Description

- 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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400431

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey