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Summary

Old Newnham, early 15th century house.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (I) 1162879: OLD NEWNHAM

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX55NE/4
• Old Listed Building Ref (I)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BUILDING (Late Medieval - 1401 AD to 1539 AD (Between))

Full description

SOUTHWEST, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV150417.

Long wing to left hand (southwest) forming l-plan with levels descending southwards. Two and 3 storeys. Large moulded stone mullion windows with 4-centred or ogee-arched lights. Moulded 4-centred arched doorways with recessed spandrels on ground and first floor. The south range, the remains of the gate house, has wide carriageway with moulded 4-centred arch and carved spandrels. Other round, pointed and 4-central arch openings, and buttresses with set-offs. Fine garderobe corbelled out on south gable end. Large ashlar chimneystacks, 2 over the west range with crenellated lantern shaped taps and crocketed finials.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV150423.

Seymour, d. J. /ttnhs/12(1955-1958)13/the smaller manor houses of medieval devon.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV150424.

Pevsner, n. /the buildings of england:south devon/(1952)210-211.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV150425.

Reichel, o. J. /hundreds of devon/(1928-1938)294-295/the hundred of plympton in early times.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV177625.

Of the chapel, some indications of the groined roof remains (pevsner).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV242.

See sx55ne/6 for details of the domesday manor of loughtor which preceded newnham (reichel).

Department of Environment, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV325958.

Full description given. A chapel on the site is not visible (doe).

Seymour, D. J., Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV4302.

L-shaped house. Fine tudor doors and fireplace in the hall. First mentioned in 1929 (seymour).

Anonymous, 1916, Proceedings at the Fifty-Fifth Annual Meeting, 35 (Article in Serial). SDV150421.

Old Newnham, now a farm-house, has, on the other hand, retained most of its original features. No manor of Newnham can be traced, although both family and fine old buildings bore that name, but that Old Newnham lies in the manors of Cartsford and Torridge.
Old Newnham is a Tudor house; the structure is of two, not widely separated, dates. First there is the original building, comparatively small, but beautiful and very perfect, with its hall and great kitchen. The hall has now been parted by a flood into lower and upper rooms, but little damage has been done externally beyond the disturbance of a few mullions of the great window, and the partial blocking of the oriel. To this original house has been added a wing on the left hand, in slightly varied but quite consistent style; a feature of this addition is the unusual but highly effective treatment of chimneys.
But for the manner of junction with the wing and the main building, which clearly marks the former as an addition it would be difficult to say which was the earlier in date. There is, however, one feature which would confirm the main building as the older, and that is the occasional use of Roborough Down elvan in the dressings, a material which is absent from the wing.

Copeland, G. W., 1944, Thirteenth Report of the Plymouth and District Branch, 94-95 (Article in Serial). SDV148767.

Old Newnham, early 15th century house. The chief features are the long west wing in the upper room of which at the north end is a fine ceiling divided into panels by finely moulded beams embellished with large well carved bosses, two ornamental pinnacled chimneys; fragments of a domestic oratory licensed in 1405; remains of a fine oriel window to the former hall; traces of the original hall roof and a great fireplace in the old kitchen.16th century with earlier remains and later additions. It still retains most of its original external and internal granite doorways, windows and dressings. There are the remains of a fine early arch braced roof over bathroom ceiling.
If the house were ever three-sided, as has been supposed by some, the missing side would have been east of the forecourt. The presence, obviously in situ, of remains of the hall roof would seem to point out that the hall was never as high as the loftiest portion of the west wing, which forms a striking contrast in elevation; but that it was intended to be raised at some later period is quite possible.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX55NE3 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV150420.

Old Newnham (11th century). (OS 6" 1915)

Early 15th century, not 11th century. (Hansford Worth, R. 09/12/1948)

In the main house is a Tudor mansion of the 16th century, probably no later than 1547, though the fact that no Roborough Devon stone is used in the dressings of the windows etc. of the west wing may be indicative that part of the house is of a different date. On plan the house is T-shaped. There is no real evidence that it was every quadrangular. The west wing or rather the stem of the T is of considerable length, and the main façade is the head of the T to the east of the stem. Here the chief feature is a good 2-stage porch, to the left of which was the hall, of which there are distinct traces, though it has been subdivided. There are also traces of an oriel near the angle with the west wing, which must have once formed an attractive feature of the mansion front. Other interacting details are (a large number of coeval windows, doorways and fireplaces, including the double one in the old kitchen, in the head of the T west of the west wing). A room with finely moulded beams and richly carved bossed to the ceiling; two striking capped and pinnacled chimney stacks; the remains of a good arch-braced roof in the short wing containing the bathroom; and the slightly fragments of the oratory, licensed May 20th 1432 by Bishop Lacy in favour of John Strode. Or the fragments may be the remains of earlier chapel licensed in 1405 by Bishop Stafford, in favour of John Selman, Elizabeth, his wife, their children and family, that they might have services of evensong and mass in their mansion of Newnham. (Copeland, G. W. January 1950)

Old Newnham. (OS 21 dated 28/03/1950)

Historic England, 2018, National Heritage List for England, 1162879 (National Heritage List for England). SDV360653.

Old Newnham
Grade: I
List Entry Number: 1162879
Date first listed: 23rd April 1952

Former manor house. C15 origins, largely rebuilt in early C16. Granite ashlar and rubble with ashlar dressings. Slate roofs, gabled and hipped. The original hall, non floored, has a screens passage moved from the west end to the east end. The solar is in the long west range which extends to the south-west to form an L-shaped plan and incorporates the remains of the gatehouse. The chapel possibly occupied the much altered wing east of the hall, and the kitchen was to the north. Two storeys. Three/4 bays. Gabled 2-storeyed porch to right of hall, with moulded 4-centred arch doorway with carved spandrels and 3-light ovolo moulded stone mullion window above, with hood mould. Hall to left with large recessed 6-light window with ovolo mullion and transoms, 3 of the lower mullions removed. Oriel to left (west) of hall with mutilated tracery. Right hand (east) remodelled projecting cross wing with hipped roof and sash windows. Long wing to left hand (south-west) forming L-plan and with levels descending southwards. Two and 3 storeys. Large moulded stone mullion windows with 4-centred or ogee-arched lights. Moulded 4-centred arch doorways with recessed spandrels on ground and first floor. The south range, the remains of the gate house, has wide carriageway with moulded 4-centred arch and carved spandrels. Other round, pointed and 4-central arch openings, and buttresses with set-offs. Fine garderobe corbelled out on south gable end. Large ashlar chimneystacks, 2 over the west range with crenellated lantern shaped taps and crocketed finials. Interior: hall has inserted floor but retains the collar-braced roof of 3 bays. Hall fireplace has large moulded granite chimneypiece with ogee head. The higher end of the hall has three C15 doorways. The original solar in the west range has compartmented moulded ceiling with carved bosses at the intersections and granite chimneypiece. The room below has moulded and carved ceiling beams. Four-centred arch doorways at top and bottom of solar stairs. Formerly the seat of the Strodes before they moved to Newnham Park qv. Reference: W G Hoskins, "Devon A New Survey of England", page 463.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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