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Summary

A Gothic sandstone house, built by William Burges in the early 1870s, and subsequently decorated by J. D. Crace. Thought to be close to the site of an earlier Georgian house, and may have been built on the former kitchen garden.

Location

Protected Status

• Registered Park or Garden (II*) 1000487: KNIGHTSHAYES COURT
• Listed Building (I) 1384684: KNIGHTSHAYES COURT

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS91NE/17
• Old Listed Building Ref (I): 485137

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• COUNTRY HOUSE (XVIII to XXI - 1751 AD to 2009 AD)

Full description

Devon County Council, Knightshayes Court (Ground Photograph). SDV341851.

Other details: Film 306.

Watts, S., Knightshayes Court (Ground Photograph). SDV365856.

Pevsner, N., 1952, The Buildings of England: North Devon, 111 (Monograph). SDV336196.

Red sandstone with yellow stone dressings. Symmetrical Tudor south front, the other sides asymmetrical and more interesting. Ample plate tracery, some occasional circular turrets, lancet windows etc. The interior meant to be sumptuously decorated (original drawings at the house). Much of this decoration was never carried out, other parts have been removed. The hall with timber roof remains, and one other room.

Department of Environment, 1975, Tiverton (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV341844.

1870-73 Gothic house by William Burges. Sandstone. Stone tiled roof. Casement windows. L-shaped on entrance side with one large and one small gable to the left, gabled porch in the centre, oriel window on ground floor to right and squat tower beyond. Good contemporary interior.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1978 - 1980, SS91NE5 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV341842.

National Trust, 1984, Knightshayes Court, Devon, 5 (Report - Survey). SDV341846.

A sandstone house, built in his idiosyncratic style by William Burges, 1871-4, and subsequently decorated by J. D. Crace. The present house is thought to be close to the site of an earlier Georgian house, of which there is now no evidence except the older trees in the present drive which suggest an earlier driveway. There is a walled garden, stables and a lodge which are contemporary with the house. It has formal gardens and a woodland garden.

Cherry, B. + Pevsner, N., 1989, The Buildings of England: Devon, 526-528 (Monograph). SDV325629.

Keene, B. + Butler, D., 1997, Untitled Source, 19-22 (Monograph). SDV35794.

The new house was built slightly northwards of and parallel to where the old house had stood, on the site of the former kitchen garden.

English Heritage, 2000, Knightshayes Court (Register of Parks and Gardens in England). SDV341847.

Knightshayes Court stands on a level platform to the north of the late 19th century terraced gardens, and above the head of the Zeal Valley to the west. Constructed in red Hensley stone with Ham stone dressings under a slate roof, the house has 2 storeys with attics lit by bold gabled dormers. Gabled wings with 2-storey canted bay windows project at the south-west and south-east corners of the garden façade, while the north-east end of the carriage court is enclosed by the billiard room. A projected massive tower on the north façade was not executed. The smoking room, a single storey addition at the north-west corner of the house, was built in 1902, and the timber conservatory at the south-west corner was added in 1963. The service wing is recessed to the east of the principal block. Other details: GD1460.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2000, Tiverton, 6-8 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV341848.

