Ugbrooke Park, Chudleigh, Devon

Description

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

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Ugbrooke Park

A Grade I Listed Building in Chudleigh, Devon

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