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Summary

The grounds of a country house extending 180 hectares, dating primarily from the later 18th century and mid 19th century. Part is now a country park run by the County Council, the remainder part of a school.
The Stover estate was the site of a majory forestry operation during the First World War when men from the Canadian Forestry Corps felled some 700 acres of woodland in order to provide timber for the war effort. In 1918 the Land Girls planted 15,000 replacement saplings.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1097376: SUMMERHOUSE AND 2 SETS OF TERRACE WALLS NORTH-EAST AND NORTH-WEST OF STOVER HOUSE
• Listed Building (II) 1097377: BRIDGE APPROXIMATELY 300 METRES NORTH OF STOVER HOUSE
• Registered Park or Garden (II) 1001268: STOVER PARK

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX87SW/25/3
• Old Registered Parks and Gardens Ref (II): 2286

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PARK (XVIII to XIX - 1701 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

Polwhele, R., 1793-1806, The History of Devonshire (Monograph). SDV21030.

Unknown, 1826, Sale plan of Stover Park (Cartographic). SDV364295.

Coloured plan of Stover Park.

English Heritage, 1995, Stover Park (Register of Parks and Gardens in England). SDV341516.

The grounds of a country house extending 180 hectares, dating primarily from the later 18th century and mid 19th century. From the mid 18th century the main approach to the house was from the Granite Lodge, built 1780, at the northen tip of the Park. From it the drive leads through Newpark Plantation, over the outflow of the northen lake, through Stable Copse, over the outflow of the lower lake via a 3 arched bridge, to the east of the old house site, then up the hillside along the east edge of the pleasure grounds, to arrive at the turning circle below the east front of the mansion. The northen entrance is now disused, and the current drive enters the grounds at Higher Lodge, 300 metres to the south-west of the house. There is a 3rd lodge, Lower Lodge, standing at the south-east corner of the estate. Stover House stands on an eminence at the south-west corner of the park. To the south of the house the parkland drops away to the wooded southern perimeter. The land also falls away to the north, down to the site of the old house and the serpentine lake beyond. This is the lower, and smaller, of the 2 lakes, and is formed by the damming of the Ventiford Brook. James Templer was responsible for draining the former heathland and also for the creation of the lakes. It has been suggested, however, that the southern lake formed part of the landscaping round the earlier house, and that Stover Bridge (dated 1773 or 5) is part of this scheme. The northern lake is perhaps a later addition, dating with an expansion of park northwards, and may have been connected with work on the Stover Canal, which runs parallel to the site. Other details: GD2286.

Gray, T., 1996, Stover (Un-published). SDV359862.

English Heritage, 2000, Stover Park (Register of Parks and Gardens in England). SDV341514.

The park today remains pasture with scattered individual trees and ornamental clumps. The open parkland to the north and south of the House is enclosed by extensive plantations. To the west the A382 road is screened by boundary planting including Blacksticks Plantation, circa 1 kilometre north-west of the House, while to the north Newpark Plantation forms a triangular block of woodland between the A38 road and the minor road which forms the site boundary to the north-east. Stable Copse, Goilmore Plantation and New Orchard Copse together with other woodland, encloses the park to the east. Plantations around the house were established by the 1780s, when an estate plan showed a network of walks through the woodland. They were expanded in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and again by the Dukes of Somerset from 1829. The expansion continued into the 20th century, when the woodland around Stover Lake was acquired by the Forestry Commission for commercial timber production. Other details: GD2286.

Adam, N., J. + Cox, P. W. + Chandler, J., 2001, Stover Ball Clay Works ROMPS, Teigngrace, Devon: Archaeological Assessment, 10-11 (Report - Assessment). SDV341497.

The extension of the existing quarry will have an indirect impact on the setting of the Park. As the existing Stover Pit already dominates the southern zone of the Park, the extra working area will cause little additional effect, given the proposed retention of the Park boundaries and surviving portions of the internal track, and the masking effect of the trees.

Exeter Archaeology, 2002, Archaeological Assessment of Tottiford to Newton Abbot Trunk Main, 13 (Report - Assessment). SDV281233.

The route of a new water main was found to follow the eastern boundary of Stover Park at SX84897385 for circa 50 metres to the south of Lower Lodge.

Waterhouse, R., 2006, Stover House. Archaeological Notes, 1 (Report - non-specific). SDV364294.

A large landscaped park of about 600 acres. Roads form its north, south and west boundaries but a large part of its south-eastern side has now been quarried for ball clay. The Ventiford Brook runs through the centre of the park and was utilised to form several ornamental lakes or canals and ponds. These are now mainly dry but a small lake in the north-west corner of the park now forms the focus of the Stover Country Park. The park was laid out in three main phases; 1770s-1793, 1791-1828 and 1828-1884. See associated monuments for details of individual features.

English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009: South West, 112 (Report - non-specific). SDV342694.

Formerly a seat of the dukes of Somerset. Late 18th century gardens, pleasure grounds and park. Now in divided ownership, with a large area now run by county council as country park, the remainder a school with ongoing expansion of school facilities. Much altered setting with pressure for hotel, retail, residential and industrial development.

