It passed through successive generations of the Clark family until it was sold by auction in about 1920 to Wiltshire County Council, who used it firstly for Children's Services and later as flats.

He owned a brewery in Frome, a clothier business in Trowbridge, and also had half shares in several ships.

[2] The Clark clothier firm in Trowbridge was almost exclusively concerned with the manufacture of cloth from fine Spanish merino wool.

It stretched from Rockley in Wiltshire to Kintbury in Berkshire, where he had a dye house, and to the many villages in the Avon Valley near Trowbridge.

He also was interested in music and was described by one historian as a "man of deep piety, a musician of no mean order and a fair poet.

He was versed in astronomy and had his own observatory at his residence, Polebarn House, where he also built and installed an organ.

[5] In 1801 when his nephews came of age he made them apprentices in the firm and agreed to give them a substantial amount of money after three years if they wished to go into partnership with each other.

John Clark extended the garden so that it became a "miniature" version of Stourhead, which included adding a lake, temple and gazebo.