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Mamhead House

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Coordinates: 50°37′11″N 3°30′48″W / 50.6197°N 3.5133°W / 50.6197; -3.5133
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Mamhead House
Anthony Salvin's first major commission
TypeHouse
LocationMamhead, Devon
Coordinates50°37′11″N 3°30′48″W / 50.6197°N 3.5133°W / 50.6197; -3.5133
Built1827–1833
ArchitectAnthony Salvin
Architectural style(s)Tudor Revival
Governing bodyPrivately owned
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameDawlish College (Mamhead House)
Designated11 November 1952
Reference no.1170130
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameStable yard and service buildings North West of Dawlish College (Mamhead House)
Designated11 November 1952
Reference no.1333960
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameOrangery
Designated11 November 1952
Reference no.1170208
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameDawlish Lodge
Designated11 November 1952
Reference no.1097650
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameForest Gate
Designated11 November 1952
Reference no.1097651
Mamhead House is located in Devon
Mamhead House
Location of Mamhead House in Devon

Mamhead House, Mamhead, Devon, is a country house dating from 1827. Its origins are older but the present building was constructed for Robert William Newman, an Exeter merchant, in 1827–1833 by Anthony Salvin. The house is Grade I listed as Dawlish College, its function at the time of listing. The parkland is listed at Grade II*.

History

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The Mamhead estate is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as belonging to Ralph de Pomeroy.[1] It was owned by the Carew and Ball families, of which latter Thomas Ball (1671–1749) was a merchant who planted many exotic trees. His head gardener Thomas Lucombe became a prominent nurseryman at Exeter.[2] The estate came into the possession of Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale, whose sole heir, Elizabeth Nightingale, married Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne.[3] Subsequently, the estate was owned by the Earls of Lisburne until it was bought by Robert Newman in 1823.[4] In the 1770s, Capability Brown had undertaken landscaping of the grounds.[5] Newman was the senior partner in Newman & Co., a trading company based in Exeter[a] that had established a small shipping fleet to support its trade with Portugal and Newfoundland.[b][6]

The original mansion house of the Balls had been demolished in the late 18th century[5] and shortly after purchasing the estate, Newman commissioned Charles Fowler to design a new house. Fowler's Italianate plans did not find favour and Fowler had got no further than constructing the footings before he was replaced by Anthony Salvin. At 26, Salvin had his first important commission in Mamhead, and it made his reputation.[5] His designs for the house were in the Tudor Revival style, then a relatively new architectural approach, and incorporated the initials of Newman and his new wife, together with the Newman family motto in the decorative skyline above the main entrance.[c][2]

The Newman family retained ownership of the estate until the 1950s when Sir Ralph Newman, Robert Newman's great-grandson, sold it to an evangelical society. It subsequently housed a school, Dawlish College, in the 1960s, and was the regional headquarters of the Forestry Commission in the 1990s.[7]

Distant view of Mamhead House, 2006

In the early 21st century the house, again privately owned, operated as an events and wedding venue,[8] hosting the second marriage of Peter Andre in 2015.[9] The business subsequently went into liquidation, and its owner was disqualified from acting as a company director in 2019.[10][11] In 2020 the house, with an estate of approximately 164 acres, was put up for sale at a guide price of £10,000,000.[7]

Architecture and description

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Pevsner describes Mamhead as establishing "Salvin as the chief architect of his time for large country houses in the Tudor style".[5] The house is large, of nine bays, with battlemented and gabled roofs.[5] It follows a "conservative" plan, mainly dictated by Fowler's foundations which has been undertaken for his intended, classically planned building. All the main rooms face east, opening on to a long, axial, gallery.[5] This gallery housed a collection of statues depicting English monarchs and worthies of the Tudor era,[12] an unusual feature for the decoration of an English country house.[2] Pevsner suggests that they were influenced by the decorative schemes for the Houses of Parliament being planned at the same time, of which Sir Robert would have been aware, having been elected M.P. for Exeter in 1818.[13] Salvin's biographer, Jill Allibone, suggests the Temple of British Worthies at Stowe as the statues' most obvious ancestor, and writes of their "scandalous removal" and sale in the 1980s.[d][14]

As he did throughout his career, Salvin sought inspiration for his designs in earlier examples. The triple oriel window on the (east) garden front was copied from one on the entrance front of the genuinely Tudor Hengrave Hall in Suffolk.[15] Simon Jenkins notes that the staircase in the gallery is recorded as being based on the external stair designed by James Wyatt for Canterbury Quadrangle at Christ Church, Oxford.[16] The interior of the house contains stained glass by Thomas Willement[16] and was decorated to an exceptionally high standard of craftsmanship.[2] The conservatory, which adjoins the house, is surmounted by a parapet decorated with "an ingeniously apt quotation" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Romaunt of the Rose: "Flouris yelowe white and rede / Such plenty grewe there ner in mede".[5] Mamhead is listed at Grade I.[2]

