The building was built between 1712 and 1719, and was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for the lawyer and politician Edward Southwell on the site of an earlier Tudor house.

It was then abandoned for five years and between 2000 and 2012 was leased from Bristol City Council and partially restored as a Business and Conference Centre by local businessman John Hardy.

In April 2011 the Kings Weston Action Group (KWAG) was formed as a volunteer organisation with the ambition to conserve and enhance the Grade II Registered Historic Landscape[9] around the house.

Documents relating to Kings Weston House and estate, and the families that lived there, are held at Bristol Archives (Refs.

[12] An architectural drawing dated 1707 describes it as being 'after the Modell of the Duke of Ormonds at Richmond', and it consisted of two floors, the lower one a workspace and the upper serving as the dining area.

[18] The arcade formed by linking the chimneys, which rises above the roof, is a notable external feature of the building,[15] reminiscent of the belvederes of Blenheim Palace and producing a 'castle air'.

[18] The entrance front, on the southwest, has a centre containing six Corinthian pilasters, with those at each side paired to produce three bays, each of which contains a round arched window.

[19] The northeast and northwest facades of Vanbrugh's original design were entirely undecorated, and a consequent lack of popular appeal may be the reason why they were largely destroyed in later remodelling.

[20] Vanbrugh's northwest facade consisted of a single flat surface, in which a Venetian window on each floor filled the central space between two shallow projections.

[20] Perhaps to improve the view down to Avonmouth, the centre was remodelled by Mylne with a canted bay window, at odds with the tautness of Vanbrugh's overall design of the house, in which all planes were parallel or perpendicular to the walls.

[22] The Echo is a loggia at the end of the southeast axis of the building, with a façade of four piers of rusticated stonework, of which alternate courses are projecting and vermiculated.

Vanbrugh's new front turned that axis of the building ninety degrees so it would relate to the main house to the south west and the Great Terrace that provided a long promenade into the woods beyond.

Designs for the loggia date to between 1716 and 1720 and drawings of the building exist in both the collections of Bristol Records Office and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

[22] Several designs exist for this building which was sited at the far extremity of the Kings Weston estate to the west, and acted as both an eye-catcher from the house and a belvedere to view ships arriving in the Avon and Severn Estuary.

In 2012 the Kings Weston Action Group cleared the walls and surrounding area so that some idea of the scale of the original building could be obtained.

A series of sketch drawings in Bristol Record Office titled "ale house" compare almost exactly with the built dimensions of the former inn.

A building on Kingsweston lane bears all the hallmarks of another design by Sir John Vanbrugh though no documentary or illustrative evidence supports this.

The complex of stables and kitchen gardens at Kings Weston were devised by Edward Southwell III who was already making plans whilst on the Grand Tour between 1759 and 1762.

The whole of the extensive matrix of kitchen gardens, stables, accommodation pavilions and a large square pond are executed to a single unified design.

The cross is thought to have been brought to the Kings Weston estate from its original location close to the mouth of the Avon in the nineteenth century.

In a journal entry in 1783 John Wesley described "Lord Clifford's woods at King's Weston" as "amazingly beautiful: I have seen nothing equal to them in the West of England, and very few in other parts".

[33] It formed the climax of well-published rides from fashionable resorts such as Bath,[34] Clifton and Hotwells returning across Kingsweston Hill, Blaise Castle Estate and Westbury on Trym.

It also became a popular destination for artists of the Romantic Movement, attracting the likes of James Muller, Francis Danby and Nicholas Pocock.

Poets including Robert Southey and Walter Savage Landor also visited, and wrote about the spectacle of the distant views of Wales from Kingsweston Hill and Penpole Point.

Further decay has resulted from the loss of views through lack of regular maintenance, allowing self-seeded trees and shrubs to invade formerly open slopes.

[39] The group was established after the announcement of the sale of the Grade I-listed house and the recognition that the condition of the landscaped grounds in the ownership of Bristol City Council were in an advanced state of decay and in urgent need of conservation.

The group's objectives were initially stated as to lobby the City Council to engineer a conservation and management plan for the estate, to monitor the Grade I-listed house and garden buildings, and to source funding to develop the grounds into a first-class green space for everyone to enjoy.

[38] A new conservation plan was commissioned by the City Council following pressure from the Kings Weston Action Group and was supported by a grant from the Bristol Buildings Preservation Trust in October 2011.

[40] KWAG was launched in spring 2011 with an appeal for information that could lead to the recovery of a lost statue,[41] and it has since put on a number of exhibitions, learning events and campaigns.

Since January 2012, it has also run regular monthly working party events focussed on taking direct action to help conserve the estate with the support of Bristol City Council and the National Trust.