Orleigh Court

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Orleigh Court

The front of Orleigh Court
Location Buckland Brewer, Devon, England
Coordinates 50°58′42″N 4°14′18″W / 50.9783°N 4.2382°W / 50.9783; -4.2382Coordinates: 50°58′42″N 4°14′18″W / 50.9783°N 4.2382°W / 50.9783; -4.2382
Built Early/mid 14th century, but much remodelled
Architect Various, latest major changes by J. H. Hakewill c.1870
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated 22 January 1952[1]
Reference No. 91389
Location of Orleigh Court in Devon

Orleigh Court is a late medieval manor house in the parish of Buckland Brewer about 4 miles south west of Bideford, North Devon, England. It is a two-storeyed building constructed from local slate stone and has a great hall with a hammer-beam roof which was installed in the late 15th century. The building was substantially altered in the early 18th century and remodelled after 1869. It was redeveloped for multiple occupancy in the 1980s and is now divided into about twelve apartments. It was the birthplace of the famous explorer and discoverer of the source of the River Nile, John Hanning Speke (1827–1864).

History

To the end of the 16th century

The first mention of the manor of Orleigh is in AD 981, when it was known as "Orlege" and was granted together with many other lands to Tavistock Abbey by a Saxon named Ordulf who held it by right of his wife Abina. The manor is not listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, but it does appear in a charter of Pope Celestine III dated 1193 confirming it to the Abbey.[2]

By the 12th century the manor had been granted to the Denys family. (which name was Latinized to Dacus)[lower-alpha 1] Tristram Risdon, writing in c.1630, said that it was possessed by Gellanus Dacus in the reign of Henry II (1154-1189).[3] A later member of the Denys family built the earliest parts of the building that still survive. The hall, which is 30 ft x 20 ft and has 5-foot-thick walls, has been dated by the form of decoration around the doorways to the early to mid 14th century.[4] In 1416, a licence for a chapel at the house was granted by Bishop Stafford, and it has been speculated that the room over the porch was used for this.[5]

During the late 15th century the hall was remodelled and it is clear that some of the work was based on that already done at nearby Weare Giffard Hall; identical carving on the porches of both buildings shows that the same mason was employed for at least part of the work. The main improvement, though, was the construction of a fine four-bay hammerbeam roof to the main hall, again clearly influenced by, though somewhat less ornate than, the one at Weare Giffard.[4] The hammer-beams are supported on carved stone corbels representing figures, one of which holds a shield displaying the arms of the Denys family (three battleaxes). Sitting on the ends of the hammer-beams were a series of ten carved sitting heraldic beasts, each around two feet tall.[4]

A few alterations were made during the late 16th century, such as the addition of a staircase to the left of the porch,[1] and the insertion of a large window into the hall to the right of the porch.[6]

17th century to today

...the chief Mansion of Mr Davie, who having a predilection for Watermouth has intentions either of letting or disposing of this place.

Rev. John Swete who passed by near Orleigh in 1797 and wrote of it in his journal.[7]

The last male member of the Denys family to live at Orleigh Court was Anthony Dennis.[lower-alpha 2] When he died in 1641 he left three daughters as co-heiresses and they conveyed the property to trustees in 1661.[citation needed] In 1684 the trustees sold it to John Davie, a notable tobacco merchant from Bideford. After his death in 1710[lower-alpha 3] his son, Joseph, embarked on a series of improvements to the interior. These included, in the hall, the installation of an ornamental fireplace,[4] and the addition of fire buckets decorated with the Davie arms and the date 1721—they remained in place until the early 20th century.[5][6] Other additions made at this time included a new inner hall accessed from newly created doors by the side of the fireplace, and rainwater heads on the east front of the building that bear the Davie arms as well as those of Pryce, which refer to Joseph's wife, Juliana Pryce, who died aged 28 in 1720. Joseph himself died in 1723, but the building stayed in the Davie family until 1807, when it was in the ownership of Joseph Davie Bassett, who built Watermouth Castle and moved there. In that year Orleigh Court was either sold, or according to local tradition, lost in a game of cards, to Major Edward Lee.[5]

