor houses , built over long periods by local Lords of the Manor . The Tudor <unk> Court was the first country house acquired by the National Trust , in 1907 , on the recommendation of the antiquarian Canon Hardwicke <unk> . Newton <unk> was built between 1608 and 1612 for Robert <unk> , a Yeovil merchant , on the site of an earlier building , but was extensively altered and enhanced in the 1870s . <unk> Cary and its associated chapel and gardens have parts dating to as early as the 14th century . The architectural historian <unk> <unk> praised it , saying " Yet all parts blend to perfection with one another and with the gentle sunny landscape that surrounds them . " The 17th @-@ century house at <unk> is surrounded by a small 20th @-@ century Arts and <unk> garden . <unk> House , which stands on an artificially raised terrace , has a rectangular plan of seven bays by five bays , and is built of red brick in Flemish bond , with local <unk> dressings ; its north and south fronts are divided by two giant Corinthian pilasters . The small William and Mary style house was completed sometime between <unk> and 1700 . It was enlarged between 1725 and 1730 by <unk> Burton , who provided a new drawing @-@ room for Sir W. <unk> and also an <unk> attached to the house . <unk> d <unk> , built in stages between about 1220 and the 18th century , has been described , by <unk> <unk> , as " the most beautiful house in England " . 