The mock castle to the north of the house, containing the stable block, the brewery and the laundry, is listed at Grade II*.[17] Pevsner suggests that the castle is modelled on Belsay Castle in Northumberland, a building Salvin knew, having grown up in the North East.[e] The 1960s edition of Pevsner also suggested that it was constructed on the site of a genuine medieval castle, but this is contested[20] and the 2004 revised Devon does not repeat the claim.[5] The park has its own Grade II* listing.[21]

Lodges and ancillary structures

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The park is entered via one of three lodges. The first two are certainly by Salvin, and the third is attributed to him.[f] Each has its own Grade II listing; Dawlish Lodge,[23] Forest Gate,[24] and Basket Lodge.[25] Pevsner describes Dawlish and Forest Gate lodges as "very pretty examples, Salvin trimmings added to plain 18th century boxes".[5] Historic England considers Dawlish Lodge "the most inventive and least altered of the Mamhead House lodges".[23]

Other features within the estate which are listed include: a sundial in the formal garden to the south of the house;[26] a pool with a fountain in the same garden;[27] the orangery;[28] the terrace walling which runs to the south and east of the house;[29] the steps, with decorative urns, leading from that terrace;[30] and the obelisk, erected by Thomas Balle in 1742 as a guide for shipping, which stands in woodland on a ridge above the house.[31] The writer Christopher Hussey suggests that the orangery was modelled on the water house at Chatsworth and may originally have had a similar cascade.[28]

Notes

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  1. ^ Pevsner records the firm as operating out of Dartmouth.[5]
  2. ^ Allibone records that Mamhead was financed with the profits made from the import of port and salt codfish.[6]
  3. ^ The Historic England listing calls Mamhead House Dawlish College, a naming which reflected its status as a school in the late 20th century when the latest revision to the designation listing was undertaken.
  4. ^ Pevsner notes the use of similar statues in the decoration of the staircase hall at Ashridge undertaken in the very early 19th century.[5]
  5. ^ The Dictionary of National Biography records Salvin as having been born at Sunderland Bridge, County Durham in 1799.[18] However, his biographer, Jill Allibone, has his place of birth as Worthing in Sussex, although much of his childhood was certainly spent in Durham and Northumberland.[19]
  6. ^ Allibone notes the Cottage orné style of the first two lodges, suggesting that Salvin may have had contact with John Nash, whose Blaise Hamlet had popularised the style. Allibone records that this picturesque design was not one to which Salvin returned in his subsequent career.[22]

References

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  1. ^ "Parishes: Maker – Musbury". www.british-history.ac.uk. British History Online. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e Historic England. "Dawlish College (Mamhead House) (Grade I) (1170130)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Lady Elizabeth & Joseph Nightingale". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  4. ^ "Mamhead House". Rightmove.co.uk. Rightmove. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cherry & Pevsner 2004, pp. 557–558.
  6. ^ a b Allibone 1988, p. 23.
  7. ^ a b Churchill, Penny (15 June 2019). "Devon's grandest mansion with 164 acres, commanding views over Exmouth and a survival story". Country Life. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  8. ^ "Introducing Mamhead House". www.wedmagazine.co.uk. Wedding Magazine. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  9. ^ "Peter Andre and Emily MacDonagh marry in Mamhead House in Devon". Hello Magazine. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  10. ^ Finch, Hannah (3 August 2018). "Couples lose thousands as Peter Andre's Devon wedding venue debts spiral". devonlive. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  11. ^ "New year disqualification for wedding venue boss". GOV.UK. UK Government. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  12. ^ "Mamhead Park, Mamhead, Devon: perspective view of the gallery". RIBApix. Royal Institute of British Architects. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  13. ^ "Exeter". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  14. ^ Allibone 1988, p. 28.
  15. ^ Allibone 1988, p. 27.
  16. ^ a b Jenkins 2003, p. 183.
  17. ^ Historic England. "Stable yard and service buildings North West of Dawlish College (Mamhead House) (Grade II*) (1333960)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  18. ^ "Anthony Salvin". www.oxforddnb.com. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  19. ^ Allibone 1988, p. 5.
  20. ^ "Mamhead 'castle'". The Gatehouse Record. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  21. ^ Historic England. "Mamhead Park (Grade II*) (1000555)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  22. ^ Allibone 1988, p. 29.
  23. ^ a b Historic England. "Dawlish Lodge (Grade II) (1097650)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  24. ^ Historic England. "Forest Gate (Grade II) (1097651)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  25. ^ Historic England. "Basket Lodge (Grade II) (1333955)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  26. ^ Historic England. "Sundial (Grade II*) (1097663)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  27. ^ Historic England. "Pool with fountain (Grade II*) (1170185)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  28. ^ a b Historic England. "Orangery (Grade II*) (1170208)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  29. ^ Historic England. "Terrace wall to terrace immediately south and east of Dawlish College (Mamhead House) (Grade II*) (1097662)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  30. ^ Historic England. "Terrace steps and urns in the formal garden south of Dawlish College (Mamhead House) (Grade II*) (1170200)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  31. ^ Historic England. "Obelisk (Grade II*) (1333958)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2020.

Sources

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