Sharpham House
| Sharpham House | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 Sharpham House | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SX82705787 |
| Location: | 50°24’32"N, 3°39’8"W |
| History | |
| Built 1770 | |
| For: | Capt. Philemon Pownoll by Sir Robert Taylor |
| Country house | |
| Georgian | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | The Sharpham Trust |
Sharpham House is a Georgian-style country hous epresiding over the historic Sharpham estate in the parish of Ashprington in Devon.
The house is in a fine setting overlooking the River Dart. The house commissioned by was commenced by Captain Philemon Pownoll of the Royal Navy, work beginning in about 1770, to the designs of the architect Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788). In the opinion of Nikolaus Pevsner it contains "one of the most spectacular and daring later 18th century staircase designs anywhere in England".[1]
Sharpham House is a Grade I listed building.[2] The park and gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[3]
History
In the 15th century the estate is recorded as being owned by Robert French[4] of Horneford, whose heiress, his daughter Joane, married William Drewe, through which family it then descened until Edward Drewe (a Serjeant-at-Law to Queen Elizabeth I and member of Parliament[5] purchased the former grange of Dunkeswell Abbey for his new residence[6] and sold Sharpham to John Giles of Bowden, an adjacent estate. His descendant, Sir Edward Giles (1566–1637) held the estate at the time of the writing of the Survey of Devon by Tristram Risdon (about 1635). The Giles family sold Sharpham to the Yarde family of Bradley in the parish of Kingsteignton, and in 1748 Gilbert Yard sold Sharpham to Philip Cockey,[3][7] who was seemingly more interested in the resale value of the timber in the park than in the house.[8] In 1765, Cockey sold Sharpham to Captain Philemon Pownoll, the builder of the current house.
Philemon Pownoll (c. 1734 – 1780) of the Royal Navy, born in Plymouth and the son of master shipwright Israel Pownoll (died 1779), master shipwright of Plymouth Dockyard (1762–65) and of Chatham (1775–79), who had built a large number of warships for the Royal Navy. In 1762 Philemon Pownoll had acquired a fortune of £64,963 having captured a Spanish Galleon,[9] and in about 1770 commenced the building of the present house, completed after his death by his daughter and heiress Jane Pownall (died 1822).
Pownoll's heir was his daughter, Jane, who married Edmund Bastard (1758–1816), of Kitley, Yealmpton, Member of Parliament for Dartmouth,[7][10] who married Jane Pownall (died 1822), the heiress of Sharpham. Their son, Captain John Bastard of the Royal Navy is said to have lost his fortune in gambling[3] and after his death Sharpham was sold to Richard Durant, whose descendants remaine dthe owners until 1940, when the estate was split up and sold.
In 1962, Sharpham House was purchased by Maurice Ash (1917–2003), whose property developer grandfather, Gilbert Ash, had left him a large fortune. He was an environmentalist, writer, and planner. He was chairman of the Town and Country Planning Association and of the Dartington Trust. After Second World War his friend Michael Young, later Lord Young of Dartington, introduced him to the Dartington Hall Trust, a design school with craft workshops, established by Leonard Elmhirst and his wealthy American heiress wife Dorothy Whitney, who in the 1920s had purchased the historic estate of Dartington Hall near Totnes and had restored at great expense the manor house and its mediæval Great Hall. In 1947 Maurice Ash married Ruth Elmhirst, Leonard and Dorothy's daughter. Maurice and Ruth laid out formal gardens at Sharpham to the design of Percy Cane.[3]
In 1982 the Sharpham Estate was transferred by Mr Ash to a charitable trust known as the Sharpham Trust, and he continued to reside at Sharpham until his death in 2003.[11]
Sharpham Trust
In 1982 Sharpham House was acquired by the Sharpham Trust,[3] still the owner in 2015, an educational charity "whose aims and objectives are to maintain, conserve and enhance the land, buildings, resources and biodiversity of the estate for public benefit; to provide opportunities for physical intellectual emotional and spiritual learning through activity, reflection, creativity and enquiry offering meditative and spiritual retreats in the house and grounds".[11]
Sharpham Vineyard is situated within the estate.
References
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Devon, 1952; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8
- ↑ Sharpham House - British Listed Buildings
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 National Heritage List 1000701: Sharpham House
- ↑ Risdon, p.167
- ↑ Edward Drew - History of Parliament biography
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Devon, 1952; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8page 217
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Risdon, 1810 Additions, pp.380–1
- ↑ Listed building text
- ↑ Pevsner, p.722
- ↑ Vivian, p.51, pedigree of Bastard
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Sharpham Trust
- Risdon, Tristram (died 1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions
- Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895