Country House. 1869-1874 for Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, the grandson of John Heathcoat, the Tiverton factory owner, to the designs of William Burges. Designs for internal decoration partly Burges, but mostly to the designs of JD Crace, who replaced Burges in 1875. First class carved decoration by Thomas Nicholls. Smoking room of 1902 to the designs of Ernest George.
MATERIALS: snecked red Hensley stone with Ham Hill dressings; red tiled roof; stacks with embattled stone shafts; some cast-iron rainwater goods.
STYLE: early French Gothic.
PLAN: on an west east axis. The garden (south) elevation has a vista down to Tiverton town and the Heathcoat factory in the distance. Overall U-plan, double-depth, with hall in the centre, north side with a hall bay and north porch. Principal stair rises from hall at the west end. Reception rooms along south side, overlooking formal garden; single storey billiard room projects to north towards east of main range.
EXTERIOR: front elevation: Single storey hall, otherwise 2 and 3 storeys. Gothic details include coped gables with crocketed finals; corbelled cornice to battlemented stair turret and variety of window forms including lancets and plate tracery. Irregular 2:1:4:3 window front plus single storey smoking room at right end. Single storey front left billiard room at right angles to main range. 2 irregular gables to the front at the left end. Projecting square hall bay to the right of porch and embattled stair tower with pyramidal roof at right end of main block.
Gabled porch has 3 centred arched doorway. Hall, to the right, has a parapet and is buttressed with plate traceried transomed stone windows. Stair tower has a moulded string, 3 lancet windows (with 3 more on right return) and a corbelled embattled parapet. Gable to left of porch incorporates a bellcote with large carved hound on ridge above. Other carvings include deeply projecting gargoyles. Windows similar to those on garden elevation with some variations, e.g. one with a diapered tympanum and some with 2 transoms. Billiard room has 1 and 2-light trefoil headed transomed windows and a cornice of paired billiard balls below the parapet which has high quality grotesque carvings. Rib-vaulted porch has 2 leaf half glazed outer door with decorated iron grilles and glazed tympanum, also with grille. Arch of inner doorway is carved and there is an extraordinary lamp holder carved in the form of the upper half of a man over the apex. Retaining wall to the courtyard is coped and has square piers with tiered caps at intervals. The left return has three shouldered lateral chimneystacks. Scattered fenestration matching that on the front elevation. Lower roofed service wing adjoins at right angles. The right return has a first floor corbelled lateral chimneystack - windows match those on the front. Single storey smoking room added by George & Yates in 1901. Single storey projecting bay to the drawing room now leads to the conservatory. The garden elevation is more regular than the north side but not quite symmetrical. 1:5:1 window front plus service wing to right and conservatory to left. End wings broken forward and gabled to the front. There is a moulded string course at first-floor level and deeply projecting cornice with elaborate gargoyles to the roll moulded parapet at second-floor level. Iron framed windows with either glazed or blind plate quatrefoil tracery above. The wings have 3-storey canted bays, the windows with plate quatrefoil tracery to the ground floors. At ground-floor level the main range has mullion windows with double transoms. The entrance has a round headed arch with drip moulding and carved terminals of chained dogs. Stained glass and tracery overlight to 2 leaf door. Each leaf has 6 panels with top 4 being glazed with geometric stained glass. The central windows at first and second-floor levels are enclosed by an ornamental surround with carved columns, an angel figure in the gable and 3 shields above the door. Corbelled corner oriel window between the left wing and main range. The remainder of the windows at first-floor level are 2- and 3-light transomed mullion windows. Gabled half dormers at second-floor level with windows set in recessed arches. Diapered tympana. 2-light transomed mullion windows except extreme left which is 3 light. Massive stone gargoyles and fleurons throughout.
INTERIOR: well-described in Pevsner, including various alterations and an account of the restorations. The great hall is the most spectacular room with a 4-bay arch braced roof springing from first quality carved corbels. The hall was decorated by Crace but redecorated in 1914 when the timber hooded chimney-piece was reduced and the screens passage probably removed. There are plans to restore the Crace decoration on the basis of surviving evidence. The stair cell is divided from the hall by an arcaded gallery of Ashburton marble columns with French waterleaf capitals. Grand stair with elaborate treatment to the underside and a balustrade of diagonally-set balusters above a pierced frieze and newel posts decorated with blind arcading. The Burges work elsewhere in the house is characteristically flamboyant including texts; remarkably lively carvings and the extraordinary 'jellymould domelets' which decorate the drawing room ceiling. The service wing, which is occupied by the family, was not inspected.
HISTORY: Burges' plans for elaborate internal decoration are known from original drawings in the possession of the National Trust and there is also a good photographic record of the house. Pevsner described the house as "an eloquent expression of High Victorian ideals in a country house of moderate size". The house in the care of the National Trust since 1973. Other details: LBS number 485137.

The Parks Agency, 2007, The Setting of Knightshayes Park and Garden: A Historic Landscape Assessment (Report - Assessment). SDV341853.

Scard, A, 2017, Knighthayes Court, Tiverton: Monitoring and Recording (Report - Watching Brief). SDV360252.

Archaeological monitoring and recording was undertaken by South West Archaeology Ltd. (SWARCH) at the request of the South West Project Manager of the Renewable Energy Investment Programme for the National Trust (the Client) at Knighthayes Court, Tiverton, Devon (Figure 1) during the installation of pipes for a biomass heating system.
The only feature of archaeological interest was a wall of regular and coursed square stone blocks, adjacent to the house. Much like the adjacent house, the feature had a rusticated surface and was bonded with a pale buff mortar. The revealed wall defines a space containing an opening into the cellar beyond, blocked with breeze blocks, the cavity backfilled with loose buff brown soil and an abundance of stony waste (brick, plaster and tile) with a stone segmental arch overhead. The brick observed in the backfill was modern engineering brick. The cellar door would have seemingly once been approached by steps, though none were observed during the works, before the former door opening was blocked up and backfilled. The current doors above are forced through this elevation.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV325629	Monograph: Cherry, B. + Pevsner, N.. 1989. The Buildings of England: Devon. The Buildings of England: Devon. Hardback Volume. 526-528.
SDV336196	Monograph: Pevsner, N.. 1952. The Buildings of England: North Devon. The Buildings of England: North Devon. Paperback Volume. 111.
SDV341842	Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card: Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division. 1978 - 1980. SS91NE5. Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card. Card Index.
SDV341844	List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest: Department of Environment. 1975. Tiverton. Historic Houses Register. Unknown.
SDV341846	Report - Survey: National Trust. 1984. Knightshayes Court, Devon. National Trust Archaeological Survey Report. A4 Stapled + Digital. 5.
SDV341847	Register of Parks and Gardens in England: English Heritage. 2000. Knightshayes Court. Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. A4 Stapled.
SDV341848	List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest: Department for Culture, Media and Sport. 2000. Tiverton. Historic Houses Register. A4 Comb Bound. 6-8.
SDV341851	Ground Photograph: Devon County Council. Knightshayes Court. Unknown. Unknown.
SDV341853	Report - Assessment: The Parks Agency. 2007. The Setting of Knightshayes Park and Garden: A Historic Landscape Assessment. Parks Agency Report. A4 Spiral Bound.
SDV35794	Monograph: Keene, B. + Butler, D.. 1997. Knightshayes Court from Knightenhaie to National Trust. A5 Paperback. 19-22.
SDV360252	Report - Watching Brief: Scard, A. 2017. Knighthayes Court, Tiverton: Monitoring and Recording. Southwest Archaeology. TKH16. Digital.
SDV365856	Ground Photograph: Watts, S.. Knightshayes Court. Digital.
	Linked images:1

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4435 - A Historic Landscape Assessment of the Setting of Knightshayes Park and Garden
• EDV7295 - Monitoring and Recording: Knighthayes Court, Tiverton (Ref: TKH16)

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