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Summary

Wortham Manor is a remarkable survival of a medieval house with a substantial modernisation of the early C16. The survival of the early C16 plan in combination with a wealth of contemporary joinery makes this a house of outstanding national importance.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (I) 1164234: WORTHAM

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX38NE/508
• Old Listed Building Ref (I)
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX38NE1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• MANOR HOUSE (Built, XV to XVI - 1401 AD (Between) to 1600 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1907-73, SX38NE1 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV239939.

Site visits 19th February 1951 and 6th June 1973. Remains of mansion known as Wortham Manor, said by the owner to have been built by Robert Wortham circa 1400. A medieval mansion remaining substantially unchanged. Part of it may date from the 14th century but it is mostly late 15th century to early 16th century reconstructed internally in the early 17th century.
Described by Pevsner as one of the most remarkable houses for its size in Devon and which can still convey a fairly complete impression of an early Tudor manor house.
The building which is now the property of the Landmark Trust, is [1973] undergoing complete restoration (including re-roofing) which commenced circa 1969.

Fouracre, J.T., 1909, Ornamental Lime-Plaster Ceilings and The Plasterer's Craft in Devonshire, 259 (Article in Serial). SDV350400.

Gover, J. E. B. + Mawer, A. + Stenton, F. M., 1931, The Place-Names of Devon: Part One, 191 (Monograph). SDV1312.

Documentary references in late 15th century.

Pevsner, N., 1952, The Buildings of England: North Devon, 170 (Monograph). SDV336196.

Description given.

Hoskins, W. G., 1954, A New Survey of England: Devon, 276 (Monograph). SDV17562.

Seymour, D. J., 1955 - 1958, The Smaller Manor Houses of Medieval Devon, 17 (Article in Serial). SDV6523.

Well restored. Fine facade with carved doorway in granite. All ancient outbuildings have vanished.

Department of Environment, 1960, Tavistock RD Provisional List, 13 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV220567.

L-shaped house in rubble and ashlar with slate roof. Brick and stone stacks. Mullioned windows with three halls, one above the other, open timber roof.
See listing description for full details.

Copeland, G. W., 1966, Proceedings at the 104th Annual Meeting, 31-32 (Article in Serial). SDV266064.

Late medieval sub manor house. Some windows remain from late 15th century. It has a fine north front, entirely of regular granite ashlar blocks, with a fine three-staged gabled porch whose outer 4-centred doorway has an unusual carved tympanum. L-shaped, with a polygonal stair turret at the rear of the main wing, to which a later square top stage boldly corbelled at the corners has been added. The sides of the house show rubble masonry.2-centred, 4-centred, ogee, and square windows. Good wooden screen in the hall, with 15th century linen-fold, and surmounted by great crocketed pinnacles. Most of the free stone or granite fireplaces are original. There are panelled walls in principal rooms. The upper hall has an open timber roof with cross braces between the main beams and the purlins. The oak room has fine panelled walls relieved by flat fluted pilasters with acanthus leaf caps, and with a handsome frieze of carved rectangular panels. The fireplace has an elaborately carved overmantel. The ceiling has cross ribs and carved bosses.

Department of Environment, 1985, Lifton, 75 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV337962.

