Orleigh Court

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The front facade of Orleigh Court

Orleigh Court is a mansion in the Buckland Brewer parish , about four miles southwest of Bideford in the English county of Devon . The late medieval house is a two-story building made of locally available slate and has a knight's hall with hammer-beam vaults from the end of the 15th century.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the building was significantly changed and rebuilt again in 1869. It was split up in the 1980s and now consists of 12 apartments.

The famous explorer and discoverer of the Nile Spring , John Hanning Speke , was born in Orleigh Court .

history

Early history

A member of the Denys family had the oldest parts of the building still preserved today built. The knight's hall, 9 meters by 6 meters and with 1.5 meters thick walls, was dated to the mid-14th century because of the shape of the decoration around its entrances. In 1416, Bishop Stafford gave permission to build a chapel on the house, and it is believed that the space above the porch was used for this.

At the end of the 15th century the Great Hall was remodeled and it is clear that some of the work was based on what had already been done in the nearby Weare Giffard Hall . Identical stone carvings on the vestibules of the two buildings show that the same master mason was commissioned with at least part of the work. The biggest improvement of the renovation, however, was the construction of a hammer beam vault with four bays for the knight's hall, again clearly influenced by the construction in the Weare Giffard Hall, but a little less complex. The hammer beams are supported on carved stone consoles that represent figures, one of which shows a shield with the coat of arms of the Denys family (three battle axes). At the end of the hammer beam sits a row of ten carved heraldic animals, each about two feet high.

Some renovations were carried out at the end of the 16th century, such as B. the extension of a stairwell on the left side of the vestibule and the installation of a large window in the knight's hall to the right of the vestibule. The last male member of the Denys family from Orleigh Court was Anthony Dennis († 1641), to whom a wall memorial in the Orleigh Chapel of St. Mary's Church in Buckland Brewer has been preserved. When he died in 1641, he left three daughters as joint heirs, who transferred the property to trustees in 1661. In 1684 the trustees sold it to John I. Davie († 1710), a well-known tobacco dealer from Bideford.

Davie family

John I. Davie died in 1710 and is remembered by a large wall memorial in the Orleigh Chapel of St. Mary's Church in Buckland Brewer . His son and heir, Joseph Davie († 1723), had a number of improvements made to the interior of the house. This included e.g. B. the installation of an open decorative fireplace in the great hall and the installation of fire buckets with the coat of arms of the Davie family and the year 1721 - they stayed there until the beginning of the 20th century. Other additions from this period included the inner room, which is accessible through a new door next to the fireplace, and rain gargoyle on the east façade, the coat of arms of Davie 's and also the Pryce s wear what Joseph Davies wife, Juliana Pryce reminds who died in 1720 at the age of 28. Joseph Davie himself died in 1723, but the building remained in the family's hands until 1807. The last Davie to own Orleigh Court was Joseph Davie Bassett , who had Watermouth Castle built and then moved there. In 1807 Orleigh Court was either sold or, according to local legend, lost in a card game to Major Edward Lee .

Lee, Speke and Rogers

After Edward Lee's death in 1819, the house fell to his nephew, the politician John Lee Lee (1802–1874), who did not live there but leased it to his sister and her husband, William Spoke . In 1827 their son John Hanning Spoke was born in Orleigh Court, who later became a well-known explorer and discovered the source of the Nile. From 1845 the house was occupied by other tenants. In 1869 Orleigh Court was sold to Thomas Rogers , who commissioned architect John Henry Hakewill to make extensive changes to the house, e.g. B. the relocation of most of the windows, a new bay window in the vestibule, the complete renovation of the northern building line and the installation of a wood-paneled dining room. Hakewill also built two Tudor style lodges on the site. Then the son of Thomas Rogers, William Henry Rogers (* 1868), inherited the property and had some changes made, such as: B. the removal of some panels in the knight's hall, in which the brown rot had settled, and their replacement with panels, in the style of the 16th century, which he had discovered in a granary above the stables and which had probably been removed from the original dining room .

A history buff, William Henry Rogers built the story of Orleigh Court into a book on Buckland Brewer published in 1938. But in 1939 he had sold the house. After the Second World War , the house was rebuilt for several purposes, but it stood empty and fell into disrepair. In 1952 it was added to the list of historic buildings, but remained empty until 1982 when it was converted into apartments. In 1986 the owner wanted to auction the ten 15th century animal head carvings that once adorned the hammer beams at Sotheby's, but their origins were investigated and they were found to be part of a historic building. So they were returned to their traditional places and the owner was punished. Due to this incident, the list status of the historic building was raised to the 1st degree. Since 2011 the building has been divided into a number of apartments and surrounded by 3.2 hectares of public land.

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ a b c d Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500 . Chapter: '' Southern England ''. Pp. 611-612.
  2. ^ A b c d e W. H. Rogers: Orleigh: An Ancient House in Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association . Issue 58 (1926). Pp. 185-192.
  3. ^ A b Orleigh Court, Buckland Brewer . British Listed Buildings. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c d Bridget Cherry, Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England . Chapter: Devon . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1989. ISBN 0-14-071050-7 . Pp. 613-614.
  5. ↑ Wall Monument to Anthony Dennis, his second wife and his 11 children.
  6. ^ WH Rogers: Orleigh: An Ancient House in Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association . Issue 58 (1926). Pp. 53-54.
  7. ^ LEE, John Lee (1802-1874), of Orleigh Court, no. Bideford, Devon . History of Parliament Online. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  8. ↑ The tenants were Col. Bayly from 1845 to 1856 and Capt. Audley Mervyn-Archdale from 1856 to 1869.
  9. ^ Obituary Notices - William Henry Rogers in Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association . Issue 76 (1944). P. 24.
  10. ↑ a b Devon Buildings Group Newsletter No. 2 . October 1986. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  11. ↑ a b Devon Buildings Group Newsletter No. 4 . October 1987. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  12. ^ 1 Orleigh Court . Savills, Exeter. 2011. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2016.

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 41.9 ″  N , 4 ° 14 ′ 17.5 ″  W.