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Summary

A large house built around four sides of a narrow courtyard. It dates to the late 17th or 18th century or earlier but was remodelled in a Tudor style in the early-mid 19th century and again in a mixture of 15th and 16th century styles between 1912 and 1914.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1263618: DENBURY MANOR

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX86NW/200
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HOUSE (Built, XVII to World War I - 1601 AD to 1914 AD (Between))

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV306772.

Doe/hhr:torbryan/(15/10/1984)26.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV306773.

Des=worksheet/(bath,c 1985).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV306775.

Baring-gould, s. /devon/(1911)166.

LAITHWAITE, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV8052.

Vis=-/-/1985 (bath). Denbury manor house. Originally a cell of the abbey of tavistock which held the manor at domesday (bath).

Delderfield, E., 1964, A Tudor Manor of Mystery and Charm (Article in Serial). SDV361942.

History of ownership and description of interesting features including a stone archway at ground level with buttresses above which appears to serve no purpose. The south front was added in the 19th century with two false windows to give balance. Elsewhere there is a door built against a wall in the same manner. See article for full details.

Delderfield, E., 1978, Anyone for Tennis - Behind a 15 Foot High Wall (Article in Serial). SDV361941.

The house was enlarged and converted to a dower house circa 1825. It is described at that time as being backed by a rookery of elm trees and approached by an avenue of limes but otherwise surrounded by grey walls and laurel hedges.
The manor of Debury became the property of Tavistock Abbey in 1042 and remained so until the dissolution of the monasteries when it was handed to John Russell in whose family it remained for many generations.
The house is built around a small courtyard and every room Delderfield says is 'light, spacious and beautifully proportioned'. Tudor walling survives in the attics and in the scullery, exposed during alterations. Some of the original medieval windows remain in the south facing dining and drawing rooms and there is another surviving in the attics.
See article for further information.

Laithwaite, J. M. W., 1987, Denbury (Report - Survey). SDV358617.

Knowles and Hadcock list Denbury as a cell of Tavistock Abbey. This appears to be on the strength of a reference by Baring Gould which in turn looks to have been taken from one of Kelly's Directories. However, although Denbury Manor belonged to Tavistock Abbey there is no documentary evidence that it was a monastic cell or even a grange. The present house is basically late 17th/early 18th century in character, built around four sides of a courtyard.

Ordnance Survey, 2015, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV357601.

Historic England, 2015, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV358087.

Denbury Manor. Large house. Late C17 or Cl8 (but basically probably an earlier structure). Remodelled in 'Tudor' style in early or mid C19 and again in a mixture of C15 and C16 styles for Walter Septimus Curtis between 1912 and 1914. Stone rubble, rendered on south side. Slated roofs with lead ridges and hips. Built round four sides of a narrow courtyard with the best rooms on the south and west sides; the north side (where the main entrance now is) occupied by the kitchen before 1912. Two storey with half-storey in south range. South front, in a romantic early or mid C19 'Tudor' style, is 6 windows wide, the left-hand window in ground and second storeys of five mullioned-and-transomed lights with small panes, set in a gabled projection. 4-window centre-piece has windows with tall mullioned-and-transomed wood casements and hood moulds in ground and second storeys; two dormer gables with wood casements and hood-moulds above. Right-hand window of ground and second storeys flanked by massive square pillars with decorative tops (now reduced in height), and having sections of mock-battlement peeping out from behind them. Second-storey windows canted oriel with moulded base; above it a large dormer gable like those in centrepiece. West front (the original entrance) abuts the two- window side-elevation of south range to right. It consists of a 4-window section to left, with 6-pane barred sashes in all but the two left-hand ground-storey window which have C20 wood casements. To right, a 2-window projection with hipped roof, the windows all C20 mullioned-and-transomed wood casements. To left an older doorway with two-centred arch. North front has large C20 projection in centre with 'Tudor' doorway and diamond leaded stone mullion windows; to right in second storey a corbelled projecting stone chimney, the top of which has been removed. In roof, off-centre to left a large stone chimney with tapered top. In east front, at south end, a large mock gothic stair window of early or mid C19. In west range, re-set, a C17 straight-headed wood doorway with ovolo and hollow mouldings and large urn stop. Old plank door with wrought-iron strap-hinges having fleur-de-Lys terminals; added C19 or C20 wood ribs. Upper part of early or mid C19 staircase, with mock Gothic detail, survives at south end. East ridge has in ground storey a 3-light wood ovolo-moulded mullioned window with diagonally-set vertical bar in each light (possible re-set). In south wall of north range, in second storey, two mullioned-and-transomed wood windows of late C17 or early C18, with rectangular leaded lights. South range has several with raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panels. Roofs of east, west and north ranges C18 or early C19. Interior: large fireplace in present entrance-hall, formerly the kitchen, has segmented arch with voussoirs and evidence of a former oven on left-hand side. Reference to 1912 and 1914 work for Walter Septimus Curtis from Mrs Tate of Denbury. Pevsner Buildings of England 1952 describes the Manor as originally a cell of the monks of Tavistock and some later medievalizations done by Hurrell Froude in 1825.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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