Manor house. C15, remodelled early C16 for the Dinhams, late C20 alterations and renovations for the Landmark Trust.
North side of main range dressed stone, south side of the main range stone rubble, porch ashlar masonry. Late C20 slate roof gabled at ends, east wing hipped at south end. 7 stone stacks, those to the main range with late C20 moulded granite caps: stacks at gable ends and on ridge of main range with 1 lateral stack on n front, 1 stack on ridge of east wing and 2 adjacent lateral stacks on the e side. The C15 plan appears to have been an open hall house, probably associated with an end stack, with an east cross wing. It has been suggested that at one time there was also a w wing (see Oswald). The house was remodelled at an unusually early date for Devon, in the early C16. The hall was ceiled over and heated from a lateral stack with access to a heated first floor chamber from a projecting stair turret on the south side. A 3-stage porch was added on the north side, and the east wing was extended south and probably truncated on n side. Internally the ceiling of the parlour, which is below the screens passage, appears to be contemporary with the early C16 hall ceiling and a first floor plank and muntin full height partition which divides the room above the hall into 2 also appears to date from the early C16, as do plank and muntin partitions to the first floor of the east wing. Access to the first floor rooms in the east wing may have been from a stair leading up from a lobby on the south-east side of the hall. Of the C15 house the roof of the open hall survives in part and a much restored C15 roof at the n end of the east wing which may have been the great chamber. Some cusped windows and an ogee-headed doorway in the e wing are also C15 but may not all be in situ. The early C16 hall and parlour ceilings, numerous doors and doorways and first floor screens are largely intact. The parlour was partly refurbished in the late C16/early C17. C20 alterations have involved a thorough programme of alteration and repair, the removal of a later addition at the w end, gabling the east wing to the north and west and extending the west south.
2 storeys.6 window north front, the left-hand bay is the gable end of the east wing. Disturbance to masonry suggests that the eastwing may have been a crosswing prior to the C16 remodelling.3-stage gabled porch is approximately central to the main range. The lateral hall stack rises above a late C20 parapet which is on the left-hand side of the main range only. Granite mullioned windows with diagonal leaded panes, iron stanchions and saddle bars throughout. All windows have Tudor arched heads to the lights except the first floor porch window which has 3 cusped lights and a hoodmould with carved label stops. All 4-light windows also have hoodmoulds, carved label stops and king mullions except ground floor left which appears to be a large C20 copy. Grand moulded stone arched doorway to the porch. The doorway has an arched hoodmould and carved label stops and is very close in design to a doorway and the remains of tympana at the old college, week st mary, to which John Dinham was a feoffee to the deed of endowment. The south side of the main range has a break in the plinth which may indicate a former wing or the abutment of a wall, and rises above the eavesline under a gabled roof. The turret masonry is not tied into the south wall but is probably contemporary with adjacent doorway to the screens passage. On the east side of the east wing a pair of lateral stacks, 1 projecting, heats the kitchen. A reconstructed wide stone porch under a sloping slate roof leads into the kitchen. One of the 3 first floor mullioned windows has 3 re-sited cusped lights and may date from the C15 build, the other windows are 2-light with Tudor arches and hoodmoulds. On the west side a moulded stone arched doorway leads into the C16 part of the wing, flanked by 2 windows, one with a Tudor arch, the other rectangular. A Tudor arched window lights the first floor of the early C16 addition which is marked by a straight joint. In the earlier part of the wing a mullioned Tudor arched window lights the lobby while a cusped freestone window above probably dates from the C15 but may not be in situ.
Interior: circa mid to late C15 moulded arch braced roof to the former open hall survives with 3 tiers of purlins and wind bracing, mostly replaced. The roof is very similar to that of that at cotehele. Some ancient colour to braces and purlins. The solar above the kitchen retains part of a C15 arched braced roof. The C16 hall ceiling is particularly fine with 5 cross beams and all joists moulded with carved foliage stops. The cross beam stops are large and elaborate and of similar character to the bosses of the parlour ceiling. The early C16 screen is remarkable for consisting of 3 separate partitions, each with linen fold panelling in a moulded framework crowned by massive crocketted pinnacles. The sections do not close against the wall and each partition has been cut off above the sill and the pinnacles have been cut down at top and bottom to fit under the cross beam. The linenfold panelling has similarities with french carpentry and presumably the whole screen has been introduced from elsewhere. The fireplace is an early C20 introduction (see Oswald). A recess to the left of the fireplace may mark the position of the open hall window. The parlour ceiling bears a marked resemblance to the hall ceiling in some of its details. It is wholly gothic in character with moulded timber ribs with carved bosses fixed to C20 boarding. In the circa late C16/early C17 the parlour was partly refurbished with panelling divided by fluted pilasters and a frieze of carved panels above. The chimney piece has fluted pilasters with grotesque masks supporting a cornice below a frieze of round headed arches with caryatids between. Within the frieze panels of pots of flowers flank a central double-headed eagle panel. A fine early C16 arched plank door gives into the parlour from the stair turret. The principal chamber above the hall is divided from a closet by a plank and muntin partition that rises to the apex of the roof with a moulded rail at wallplate level mortised for a ceiling that no longer exists. A second plank and muntin partition divides the closed from the porch chamber and has a 2-light slit window in it overlooking the entrance from a newel stair rising from the n porch. There have been some alterations to the screen. The principal chamber is heated at the left end from the stack that may have been the original open hall stack, with a c16 fireplace with a replaced lintel. The chamber above the parlour also has an early C16 fireplace, and a narrow closet adjoining this room at the w has 2 round-headed wall niches and a shallow fireplace with a C15 carved timber lintel. The kitchen has 2 roughly-chamfered cross beams with diagonal stops and a double fireplace, one with a timber lintel, one with a brick lintel. Several of the early C16 plank and muntin screens to the first floor of the east wing show traces of ancient colour. The east wing also has the reused remains of a C17 staircase balustrade with bobbin balusters and 1 fine C17 fireplace.
The manor of Wortham passed by marriage from the Wortham family to a cadet branch of the Dinhams in the reign of Richard II and became the principal seat of the Dinhams when the main branch of the family died out in 1501. It has been suggested that the house was originally moated (see Oswald). Mid C20 photographs in Country Life show the east and west lime-washed and without the present north and west gables. Philip Tilden owned the house in the early C20 and is likely to have been responsible for considerable works prior to the work by Paul Pearn for the Landmark Trust. The house is a remarkable survival of a medieval house with a substantial modernisation of the early C16. The survival of the early C16 plan in combination with a wealth of contemporary joinery makes this a house of outstanding national importance.

Snell, R., 1986, Green Lanes in Devon Project (Un-published). SDV8442.

Cherry, B. + Pevsner, N., 1989, The Buildings of England: Devon, 921-2 (Monograph). SDV325629.

Steinmetzer, M., 2010, Archaeological Building Recording and Monitoring at Wortham Manor, Lifton, Devon (Report - Watching Brief). SDV344510.

Original main beam and joists found to be still in place beneath the floor of the north-eastern first floor bedroom. The joists are of sawn oak timbers with suffit tenons to connect them to the central beam. Each joist is numbered with equivalent numbering on the main beam. Faint traces of limewash on the joists suggests that they were originally exposed and that the ceiling of the kitchen beneath was a later addition.

Ordnance Survey, 2024, Mastermap 2024 (Cartographic). SDV365834.

Oswald, A., Unknown, Unknown, 1174-7,1228-31 (Article in Serial). SDV239950.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4640 - Building Recording and Monitoring at Wortham Manor, Lifton

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