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Summary

Manor house, believed to be sited where obelisk now stands, was built in 1790 and demolished 1820, just before the present Arlington Court was built

Location

Protected Status

• Registered Park or Garden (II*) 1000687: ARLINGTON COURT
• SHINE: Earthworks, including building platforms/terraces and below-ground archaeological remains on site of former Manor at Arlington Court

Other References/Statuses

• National Trust SMR: 145238
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS64SW/20/1
• SHINE Candidate (Yes)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• MANOR HOUSE (Built, XV to XVIII - 1401 AD to 1799 AD (Between))

Full description

National Trust, Arlington Court, Devon (Unknown). SDV339291.

Other details: 145238.

Papworth, M., Resistivity Survey, Arlington Court (Report - Geophysical Survey). SDV339307.

A resistivity survey was carried out on June 4th-7th 1996, in the field immediately south of the Parish Church of Arlington, to try to determine the site of the house built for the Chichester family by John Meadows in 1790. There were distinct concentrations of areas of high and low resistance across the field although the plot pattern does not give many clear features alignments. The field contains a number of earthwork terraces and it would seem likely that this is the site of the 1790 house and the wall footings are obscured by a spread of rubble. This house was poorly built and had to be demolished after thirty years. This house was painted in 1797 by Maria Pixcell and her paintings give clues to its location. The Estate Map of 1776 indicates that the house predating that of 1790 was also south of the church and there may have been a manor house here from the medieval period. In the early 16th century Amias Chichester had nineteen sons and it was said that when they all went to church the first would be in the church porch before the last had left the house, this is a good indication of the proximity of the church to the manor house.

National Trust, 1984, Arlington Court, Devon, 9 (Report - Survey). SDV337709.

Manor house, believed to be sited where obelisk now stands, was built in 1790 and demolished 1820, just before the present Arlington Court was built. This house must have replaced one, perhaps by the Raleighs, and later the residence of Amyas Chichester, 1512-1577. No visible traces remain.

Blaylock, S., 1996, Colour Photos: Geophysical Survey (Ground Photograph). SDV339309.

Green, T. + Humphreys, C., 1998, Arlington Court Trial Excavation (Report - Excavation). SDV339306.

In early June 1998 a National Trust excavation was undertaken to look for traces of gardens or buildings associated with the earlier Arlington House(s). The north end of a drainage ditch dug some years ago in the paddock opposite the church, was cut back to produce a vertical face and a straight east-west section. The first length of section produced a basic soil profile and a hint of possible prehistoric activity in the form of a pit or post hole with a slab of stone and fragments of charcoal at the base. Continuing east there was considerable ground disturbance with signs of pits and hollows, increasing amounts of loose stone and finds of pottery, most of it typical post-medieval North Devon types. In the third extension coursed stone structures, apparently revetments, overlain by soil and rubble into which were mixed pottery, slates, fragments of glazed ridge tiles, bottle and window glass, clay pipes and pieces of coal. When this extension was extended further east the deposits abruptly gave out. On the south side of the ditch a free-standing, clay-bonded wall with traces of slate-flagged floor at its base, which could be part of a building were found. It is not possible to make any assertions about the nature of the structures revealed, although the vague humps and bumps in the paddock appear to reflect underlying structures. The walls in the third section are only faced on one side and appear to be retaining walls, perhaps for garden terraces or part of a building set into the slope. The free-standing wall probably represents a building, although in truncated form it may at some point have been incorporated into the garden scheme. The ground immediately to the southeast is a large platform covered in nettles. The sometimes heavy rubble in the central sections of the excavation all seems to tip from the south east, it is possible that there was a building here, the remains of which have been spread out over the terraces. There are no precise dating finds but the material found covers the 16th century to the 19th century. The deposits reach at least 2 metres below ground level. The total-station survey carried out at the same time as the excavation presents a picture of broad terraces and gentle undulations.

Blaylock, S., 1998 - 1999, Annual Archaeological Review (Report - non-specific). SDV339308.

Possible site of first Arlington House. The present Arlington Court was built in the 1820s, but there were at least two earlier houses. It is thought that the Chichester family first resided at Arlington after 1534 when the manor house was rebuilt. The only detailed location of this house is a tracing of a map of 1776 by Charles Hassall overlain onto an Ordnance Survey map of 1903 (the original 1776 map is lost); this shows a house and a number of enclosed gardens, in addition to other buildings south of the church. These enclosures may be some of the forty gardens mentioned in an inventory of 1699. A new house, perhaps incorporating part of the old house, was built in the 1790s. Three views of it were painted by Maria Pixcel, showing the house to the south of the church, but set in parkland not enclosed gardens. This house was demolished when the present house was built on a new site to the west of the church only 30 years later. The site of the old house is now a paddock. Three large, broad terraces across the field have been surveyed, and are interpreted as the house platform and/or garden terraces. Following a resistivity survey, only one possible small building in the northwest of the area was identified. A drainage ditch running across the south side of the paddock was examined in approximately 1978 before the importance of the field was realised. In July 1998 selected areas of the ditch were cleaned up and the archaeological remains found were recorded. The remains of at least one stone building were revealed, with evidence for a slab floor, and deposits up to 2 metres below the present ground level, in the approximate position of the buildings shown south of the main house on the tracing of the Hassall Map of 1776. Other walls found are probably part of the garden enclosures.

Lovie, J., 2009, Arlington Court, Devon: Conservation Statement Prepared by Johnathan Lovie for the National Trust (Report - non-specific). SDV352139.

In 1790 Colonel Chichester remodelled the existing manor house, creating a fashionable late Georgian country house, which was replaced in 1820 by a new house on a fresh site.
Charles Hassall's 1776 survey shows that the pre-1790 house stood to the south of the parish church, with a group of four or six garden enclosures arranged in a rectangular configuration to the south of the house. The gardens were bounded to the east by the Southern Grove Wood. A corresponding block of plantation, the Northern Grove Wood, is shown to the east of the house and to the north of a drive which extends from east to west, separating the house from the gardens. To the south-west of the group of six gardens, a further rectangular enclosure is shown; perhaps the kitchen garden, the south-western corner of the enclosure is adjoined by a group of buildings which may be stables.

Berry, N., 2011, Arlington Court, Devon. Archaeological and Historic Landscape Survey of the Arlington Estate (Report - Survey). SDV348171.

Site of the previous Arlington Court to the south of the church. This was built in the 1790s, adapting the previous manor house that stood on the site which had origins in the late medieval or Tudor period. The manor house together with the church formed the centre of a small hamlet which was removed to create the present parkland in the late 18th/early 19th century. See report for further details.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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