Fallapit House (St Thomas More's School) Including Arch Adjoining North East

Details

EAST ALLINGTON Fallapit House SX74NE (St Thomas More's school) 4/40 including Arch adjoining north east

II

House, now used as a school. 1810-15 rebuilding of the medieval house, incorporating some C16 and C17 features remodelled and enlarged and enlarged again circa mid and later C20. coursed stone rubble. Steeply pitched slate roof with shaped barge boards to verges of half-hipped gable ends and exposed rafter ends to eaves. Axial stacks with diagonally set brick shafts. Plan and development: The existing house has a front (north-east) main range with 2 principal rooms and a central vestibule leading to a stairhall behind in a central wing flanked by two wings, the left hand wing containing the famous ballroom and the right hand wing the services. This arrangement is largely the result of a substantial remodelling and enlargement in 1849 of the earlier C19 (1810-15) house of which the rear wings might be part. In 1947 the house became a school and the rear wings were extended. The Headmaster's accommodation was built in the left side later in the C20. The house is built near the site of the ancient Fortescue house a few fragments of which are incorporated. The medieval house was still standing in 1727 when Edmund Prideaux depicted it in a drawing as a large medieval hall facing a courtyard flanked by what looks like later ranges. Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Symmetrical 2:1:2 window east front, centre advanced and gabled both reused moulded 4-centred arch granite doorway, granite string and oriel on reused carved brackets. There is also a reused moulded granite string at ground floor window sill level. The windows have been replaced in C20 but original with straight hoodmoulds intact C19 panelled and glazed gothick door at centre. The right and left hand ends of front range have full-height later canted bays. On the right hand (north east) corner a carriageway with a moulded granite 4-centred arch from the old house with a hoodmould and arms above and butresses and pinnacle at end. The left hand (north) elevation has polygonal stair turret at centre with arrow loop and wooden cupola; 2 windows to right similar to those at front and 4 centred arch windows to left. The right hand (north) elevation has similar window to those at front except for one ground floor window which retains C19 mullion-transem frame and had arid above on carved brackets; and in the roof a row of hipped dormers C20 extensions at rear but central gable has 4-centered arch stair window. Interior: The entrance vestibule has fine late C16 or early C17 panelling with arcaded panels, strapwork cartouches with arms, carved anthemion and other motifs; the frieze has trailing vines, rosettes and pegasus carving and a complicated guilloche motif. Apart from one C18 2-panel door in the service wing all the other features are C19. There are numerous early C19 panelled doors and the servants staircase is also C19. The stairhall and landing above have large moulded 4-centred arches with clustered shafts. The open-well, open-string staircase has arcaded thick balusters and moulded mahogany handrail wreathed over clustered shafts at curtail and tread ends with quatrefoils and mouchesttes. The front left hand room has moulded modillain cornice and late C19 Devon marble chimneypiece with colonnettes. The front right hand room has triple 4-centred arch chimneypiece. Rear left hand ballroom (now commonroom) has colonaded screen at back. Rear right hand room in rear left hand wing has Gothick moulded plaster frieze, moulded plaster brackets on ornate corbels and brown marble chimneypiece a front left first floor room is probably C19. Historical note: The Fallapit or Valeput family possessed the estate from the end of the C13 or earlier. It passed to the Fortescues at the beginning of the C15: In 1734 on the death of Edmund Nananiel Wells whose eldest son took the name Fortescue. It stayed in the Fortescue family until the mid C19 and was sold to william Cubitt (of the London building firm fame) who might have been responsible for the 1849 remodelling. In 1925 the estate was bought by Lord Ashcombe. During the Second World War it was used by American servicemen and in 1947 it became a school. Sources: Thomas (Fortescue) Lord Clermont, A History of the Family of Fortescue, 1989 Edmund Prideaux, drawing of 1727 now at Prideaux Place, Cornwall. Whites Directory 1878. Sales Particulars of 1925. W G Hoskins Devon.

Listing NGR: SX7639648986

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

99829

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Fortescue, T, A History of the Family of Fortescue, ()
Whites Directory in Whites Directory, (1878)
Hoskins, W G, A New Survey of England in Devon, (1972)

End of official list entry

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