After Lee's death in 1819, the house passed to his nephew, the politician John Lee Lee,[8] who did not live there but rented it to his sister and her husband, William Speke. In 1827 their son, John Hanning Speke was born; he was later celebrated as the explorer who discovered the source of the River Nile.[5] From 1845 the house was occupied by other tenants,[lower-alpha 4] until it was sold to Thomas Rogers in 1869. Rogers employed the architect J. H. Hakewill to make extensive changes to the house; these changes included the replacement of most of the windows including a new oriel window in the porch, complete reworking of the north range and the addition of a panelled dining room. Hakewill also built two Mock Tudor lodges in the grounds.[6] Rogers' son, William Henry (born 1868) inherited the house,[9] and made a few alterations to it, such as replacing some of the dry-rot-infested panelling in the hall with 16th-century decorated panels that he had discovered in a loft over the stables, and which he surmised had been removed from the original dining room.[5]

William Henry Rogers was an antiquarian and he included a history of Orleigh Court in a book about Buckland Brewer which was published in 1938. However by 1939 he had sold the house and it was then in multiple occupation until after the war when it was left empty and decaying. In 1952, it was made a listed building,[1][10] but remained empty until 1982 when work began to convert it into flats.[6] In 1986 the owner attempted to sell by auction at Sotheby's the ten 15th-century wooden animal carvings that had decorated the hammer-beams, but their provenance was investigated and they were deemed to be fixtures of a listed building, so they were returned and the owner was prosecuted.[10][11] As a result of this incident the listing status of the building was increased to Grade I.[11] As of 2011, the building is divided into a number of apartments and is surrounded by eight acres of communal grounds.[12]

Notes

  1. The surname Denys is just one of many variant spellings that have been used for this family: Dacus (the Latinized form), Denise, Le Deneis, Le Danies, le Deneys and more recently Dennis are some of the others
  2. There is a mural monument to Anthony Dennis, his second wife, and his eleven children in Buckland Brewer church.
  3. John Davie also has a mural monument in Buckland Brewer church (see Rogers (1938), pp.53–4.)
  4. These tenants were Col. Bayly from 1845 to 1856, and Capt. Audley Mervyn-Archdale from 1856 to 1869.[citation needed]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Orleigh Court - Buckland Brewer - Devon - England". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 2012-07-20. 
  2. Monasticon, Vol.2, pp.494, 498, quoted by Rogers (1938), p.50
  3. Risdon, Tristram (1811). Rees et al, ed. The Chorographical Description or Survey of the County of Devon (updated ed.). Plymouth: Rees and Curtis. p. 415. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Emery (2006), pp. 611–2
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Rogers (1926), pp. 185–192.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Cherry & Pevsner (1989), pp. 613–4.
  7. Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.) (1999), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of the Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, vol.3, Tiverton, p.98
  8. "LEE, John Lee (1802-1874), of Orleigh Court, nr. Bideford, Devon". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 2012-07-28. 
  9. "Obituary Notices – William Henry Rogers". Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association 76: 24. 1944. 
  10. 10.0 10.1 Devon Buildings Group Newsletter No. 2. October 1986
  11. 11.0 11.1 Devon Buildings Group Newsletter No. 4. October 1987
  12. "1 Orleigh Court". Savills, Exeter. 2011. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012. 

Sources

  • Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus (1989). The Buildings of England – Devon. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-071050-7. 
  • Emery, Anthony (2006) Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Southern England
  • Rogers, W. H. (1926). "Orleigh: An Ancient House". Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association 58. 
  • Rogers, W. H. (1938) Buckland Brewer, reprinted 2000, Snetzler, M.F. (Ed.), Barcott, Buckland Brewer
  • Listed Building text, Orleigh Court
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