Ugbrooke Park

Details

CHUDLEIGH SX 87 NE 4/29 Ugbrooke Park

25,1.55 I

Country house, family home of the Cliffords since the late C16. A remodelling between 1763 and 1768 by Robert Adam of an earlier house, "piecemeal improvements" (Rowan) by local builders and contractors including work in 1858, 1863 and the 1870s. C19 imitation stone render the grey limestone plinth exposed; slate roofs; the south block, containing the chapel, is colourwashed and rendered. Rowan states that a survey plan of Ugbrooke in about 1740, prior to Adam's remodelling, shows that Adam rebuilt the present courtyard arrangement on an existing U shaped plan, filling in the fourth side with an entirely new range. The bulk of the pre-Adam house, however, appears to have been sited to the south east of the present building and contained the chapel, consecrated in 1671. Most of this south eastern block was demolished and remodelled by Adam with a smaller ground plan but incorporating the chapel which was redesigned. The Adam design for the courtyard ranges is the earliest example in his oeuvre of the castellated style and of major importance for this reason 6 and 7-bay ranges round the courtyard have 3-storey battlemented corner towers, the principal rooms in the south and west ranges, the service range to the north. The east range has largely disappeared. The Adam entrance hall was in the south range on the south side, behind it the stair hall which projects into the courtyard. The south east block, containing the chapel, library and study is linked to the south range of the courtyard plan and given a bow front to the west. The 8th Lord Clifford made a number of alterations in the late C19: "In these he was his own architect, relying for advice on local surveyors and building contractors, Thomas Bell and William Cotton of Teignmouth and J.S. Delbridge of Dawlish" (Rowan). The principal changes effected were the replacement of Adam's entrance on the south front of the south range with a corridor entrance at the east end of the south range within the courtyard, the addition of plain large mouldings to the main entrances to the courtyard, the addition of a first floor conservatory above the south entrance to the courtyard and adjustments to the second floor tower windows and the battlementing. Symmetrical 6-bay 2-storey south elevation with parapet flanked by 3-storey battlemented towers, square on plan. Most of the ground floor windows are 2-pane sashes in round-headed architraves with bulbous moulding; first floor windows 8 pane sashes with architraves and cornices. Similar tower windows except for the second floor fenestration where the windows are recessed behind paired round-headed openings with a central shaft and a diamond-shaped light above. A 2 storey block at the right end links the south range to the south-west block, which is set forward. The linking block has a central round-headed archway to the courtyard. The west elevation of the west courtyard range, which overlooks a lake and landscape created by Capability Brown, is similar to the south range. The south-east block is colourwashed, rendered and battlemented with a brick cornice below the battlements. The 5-bay west elevation has a central 2-storey 3-bay bow with 12-pane sashes, the ground floor windows in round-headed recesses. The outer bays have 12-pane first floor sashes and round-headed recesses to the ground floor; the right hand recess contains the west end doorway to the chapel. Interior : Several fine rooms. The original Adam entrance hall in the south range is beautifully proportioned with a central fireplace on the north wall flanked by doorways to the stair hall behind and paired doors on the end walls leading to the adjacent rooms. The chimneypiece is Doric; the doorways to the stair hall have overdoors decorated with honeysuckle motifs, the 2-leaf panelled inner doors fold away, the outer doors are inlaid and panelled. Similar doorways on the end walls. Elaborate Doric cornice "used frequently by Adam in his castle interiors "(Rowan) enriched with roundels containing the Clifford Wyvern and Lichfield Lion. The stair hall has a central glazed dome with ornamental plaster work, a dentil moulding to the ceiling, a fine open well stair with stick balusters, a wreathed handrail, Vitruvian scroll decoration on the string and an anthemion moulding below the top landing. 