Description

BIDEFORD

SS42NW ABBOTSHAM ROAD
842-1/1/2 Moreton (now part of Grenville
08/11/49 College)

GV II

Formerly known as: Daddon ABBOTSHAM ROAD.
Large house, now a school (Grenville Colege). c1821. Solid
rendered walls. Hipped slate roof. Rendered chimneys at front;
yellow-brick ones at rear.
U-shaped plan: front range has entrance-hall with main
staircase to rear, one room at either side and rear range
parallel to front; infilled courtyard joins up with
service-building to rear right, this having its own centre
courtyard with ranges on all 4 sides.
House 3-storeyed; service building 1- and 2-storeyed. Main
front of house of 8-window range with 8-window return to left.
Centre doorway with 4-columned Doric porch, now glazed:
4-panelled door, the top 2 panels now glazed; at either side a
sash-window with glazing-bars (6 over 9 panes). Flanking the
porch are 2 bow windows with pilasters supporting entablature;
each has 3 sash-windows matching those in the porch, except
that the lower sashes to left now have no glazing-bars.
Upper-storey windows plain with barred sashes: 6 over 6 panes
to second storey, 3 over 6 panes to third storey. Giant
pilasters flank the whole front; above them an entablature
with parapet.
Return front to left is similar in style, but without bow
windows; the right-hand ground-storey window has no
glazing-bars, nor have the lower sashes in the fourth and
sixth windows from the left. Raised band between ground and
second storeys. Rear range has barred sashes as in the 2 main
fronts. Service building has sashes with margin-panes.
INTERIOR: includes many C19 panelled doors and shutters; also
enriched ceilings and cornices. Main stair rebuilt soon after
1913 and 3 first-floor rooms continued to from a ballroom.
Entrance-hall has C20 Georgian-style panelling and C19
Tudor-style black marble chimneypiece with Gothic fireback.
Jacobean-style oak staircase with turned balusters and carved
newels; Georgian-style panelled dado; early C19 enriched oval
cupola (restored 1989). Corridor along rear wing has panelled
pilasters and groined-vaulted ceiling. Ground-floor front left
room and the 2 wing rooms behind it all have enriched ceilings
and cornices. Ballroom has apsidal ends; panelling and ceiling
in Adam style; early C19 white marble chimneypiece with
caryatids and carved frieze.
This was originally Daddon, the C18 seat of George Buck, esq,
who is believed to have started rebuilding in about 1760,
although the irregular plan suggests that he retained some of
the earlier fabric. Lewis William Buck (d 1858) is said to
have completed the work and changed the name to Moreton in
1821; he was MP for Exeter 1826-32 and for North Devon
1834-58; entertained Disraeli at the house. Sir Hugh Stueley,
bt, who moved here in 1913 also made substantial alterations.
(Stueley Sir Dennis, bt: History of Moreton House
(newspaper/mag cutting) source unknown).

Listing NGR: SS4361226308

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Moreton House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q6911464

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)