Hillersdon House
| Hillersdon House | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 Hillersdon House | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS99620793 |
| Location: | 50°51’44"N, 3°25’40"W |
| Village: | Cullompton |
| History | |
| Built 1848 | |
| For: | William Charles Grant by Samuel Beazley |
| Country house | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Converted to hotel |
| Owned by: | Michael Lloyd |
Hillersdon House in the parish of Cullompton in Devon, is a late Georgian manor house, in the style of its age, overlooking that town.[1]
The house was built in 1848 by William Charles Grant (1817-1877), to the design of Samuel Beazley, the notable theatre architect.[2][3] Today it is a Grade II* listed building.[2]
Description
The house is a two-storey building arranged around a central hall,[2] built of red brick with Portland stone dressing and a hipped slate roof.
The red brick stable block was built at about the same time as the main house.[4] "Jane's Cottage" within the grounds was built at the same time also.[5]
The main house is set out on an "H" plan around a central hall. The north-east front is the main entrance with a porte-cochère flanked by Tuscan columns, while the south-west side mirrors the north east but without the porte-cochère.[2] It is surrounded by landscaped gardens with ponds and a deer park.[6]
History
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Hillersdon House was built in 1848 by William Charles Grant, a Lieutenant of the First (Kings) Dragoon Guards. Grant purchased the estate in about 1847.[7] In 1843 Grant had married Maria May (d.1891), a noted pteridologist.[8] and W.C. Grant built the surviving house to replace the earlier house which was in a dilapidated state,[9] and which had been offered for rent in the early 19th century.[10]
In 1877 W.C. Grant died and Hillersdon passed his second and eldest surviving son William John Alexander Grant ("Johnny")[8][11][12][13] William John Alexander Grant (1851-1935),[14] a distinguished Arctic photographer who in 1895 married Enid Maud Forster, whom he divorced in 1901.[15][16]
In the 1890s Hillersdon became known for its wild parties. One incident occurred after the Exeter Ball, when four young gentlemen plunged into one of the lakes, and were subsequently washed off in baths of champagne. Elinor Glyn, a noted society beauty was part of the house party on this occasion.[17]
After the death of William Grant in 1935 the house was inherited under his will by Sir Mark Beresford Russell Sturgis (1884–1949), KCB, Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland, who took the additional surname of Grant, as a condition of the will. In the Second World War it housed US Officers and then became a bed and breakfast and later was divided into five flats.[18] It was purchased in 1982 by David and Gale Glynn, who having undertaken some refurbishment work sold it in 2010 for an asking price of £3-£4 million.[17]
In 2010 Hillersdon was purchased by Michael Lloyd and has since undergone a complete refurbishment and is now used as a wedding venue and exclusive hotel.[19]
References
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hillersdon House) |
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Devon, 1952; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 National Heritage List 1326145: Hillersdon House
- ↑ "Country houses for sale in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset". www.countrylife.co.uk. http://www.countrylife.co.uk/property_news/article/343096/New-property-for-sale-in-the-South-West.html. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1105931: Stable block north of Hillersdon House
- ↑ National Heritage List 1168555: Jane's Cottage
- ↑ "Gardens". Hillersdon House. http://www.hillersdon.com/gardens/. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ↑ Colvin and Moggridge, section 4.1
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Colvin and Moggridge, section 4.2
- ↑ Mitchell, J.C. (1851). Eight views of Cullompton and neighbourhood together with a concise compilation of explanatory particulars and description. Cullompton: I. Frost.
- ↑ "Hillersdon House". Exeter Flying Post. 8 November 1821. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000103/18211108/010/0003. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ↑ "Leigh Smith Expeditions on board the Eira 1880, 1881-82". Freeze Frame. http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/resources/expeditions/arctic/leigh-smith-eira-expeditions-1880-1881-82. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ↑ Wood, Janet. "Arctic Exploration: North West Pasage: The Pandora Voyage of 1876". World Through The Lens. http://www.worldthroughthelens.com/ebook-north-west-passage.php. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ↑ "William Grant". The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography. http://www.19thcenturyphotos.com/William-Grant-125874.htm. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ↑ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.954-5, pedigree of "grant of Hillersdon House"
- ↑ BLG, p.954
- ↑ Hillersdon House: Archival Review of Landscape History for Inclusion with Planning and Listed Building Consent Applications, Appendix 4, prepared by Colvin & Moggridge of Lechlade, Cloucestershire, 2011
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Tyzack, Anna (5 June 2009). "Hillersdon House in Devon: a decadent affair - Telegraph". London: telegraph.co.uk. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/westcountry/5451363/Hillersdon-House-in-Devon-a-decadent-affair.html. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ↑ "History". Hillersdon House. http://www.hillersdon.com/history/. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ↑ Hillersdon House: The House
- Colin and Moggridge (2011). Hillersdon House, Appendix 4, Archival Review of Landscape History. http://docs.middevon.gov.uk/pap/showimage.asp?j=11/00108/FULL&index=389934. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
- Risdon, Tristram (1811). Rees. ed. The Chorographical Description or Survey of the County of Devon (updated ed.). Plymouth: Rees and Curtis. https://books.google.com/books?id=uIdnAAAAMAAJ.
- Thorn, Frank; Thorn, Caroline, eds (1985). Doomsday Book, Devon (in 2 parts). Chichester: Phillimore.
Further reading
- Hertford, Henry: 'A Cullompton Worthy', Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, Vol.19, 1936, pp. 132–6. (Re Robert Cockram, 1553-1632, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and his ancestors)
- Hertford, Henry, Robert Cockram: a Cullompton Worthy, Devon and Cornwall Notes & Queries, Vol.170(?), 1936, pp. 401–2
- Gray, Todd: 'William Luccombe and the Iron Oaks of Hillersden in 1796', Devon Documents (ed. T. Gray). Tiverton: Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, Special Issue (1996) pp. 88–90