Bradfield House

Bradfield House
Devon
Bradfield House
Location
Grid reference:	ST05841258
Location:	50°54’18"N, 3°20’26"W
History
	Country house
Information

Bradfield House is a Grade I listed country house in Devon, two miles south-west of the village of Uffculme.

It is one of the largest mansions in Devon, having been substantially enlarged in about 1860 by Sir John Walrond Walrond, 1st Baronet (1818–1889), to the design of the architect John Hayward, and incorporates within the Victorian structure the original mediæval great hall, one of the largest, most ornate and best preserved in the county.

Description

The mediæval great hall forms the core of the house and its tall windows are visible in the centre of the eastern front. The drawing room and Spanish Room were added as projecting gable wings to the south and north ends respectively in the 16th century, and these project forward beyond the original external wall of the hall. A small square porch and Oriel Room were added in 1604 and 1592 respectively and sit within the two corners formed by the projecting gables. In about 1860 a major expansion was made, by the addition of a service wing to the west, almost doubling the size of the house, and a new entrance front, with three storey central porch, was created on the south side.

Interior

Great Hall, Bradfield House

The Parlour or "Spanish Room"

The house contains several remarkable features. The Great Hall with an early 16th-century hammerbeam roof, one of the most ornate in Devon, comparable to those at Weare Giffard Hall and Orleigh Court. It was repaired in 1860. On the wall is linen-fold paneling and a frieze of Renaissance-period heads within square panels. Several heraldic shields of members of the Walrond family impaled with the armorials of their wives are painted on the walls. The Music Room, as it was called by the Walrond family in 1910, Parlour or "Spanish Room" contains a highly decorated plasterwork ceiling with ribs and pendants and exceptionally elaborately carved woodwork. Above the paneling is a frieze of Spanish leather.

Grounds

The house is surrounded by parkland which retains many magnificent specimen cedar trees. The gate lodge at the entrance to the south drive remains, but is in separate ownership following the 1990s dismemberment of the estate. Nearby is the former Home Farm, with a long brick facade pierced by a tall arch leading into the yard. A stable block with bell-tower and clock is located to the west of the house. In 1875, the Walronds built All Saints Chapel, designed by Hayward, to the east of the house with roadside access, slightly to the south of the eastern entrance gate.

Bradfield Manor

The manor of Bradfield was from the 13th century until the early 20th century the principal seat of the Walrond family. Devon seats of cadet lines of this family included Bovey House in the parish of Beer, purchased c. 1670 from Sir William Pole of Shute and inherited from his first wife by John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (died 1842)of Bicton, Dunchideock House, the inheritance of Elizabeth Pitman the wife of the 2nd Baron Waleran, and Tidwell House in East Budleigh, from about 1730. In 1876 the Waldron baronetcy "of Bradfield" was created for Sir John Walrond Walrond, 1st Baronet (1818–1899) and the title Baron Waleran, with variant spelling, was created for his son William Walrond, 1st Baron Waleran (1849–1925). On the death of his son the second baron in 1966, the titles became extinct and the family became extinct in the male line.

Recent ownership

After having been vacated by the Walrond family, Mr Lytebaum established at Bradfield a boys' school, known as "Bradfield House School" which it remained until its closure on 23 July 1997 It was a residential boys' schools catering for boys with emotional and behavioural problems, the last establishment having been run by Devon County Council. The school closed in 1997, the year in which Government statistics revealed that of all youths appearing at nearby Cullompton Magistrates' Court, one third gave Bradfield House as their address. The once ornate formal topiary gardens were destroyed during this period. It was then purchased by Mr de Courcy-Ling, who split up and sold the estate, and divided the house internally into 2 separate residences. In 2000, having been owned briefly by a series of speculators, the eastern half was purchased by Chrissie Fairlamb, an interior designer, and her partner Mr Colin Mills, a photographer, who sold it in 2008 to Mr Brown, a smoked-fish manufacturer from Cheshire who lives mostly in California. The western half has been owned since 2012 by Philip Dayer, a retired banker. It remains in 2013 in private ownership.

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  Bradfield House, east front, photographed from NE in 1904, when still occupied by the Walrond family, showing the formal topiary garden

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  Eastern approach

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  The Victorian south front, c. 1860. The service wing is to the left (west), set back from the main entrance front

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  Approach from southern entrance lodge

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  Victorian west (service) wing, c. 1860, viewed from SW

References

• Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pp. 768–770, pedigree of Walrond
• Nikolaus Pevsner: Pevsner Architectural Guides
• Bradfield House - British Listed Buildings

Further reading

• Bradfield House photographic collection, c. 1850-1880, record of Victorian building works. Held by English Heritage National Monuments Record
• Hayward, John (architect), Account of building works carried out at Bradfield House, Devon c. 1860, published in: Transactions of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society, vol. 1, 1867, pp. 79–84
• Worthy, Charles, Devonshire Wills: A Collection of Annotated Testamentary Abstracts together with the Family History and Genealogy of Many of the Most Ancient Gentle Houses of the West of England, London, 1896, pp. 447–453, Walrond of Bradfield [1]