See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Wembury house. The present house replaces an earlier house built by john pollexfen. 16th century.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX54NW/5/9

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• MANOR HOUSE (XVI to XVIII - 1501 AD to 1800 AD (Between))

Full description

Unknown, Unknown (Migrated Record). SDV1416.

Reference in swete (1796-97) to the 'ruinous house of wembury' (dro).

Prince, J., Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161890.

Prince describes the building of 1561 as the most noble house in all the country, costing 20,000 pounds sterling, with a fine gatehouse. The manor was bought at the dissolution by mr. Rider, and sold to sir john hele. Prince asserts that the building was made 'from an old monkish dorter', but this is the only evidence for monastic buildings on the site (prince).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161894.

See sx54nw/21/1 for architectural fragments possily removed from wembury house.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161895.

Prince, j. /worthies of devon/(1701).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161896.

Polwhele, r. /a history of devonshire:3/(1806).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161897.

Cherry, b. + pevsner, n. /the buildings of england: devon/(1989)894.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161898.

Cherry,b. /pdas/46(1988)110-112/the devon country house in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries/plate 17.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161899.

Dro=564m/vol 15.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV161900.

White, w. /history, gazetteer and directory of devonshire/(1850)562.

White, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV25328.

The 16c park included a saltwater lake, supplied by the tide (white).

Cherry, B., Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV109648.

Reputed to be one of the grandest elizabethan houses in devon. In 1674 it had 42 hearths - the largest number recorded in the devon hearth tax. Prince describes the house as 't' shaped in plan. Polwhele reports the sale and stripping of materials on its destruction in the late 18c, and refers to the survival of gilding on outside woodwork of pollexfen's addition at the east end (cherry).

Cherry, B. + Pevsner, N., 1989, The Buildings of England: Devon (Monograph). SDV325629.

Wembury house. The present house (see headsheet) replaces an earlier house built by john pollexfen in the late 17c, which itself was a rebuilding or remodelling of a house of legendary grandeur created from the remains of a cell of plympton priory. All that survives of this is a rubble rampart at the opposite end of the lawn in front of the house, buttressed on the west side (cherry + pevsner).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.