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Summary

House built by George Templer in 1832, altered and extended in the late 19th century.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1256973: SANDFORD ORLEIGH

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX87SE/130
• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 464354

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• MANSION HOUSE (Built, XIX - 1832 AD to 1832 AD)

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Sandford Orleigh marked on 1880s-1890s 25 inch Ordnance Survey map. The house is reached via a curving driveway from Exeter Road with a lodge at the entrance. To the east of the house is a large landscaped garden.

Devon County Council, 1975, Newton Abbot Town Trails, 59 (Article in Monograph). SDV352459.

It is thought that Judge Jeffries stayed here during the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685. An inscription over the door reads 'Let Justice be done though the sky fall'. It was restored about 130 years ago by George Templer who built the Haytor Granite Railway and Stover Canal. In 1875 it was bought by Sir Samuel White Baker, whose guests during his 18 year occupancy included the Prince of Wales and General Gordon.

Dudley, E. R., 1982, Sandford Orleigh (Worksheet). SDV349202.

External and internal features noted. The earlier part of the building has a Latin inscription over the door and a coat of arms at first floor level. The building was extended by G. Templar circa 1843. Above the fireplace in the billiard room is a reredos from St. Leonard's Chapel, Wolborough.

Department of Environment, 1983, Newton Abbot, 23 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV298253.

1995, Jetty Marsh Link Road - Stage 2. Newton Abbot. Environmental Assessment Final Report (Report - Assessment). SDV319805.

Department of National Heritage, 1996, Newton Abbot, 65 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV341520.

Ordnance Survey, 2012, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV348725.

The grounds of Sandford Orleigh have now been largely developed. The driveway survives but the lodge has gone.

Historic England, 2019, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV362730.

Sandford Orleigh. Mansion. 1832, altered and extended to left late C19. MATERIALS: ashlar and render, slate roofs with various stacks. STYLE: Picturesque Gothic. PLAN: irregular.
EXTERIOR: Two storeys; 6-window range. South-facing entrance front is in four blocks. The block to the right has a large late C19 projecting 2-storey porch to the right of centre with parapets to returns which rise to a coped gable at the front with a stone cross to apex. First floor has tall 2-light stone-mullioned sash window with three brackets to the sill. Ground floor has crocketed angle buttresses flanking wide shallow-pointed arch with engaged shafts to capitals framing double doors. Return walls have similar arches which frame windows. The two bays to the left with hipped roof and parapet have two first-floor windows with label moulds over carved quatrefoil friezes and plate-glass sash windows. A crenellated rectangular bay below has label mould over three similar windows with overlights, probably late C19. In the angle to the right of door is a late C19 single-storey fully-glazed conservatory with decorative cast-iron corners to overlights. Right return garden front facing east has three coped gables. That to the left has a flat-roofed 2-storey crenellated canted bay with 6/6-pane sash windows in similar architraves with label moulds over quatrefoil friezes to first-floor front and plate-glass sash windows in moulded architraves to ground floor. A late C19 two-storey canted bay with crenellated parapet to right has similar first-floor windows with triangular aprons and moulded architraves to plate-glass sashes to ground floor. Single-storey late C19 parapeted range between the outer bays also has canted bay with similar windows. Central block of the south front has a 6/6-pane sashes on each floor to left, each with label mould and quatrefoil frieze; central door has the motto of the Jeffries family beneath semi-elliptical hoodmould: "FIAT JUSTITIA RUAT COELUM", and two lancets with hoodmoulds on each floor to the right. The rear of this block has similar windows to the left and a projecting coped gabled wing to the right with a flat-roofed 2-storey shallow canted bay which has stone mullions, four Tudor-arched windows with sunk spandrels to the fronts, blind windows to the sides of the first floor and elaborate carved aprons with quatrefoils and mouchettes. The two blocks to left of south front have 8/8-pane sash windows to first floor, flat arch to carriageway to inside left (which opens into courtyard on right) and a 6/6-pane sash window with label mould and frieze to ground floor right. Rear is of small sandstone rubble and has paired octagonal shafts to crenellated axial stacks; to rear left is a square crenellated base to an unroofed octagonal crenellated tower with a pierced lancet to each facet.

INTERIOR: central and left-hand blocks are of mid C18 style, right-hand block is late C19 with polychromatic tiles to floors of the porch and hall separated by C20 double doors under a fine mid C19 wide segmental-arched fanlight with an oval pane to the centre flanked by four mouchettes and an open-well open-string staircase with turned balusters. The room to ground-floor front right has a spectacular arcade of four granite piers supporting cusped pendant arches, semi-elliptical to the centre flanked by shallow pointed arches, and panelled strapwork ceiling with moulded ribs. A former billiard room to the rear has a fireplace said to have been made from the alter screen and reredos of St Laurence's Chapel (1520) although much of the detail is one hundred years later in terms of style. The overmantel with arabesques to panels has cornice over two rows of six vertical carved panels articulated by caryatids, some now missing; the surround is similar with lion masks (overmantel now relocated in the Newton Abbot Town and GWR Museum).
HISTORY: the house was built by George Templer (see Templer House, Newton Abbot Hospital, East Street, (qv), a local industrialist who bought the screen at auction. The entrance hall was originally built by Templar as a Porte Cochere and was open on three sides, later enclosed by Sir Samuel Baker (1821-1893) when he built his conservatory for tropical plants here in the C1870. Baker, one of the periods most celebrated explorers discoverered the source of the Nile and was Governor of Sudan.

Dudley, E. R., Aug 1982, Reredos, Sandeford Orlegh, Highweek (Illustration). SDV358414.

Scale drawing of a reredos above a fireplace. The reredos, which is of oak with ornate decoration, originally came from St. Leonard's, Wolborough.

Unknown, Unknown, Sandford Orleigh (Ground Photograph). SDV350298.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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