English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010: South West, 105 (Report - non-specific). SDV344777.

English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011: South West, 110 (Report - non-specific). SDV355280.

Generally satisfactory but with significant localised problems. High vulnerability. Stable.

Askew Nelson Ltd, 2014, Stover Park. Parkland Plan (Un-published). SDV358318.

Stover Park between Newton Abbot and Bovey Tracey comprises about 20 hectares of gardens and pleasure grounds, and some 160 hectares of parkland, lakes and plantations. Details of history, current landuse and features given. The park is included on Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens and within it are a number of listed buildings. It is considered significant for aesthetic, associative, archaeological and ecological reasons. It contains a number of veteran trees including a 300 year old oak tree on a mound, two sweet chestnuts dated to the 18th century on the boundary with the quarry and two more, dating to the early 19th century by the west side of the house. A clump of seven wellingtonia in the north-west corner of the field to the east of the house and a group of Corsican pine at the entrance to the caravan site are probably remnant 19th century parkland planting. The country park was designated an SSSI in 1984 and a local nature reserve in 2001.
The fragmentation of the parkland into different ownerships in the 20th century has affected the legibility of the designed landscape. The greatest loss to the park is considered to be the ornamental canal which was one of the main elements of that design. It continues to face pressures from development, particularly new roads and a possible extension to the quarrying of ball clay on its west side.
See associated monuments for information on individual features and report for full details.

Blaylock, S., 2015, Stover Park, Devon, 3, 13, 15 (Report - non-specific). SDV360090.

James Templer (1722-1782) purchased the estate in the early 1760s. In te 1770s he set about building a new house 300 metres to the south of the existing house of Stover (Stowford) Lodge on a more commanding site with better views. The grounds were also laid out in the 1770s, draining formerly marshy areas and damming the Ventiford Brook to make a lake towards the north and a serpentine lake running through the middle of the park to the south, also partly utilising water from the Liverton Brook. His son, James Templer II (1748-1813) continued his father's work on the park and most of the main elements were in place by the time of Bonner's engraving of 1792.
The Stover estate was sold by George Templer to the 11th Duke of Somerset in 1829. Further developments on the park and estate took place during the time of the 11th and 12th Dukes of Somerset including the new stables in the 1840s, extensions to the house and the construction of the garden terraces and garden planting by Veitch.
Sections of the park wall survive alongside the A382. This wall appears to be a 19th century addition to the park boundry; a letter of 1858 refers to a 'new wall…between the new lodge [presumably Higher Lodge] and the end of the park at the bottom of the hill'.
Although the park was designed as a self-contained visual landscape it is more than incidental that Templer's new house was constructed on the highest point in the middle of the park, clearly to provide views north and south, although that to the south is now compromised by a spoil tip, but also to be seen.
Stover is remarkable for and is enhanced by its wider setting; the hilly landscape rising to the north and north-west culminating in Haldon Hill and the spectacular landscape of Dartmoor to the west , especially the dominance of Haytor referencing the Templer family's quarrying interests.
Views from the house to the bridge have been rather obscured by tree growth and although increased planting is a solution to traffic noise, it would also preclude the possibility of reinstating the Serpentine Lake at some future date.

Drabble, S., 2018, Stover Park in the Great War, 6-11 (Monograph). SDV364354.

During the First World War lumbermen from the Canadian Forestry Corps, latterly assisted by Portuguese labourers, felled some 700 acres of woodland at Stover in order to provide timber for the war effort, for use as duckboards, railway sleepers etc and also for making crates for shipping supplies and equipment. Machinery including a sawmill to produce the timber was also imported from Canada.
The sawn timber was stacked at a Timber Siding close to Heathfield Station ready for transport. The men were housed in a camp in Higher Brock's Plantation, also close to the station.
The Canadian sawmill was removed to South Wales in March 1917 to help with the operations beginning there, work on the heaviest timber being completed at Stover. It was replaced by a smaller Scotch Mill which was erected at the timber siding. The camp was gradually wound down, being reported as completely broken up by the end of February 1918, and the men were transferred to Mamhead.
Prior to leaving Stover, the Canadians presented Mrs St Maur with an inscribed oak chair. When the St Maur's sold the estate and moved to Kenya after the war they took the chair with them, where in 1968 it was purchased by a Canadian at an auction in Nairobi. Negociations have recently completed for the return of the chair to Stover.
In 1918 15,000 saplings were planted on the Stover estate by the Land Girls to replace the trees felled in the war.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV289 - Archaeological Assessment of Tottiford to Newton Abbot Trunk Main
• EDV4418 - Archaeological Assessment of Stover Ball Clay Works Romps, Teigngrace, Devon
• EDV7223 - Contributions on Aspects of the Architectural History, Landscape History and Archaeology of Stover Park
• EDV7491 - Preparation of Parkland Plan for Stover Park, Newton Abbot, Devon

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