2 principal rooms leading off the stair hall on the south west corner of the courtyard plan also have good chimneypieces, cornices, chair rails, carved skirting boards and good doorcases. The details are not necessarily all Adam. Rowan points out that Adam's working drawings, sent to William Spring, the Clerk of Works "invariably show finer and more elaborate detailing than was carried out" (p. 207). The one room wholly faithful to Adam's designs was the library in the south east block, circa 1768, and completed at a date when, Rowan argues, economies made elsewhere in the new building allowed "the ability finally to spend generously" (p. 207). The bow-fronted room has a shallow coved ceiling, a thin cornice with widely-shaped roundels and console brackets to the overdoors and chimneypiece. There are traces of pre-Adam detail including doors and cornices in the main range. The northernmost room of the west elevation was formerly a splendid library, circa 1820, in the Egyptian style. It has been adapted as a kitchen but the shelves survive with some brass inlay and Egyptian figures flank the doorway. [The Chapel of St Cyprian.] The private chapel of the first Lord Clifford, Lord Treasurer, was consecrated as an Anglican chapel in 1671. In 1672, at the time of the Test Act, Lord Clifford became a Roman Catholic and resigned his high office. The chapel is said to be the earliest post Reformation Roman Catholic chapel in the south of England. A survey plan suggests that Adam's remodelling preserved the original dimensions but added an apsidal east end with 3 niches behind the altar. In 1835 the 7th Lord Clifford added an organ loft in a tower on the south side and altered "from plaster to marble" Adam's cornices and other mouldings and faced the apse with marble. The work was executed by "an unknown Mr Iago" (Rowan) - probably a local stonemason, Mr Jago, who appears in the parish records of Bishopsteignton (Devon C19 churches Project). In 1866 the addition of a Lady chapel and baptistry by the 8th Lord Clifford "completed the metamorphosis from a family chapel to a public church" of "Southern European richness "(Rowan). Cruciform plan, the transepts galleried, west end gallery, nave with central cupola, north-east Lady chapel, south east baptistry into the transpets, panelled with egg and dart moulding, similar chancel arch all springing from marble pilasters. The chancel has 2 round-headed windows set high in the coved ceiling west of the domed sanctuary. The chancel walls are lined throughout with grey, black and pink marble in 2 tiers, the bottom tier a dado below a Vitruvian scroll frieze, the upper tier with paired pilasters in the apse dividing a central integral painting of the Resurrection from statues niches with statues, the north and south walls also with pilasters and moulded marble frames to paintings of Jesus and Pilate and the Crucifixion. Black and white chequered marble floor, solid marble altar. The transept galleries have gallery frontals with plaster relief panels of biblical scenes, the west gallery frontal is wrought iron with vine decoration. The west gallery the Clifford family pew, has a central recessed doorway flanked by statue niches. A round-headed arch over the gallery springs from pilasters. West end screen below gallery added in 1962. Small south-east top-lit baptistry, lined with yellow marble with a black marble font with a moulded bowl on the tall stem. Spectacular tall, narrow north-east Lady chapel lit from a cupola in a central section of groin vaulting. Like the chancel the Lady chapel is entirely lined with 2 tiers of marble panels with pilasters. The east wall has a central niche with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary flanked by pilasters and crowned with a pediment. On the side walls round-headed recesses with moulded architraves contain integral paintings. On the north wall a monument to the 8th Lord Clifford, died 1880,in white and coloured marble has a central relief of the crucifixion flanked by pilasters with sculptural capitals, friezes of bay leaves and cherubs, the monument supported on brackets carved with armorial bearings. A drawing of the monument in the Clifford archive "appears to have come from Italy" (Rowan) and it is possible that the whole design of the Lady chapel, and presumably the baptistry, is of Italian origin. An outstanding interior, its unique character largely the result of a combination of top-lighting with the richness of the marble decoration. Ugbrooke Park is of major historic interest for its long connection with the Clifford family, as the earliest example of Adam's use of a castellated design, for the surviving Adam work in the interior and for the chapel. The Clifford archive includes numerous Adam drawings and other documents relating to the building history of the house.

Rowan, A., "Ugbrooke Park", Country Life, vol. 142 (1967), p.p. 138-141, 203-207, 266-270, 790-793. Devon C19 Churches Project.

Listing NGR: SX8754978077

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

85282

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Country Life in Country Life, Vol. 142, (1967), 138-141
Country Life in Country Life, Vol. 142, (1967), 203-207
Country Life in Country Life, Vol. 142, (1967), 266-270
Country Life in Country Life, Vol. 142, (1967)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 11 Devon,

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