Details
CHRISTOW
SX 88 SW
5/68 Canonteign Barton
11.11.52
GV I
Manor house. Circa late C16, major restoration of the 1970s ; stone rubble with
granite dressings ; slate gabled roof ; projecting external stacks with granite
ashlar shafts.
Plan:E plan,studiously symmetrical,the main block facing east with a central porch;
short north and south crosswings. The internal plan has been obscured by altered
partitions but the hall appears to have been to the left of the porch ; a modest C17
dog-leg stair leads off the hall at the rear left. The left crosswing now consists
of one large room to the front, a smaller to the rear but the partition between is
modern : 2 heated rooms to the right crosswing, partition removed. Small heated room
between right crosswing and hall with a 1970s stair to the rear. The first floor has
been re-arranged in the 1970s but the remnants of a plaster chimneypiece above a
blocked fireplace in a cupboard suggests a great chamber over the hall. The second
storey, now an attic, consists of what may have been a long gallery at the front with
a series of small heated chambers to the rear. There is no surviving stair to this
storey and with no plasterwork remaining it is difficult to judge its original
status, but the moulded chimneypieces are surprisingly good for servants'
accommodation and were perhaps guest chambers. There are no surviving subsidiary
buildings to the house and no obvious kitchen or service rooms within it.
Exterior: 3 storeys. Symmetrical 7 window front with a central 3-storey gabled
porch, the gabled ends of the crosswings to left and right, the main range gabled to
the front on either side of the porch which is flanked by projecting lateral stacks
with granite ashlar shafts. Plinth, granite string-courses and coped granite gables,
complete set of granite mullioned and transomed windows with relieving arches,3-,4-,
6- and 8-light, the second storey widows with hoodmoulds, the string courses acting
as hoodmoulds for the other windows ; all windows glazed with C20 square leaded
panes. The slender porch is crowned with a bellcote, a recess in the gable
originally held armorial bearings (information from owner). Narrow, moulded, square-
headed outer doorway. The left and right returns are also symmetrical : each with a
central gable flanked by projecting stacks with granite ashlar shafts ; 3-light
granite mullioned and transomed windows, glazed as on the front elevation. The left
return has a square-headed moulded granite doorframe in the centre. The rear
elevation has 4 gables to the main block, chimney shafts at angles with crosswings.
Complete set of 3-light granite transomed mullioned windows, glazed as on the front
elevation. The north crosswing has a blocked doorway in the end wall with a timber
lintel ; 2 granite moulded doorframes to pear of main block ; one with a cranked, one
with a cambered head.
Interior: Much altered, both with respect to partitions and to the ceilings, which
have been completely replaced except for in the north crosswing where the chamfered
stopped cross beams may be original. Moulded granite chimneypieces have survived
throughout, including the second storey ; the rear right ground floor fireplace in
the north crosswing has a granite lintel supported on granite corbels. Little
original joinery apart from the fine but modestly-scaled C17 stair with turned
balusters (altered on the first floor) ; panelled studded front door, and 3 ovolo-
moulded stopped oak doorframes on the first floor. Granite internal doorframes
between the hall and south crosswing, and hall and small rear room (not quite opposed
to the first door). A plaster overmantel above a blocked fireplace on the first
floor has armorial bearings, said to be those of the Davy family of Crediton
(information from owner). No stair to the second story which is now simply attic
space but with good granite moulded fireplaces in a series of former small chambers
at the rear; long gallery or corridor to the front with a blocked fireplace. The
second storey has a newel stair adjacent to one stack, presumably for access to the
roof.
Roof: Collar rafter roof trusses with a variety of joints, some pegged, some nailed.
A Domesday Manor, Canonteign was given to the canons of St Mary du Val in Normandy in
circa 1125 (Hoskins) and conveyed to the Prior and convent of Merton, in Surrey. It
was granted to Lord John Russell after the Reformation, and then passed through a
series of owners. It was garrisoned for the king during the Civil War and taken by
Fairfax in 1645. According to Lysons it belonged to the Davy family in the C17. In
1812 Sir Edward Pellew, later Lord Viscount Exmouth, purchased the manor and the old
house was reduced to a farm after 1828 when Exmouth built Canonteign House (q.v.)
close by. It was semi-derelict prior to thorough restoration in the 1970s.
Group value with farmbuildings, medieval cross and mid C19 mining buildings nearby.
Hoskins, W.G. Devon (1972 edition), p. 366.
Lysons, D. Devonshire (1822), vol. II, p. 103-4.
Photographs of house, prior to restoration, in N.M.R.
Listing NGR: SX8379183124
