Stowe, Kilkhampton

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Stowe House, Kilkhampton. Detail from drawing (see below) by John Chessell Buckler in 1827 copied from an unknown original depiction, possibly from the engraving in the collection of Peter Prideaux-Brune. British Library, Add. MS 36360, f.167
Arms of Grenville: Gules, three clarions or
Stowe House, Kilkhampton, copied by John Chessell Buckler in 1827 from an unknown original depiction, possibly from the engraving in the collection of Peter Prideaux-Brune. British Library, Add. MS 36360, f.167
Stowe House, Kilkhampton, contemporary engraving in the collection of Peter Prideaux-Brune

Stowe House in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall was a 17th-century mansion built by the Grenville family and demolished in 1739.

History

The Grenville family's earliest seat was in their manor of Bideford in Devon, but from the 14th century they were also seated at Stowe. The last house on the site was built in about 1675 [2] by John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628-1701), created in 1660 in recompense for his great assistance in the Restoration of King Charles II, Baron Granville, Viscount Granville and Earl of Bath.

Description

The house was built of brick with stone dressings and formed the shape of a rectangle, of three floors with hipped roof incorporating dormer windows and topped by a cupola, eleven bays wide by seven bays deep. There was an extensive deer park with formal gardens including fountains and statues. It was of similar style to Coleshill House, Lindridge House (demolished) and most comparable to Belton House.

Demolition

Charles Granville, 2nd Earl of Bath (1661–1701) succeeded his father in 1701 but died in a shooting accident, possibly suicide, shortly afterwards. He left as heir his seven-year-old only son William Henry Granville, 3rd Earl of Bath (1692-1711) who died in 1711 aged 17 without progeny. The inheritance was divided between the second earl's sisters and a cousin George Granville, Baron Lansdowne (d. 1735) after whose death the family became extinct. The house was sold for building materials in 1739, and much of its fabric survives having been used in the contemporary construction of west-country buildings.

Survivals removed

The Mayor's Parlour, The Guildhall, South Molton, Devon. The room was originally in Stowe House and was acquired for incorporation into the South Molton Guildhall designed 1739-41[1]

The most notable surviving fabric of Stowe House exists as follows::

  • Prideaux Place, Padstow, of which the Grenville Room contains carved woodwork from Stowe.
  • Cross House, Little Torrington, Devon, in which exists the ornately carved wooden grand staircase from Stowe, of three flights around a square well. The balustrades are formed in open-work carving in the style of Grinling Gibbons of tumbling putti entwined in scrolls of foliage and flowers.[3]
  • The Guildhall, South Molton, Devon, 1739–41, which incorporates an entire highly ornate small room, known as "The Mayor's Parlour", used historically by the town's mayor for entertaining. It includes plasterwork decorative picture frames, a decorated plaster ceiling, four doorcases with gilded pediments, a large overmantel painting in the style of Rubens of "Atalanta presented with the head of the Calydonian Boar by Meleager" and four classical capriccio scenes in small rectangular panels above the doors.[4]

Survivals on site

The Steward's House survives at Stowe as a farmhouse, and some new farmhouses were built locally from the unsold materials from Stowe and are notable for their fine appearance, for example Penstowe, also in the parish.[5] .

Sources

  • Beckett, Matthew, Lost Heritage- a memorial to the lost country houses of England

References

  1. ↑ Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England, London, 2004, p.749
  2. ↑ Date of building: 1675 per Beckett, 1680-85 per Pevsner, 2004, p.301
  3. ↑ Pevsner, N. & Cherry, B., The Buildings of England: Devon, 2004, p.301 & plate 94
  4. ↑ Pevsner, N. & Cherry, B., The Buildings of England: Devon, 2004, p.749
  5. ↑ Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall, 2nd ed. Penguin Books

Coordinates: 50°52′22″N 4°32′24″W / 50.8729°N 4.5400°W / 50.8729; -4.5400

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