Sandford, Devon

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Sandford
Devon
Location
Grid reference: SS828025
Location: 50°48’38"N, 3°39’46"W
Data
Population: 641  (2011)
Post town: Crediton
Postcode: EX17
Dialling code: 01363
Local Government
Council: Mid Devon
Parliamentary
constituency:
Tiverton and Honiton

Sandford is a village in Devon, just a mile north of Crediton, above the valley of the River Creedy.

The Grade II listed school main building in Sandford dates from 1825, and is notable for its classical Greek architecture and cob walls, thought to be the tallest of their kind in the country.[1]

About the village

The village has its own community-owned shop and post office, two pubs and a school along with a church and minor football and cricket teams, which can play at the King George V Playing Field in the village.

It is linked by cycle/foot path to nearby Crediton through the Millennium Green - a wild flower meadow with herb garden. The green contains an example of local cob walling, and a large pond.

Historic estates

Creedy

Creedy Park was long the seat of the Davie Baronets and their heirs the Ferguson-Davie Baronets, influential in the life of the parish of Sandford, to many members of which family survive monuments in the parish church. Sandford School was built in 1825, in the form of a classical Greek temple, by Sir Humphrey Phineas Davie, 10th Baronet (1775–1846).

Ruxford

Effigies of Sir John de Sully (1282-1388), KG, and his wife Isobel exist in Crediton Parish Church. Sully was lord of the manor of Iddesleigh, but was said by Westcote (d.circa 1637) to have had his seat at "Rookesford, lately the land of Chichester and alienated to Davye", i.e. Ruxford, in the parish of Sandford about 1/2 mile north-west of Crediton. He held Rokysforde from the overlord John de Raleigh of Raleigh in the parish of Pilton, as is evidenced in the latter's deed of 1362 now held in the North Devon Record Office.[2] The heir of John de Raleigh by marriage to his daughter Thomasine was the Chichester family of Raleigh. The existing farmhouse known as Ruxford Barton was rebuilt in 1608 by the Chichester family, as is evidenced by a strapwork cartouche in plaster-work displaying the arms of that family with initials and date 1608, in the principal bedroom on the first floor of the parlour wing.[3] In 1618 Ruxford Barton was purchased from Sir Robert Chichester, Bart, KB, by Emmanuel Davie, a "clothier of Crediton", a cousin of the Davie family of Creedy.

In about 1620 a plaster escutcheon was affixed inside the house showing the de Via arms of the Davie family impaled with the arms of Northcote,[4] the arms of the family of his first wife Katherine Northcote (d.1620).[5]

West Sandford

West Sandford manor house in 1797

West Sandford was a very large mansion about 2½ miles northwest of Crediton, near the ancient Chichester estate of Ruxford, of which a watercolour painting was made in 1797 by the Devon topographer Rev. John Swete. The latter wrote of West Sandford in his Travel Journal in 1797 as follows: "The appearance of this house, built with brick and decorated with white mouldings, is of great respectability. Its contiguous gardens with high walls and large gates and the groves that shelter it on the NE speak it to have been the residence of some person of consequence who had a relish for things of former days and was too advanced in years to adopt the improvements of modern taste. It was long the property and abode of Lady Chichester and by her decease a few years ago became a possession of Sir John Chichester of Youlston, Bart. Beheld in its two fronts from a rising point of the public road it had such extent of building as to possess a degree of magnificence; nor has it less to recommend itself for its situation, having spread out before its windows some of the richest pasture ground in the county. What ingredients of the picturesque, taking advantage of the road as a foreground, may enter into the composition of the scenery, may be collected from the following sketch".[6] This large house had already been demolished by 1822 as reported by Lysons, who stated the estate was then owned by John Quicke, Esq.[7] The memory of this house has faded, no mention of its former existence having been made by Pevsner or Hoskins, the leading modern authorities on such matters.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Sandford, Devon)

References

  1. http://www.devon.gov.uk/etched?url=etched/ixbin/hixclient.exe&_IXP_=1&_IXR=110380
  2. See:"File:JohnDeRaleighDeed1362.JPG": Archives of the Chichester family of Arlington Court, North Devon Record Office: PILTON, ARLINGTON, LOXHORE, CHALLACOMBE, SANDFORD?, WEST DOWN, all in Devon BAGGEARN HUISH, DUNWEAR, in Somerset 50/11/1/1 31 January 1362 36 Edward III [1]
  3. Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, 1959, p.473; Pevsner & Cherry, The Buildings of England: Devon, 2004, p.719
  4. Information on armorials as given by Ferguson-Davie, Sir Michael, 8th Baronet, author of The Davies of Devon in posting[2]
  5. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.272
  6. Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of The Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, Vol.3, Tiverton, 1999, p.120
  7. Lysons, Magna Britannia, Vol.6, Devonshire, 1822, Parishes: Salcombe Regis - Silverton, pp. 430-451. [3]