Eggesford House

Details

- WEMBWORTHY SS 61 SE 1/63 Eggesford House II Extensive ruins of country house. Built between 1820/30 for the Honourable Newton Fellowes; architect, Thomas Lee of Barnstaple; abandoned 1911. Squared blocks of local iron stone with granite ashlar dressings and some Hatherleigh stone detail; many interior walls and stacks of brick; roofs now completely gone. Much of the building has collapsed and therefore the plan can only be appreciated in general. The house was conceived on a grand scale, comprising an irregular and rambling complex of buildings. It faced south-west with the main block at the right (south-east) end, apparently 3 rooms wide and 3 deep. The shell of this survives. Another block along the left side was recessed from the front and 2 rooms deep. It has largely collapsed. From the back a range at right angles extended left to the north wing with projected to rear 2 rooms wide and 2 deep. From the front of this a single storey range extended to a tower set diagonally to the axis of the rest. A courtyard was thus created with a low wall across the front. 3 storeys with extensive cellars. Similar Elizabethan Gothic style throughout. The facades are irregular with bold embattled parapets, projecting stacks and buttresses. The windows are square- headed with stone mullions, Tudor arch headed lights (some enriched with cusped cinquefoils) and hoodmoulds. The larger windows have transoms. The south-west front of the main block survives in part. The remains of the 2-storey porch with part of the large Hatherleigh stone outer arch surmounted by an heraldic achievement in a Gothic style plaque. To right is the tall stair window now missing its tracery. The 2-window front to right is more or less intact. The south-east return is also nearly intact and its 3:1:1 windows served the principal rooms and chambers. The central bay has an enormous first floor window with the hood mould rising around an heraldic achievement. The bay to left includes a canted bay window to ground and first floors and right bay has a full height square-cornered bay window. Most of the rear wall remains up to parapet level with an irregular 1:2:2:1 window arrangement. The north wing projects as a massive canted bay with 4 forward windows and 2 each side. The tower to left of the main front is the best-preserved part of the building. it has a window on each floor on 3 sides and a newel stair projecting to the front left side. Part of front courtyard wall also survives. Interior has been completely stripped of all detail and most beams have collapsed. Until 1911 Eggesford House was the home of the Earls of Portsmouth. It is set in parkland with fine views over the River Taw. A C19 print of the exterior is in the Devon Record Office. The 1913 sale catalogue also included photographs of the exterior and fine Gothic style interior. Sources: Devon SMR; Devon C19 Church Project; NMR photographs; Rosemary Anne Lauder, Vanished Houses of North Devon (1981), pp 58-71.

Listing NGR: SS6751911347

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

95534

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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