Stafford Barton
| Stafford Barton | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 Stafford Barton | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS58431147 |
| Location: | 50°53’7"N, 4°-0’50"W |
| History | |
| Country house | |
| Information | |
Stafford Barton is the manor house of the historic manor of Stafford (anciently 'Stowford') in the parish of Dolton in Devon. The house is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
A house of some form has existed on the manor probably since the Norman Conquest in the 11th century. Surviving walls can be dated to the 16th century.[2] Many additions and renovations have taken place in the intervening years, and in the early 20th century Charles Luxmoore made many alterations and extensions and imported several major architectural features from ancient local mansions undergoing demolition so that "it has become somewhat difficult to discern its original form".[1] In the nineteenth century the estate was very substantial, with 400 acres of associated farmland and a large staff,[2] and by 1956, at the end of the Luxmoore tenure, it had grown to 1,460 acres with seven farms, several cottages and smallholdings.[3]
History
Domesday Book
The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the manor of STAFORD as the first of the 7 manors or other landholdings held by Ansger of Montacute, a tenant-in-chief from the King.
The manor was called "Stowford" during the Middle Ages, and was held for many generations, and until the Vicotrian age, by a family named Kelloway (with variant spelling appearing down the ages). In the 16th century, for reason unknown, this family adopted the surname "Stowford" (later "Stafford") in place of "Kelloway",[4] but retained the arms of Kelloway.
Accoding to Tristan Risdon, Thomas Kelloway, son of William Kelloway, at "about the end of King Henry the third's reign" (1216–1272) gave the manor of Stafford to his younger son Philip Kelloway, together with the estate of "Edrescot".
Eliza Stafford, the last member of the Stafford family to occupy Stafford, died in 1887. Following financial difficulties the estate was sold by the Stafford family in 1889, and has belonged to a variety of individuals since then.[2]
In 1912 the estate was sold to Charles Frederick Coryndon Luxmoore (1872–1933), FSA, FRGS, formerly a Captain in the 3rd Cheshire Regiment, and particularly noted as an explorer of the Amazon. The Luxmoore family was long established in Devon. In 1928, Captain Luxmoore was engaged in an expedition to the River Amazon,[5] during which he drew a map of that river and its tributaries. He was an art collector and antiquary, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and was the author of Smallglaze (English Smallglaze Earthenware) With the Notes of a Collector (1924). He was the historian of the Luxmoore family, author of The Family of Luxmoore (1909).
Charles Luxmoore carried out substantial alterations to Stafford Barton, most notably the addition of a crenellated West Wing[2] in which he installed a very large decorative plaster ceiling of circa 1600, removed from an Elizabethan house in Barnstaple, and other architectural items taken from nearby recently demolished historic houses.[6] He also indulged a penchant for building secret panels and cupboards, discovered later on by subsequent owners. From his explorations Luxmoore brought back tropical plants, which he grew in the mild Devon climate.[7] He kept a prestigious historical harpsichord made by the 18th century Italian builder Vincentio Sodi (sold in 1934 and now in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter).
| Details from a very large plasterwork ceiling c. 1600, removed from a mansion in Barnstaple | |
Luxmoore had a large family by his wife Rosalie Maud Acworth Ommanney, a grand-daughter of Henry Mortlock Ommanney (1816–1880), discoverer, surveyor and namesake of Mortlock River, Western Australia and relative of Admiral Sir John Acworth Ommanney (1773–1855) Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.[8] Several of his sons had distinguished naval or military careers. The estate remained in the family until 1956.
On 23 August 1956 the "freehold sporting and agricultural property known as the Stafford Barton Estate" was offered for sale by direction of "the executors of the late Mrs R.M.A. Luxmoore". It included the "part 13th-century manor house of great charm" with six principal and six secondary bedrooms, four bathrooms, spacious panelled reception rooms, staff wing, excellent outbuildings" etc., with about 1,460 acres of land, seven "well-maintained" and "well-let" farms, several cottages and smallholdings with six miles of salmon and trout fishing on the River Taw, all producing an annual rent of £1,580. The auction took place at the Rougemont Hotel in Exeter on 28 September 1956.[3]
The purchasers were a family by the name of Croxton, who also bought 126 acres for sheep farming. The Croxtons restored the gardens, and in the house they discovered a variety of false walls, concealed doors, and secret cupboards, some of which contained historical objects including a human skull dated from the mid 19th century. These amusements are believed by Haigh to have been the work of Charles Luxmoore, with the various objects obtained during his extensive explorations.[2]
From 1969 Stafford Barton was owned and occupied by the German-American harpsichord builder Wolfgang Zuckermann, who had "run away from America"[9] and sold his harpsichord business. In 1971, Zuckermann reported in a letter to the New York weekly newspaper Village Voice that he had been able to buy Stafford for "no more than the average suburban one-family house in New Jersey". He also wrote that "the house [has] much old paneling and leaded lights (even my goats have leaded lights in their stable.)", and he said that the gardens were tended by a pensioner who "came with the property".[9] The date Zuckermann left Stafford Barton is unknown, but advertisements and directory entries for his harpsichord business list him there up to 1973.[10]
In 2007 Stafford Barton was bought by the Doran family, and the house and gardens have been extensively restored.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Stafford Barton) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Heritage List 1104627: Stafford Barton
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Haigh, Lesley: 'Stafford Barton, Dolton, Devon: A House with History' (2009)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Advertisement by Connell's estate agent in Country Life magazine, 23 August 1956, Supplement, p.15. (Image in Ebay listing)
- ↑ Vivian, p.510, footnote
- ↑ The National Archives. "Luxmoore Family".
- ↑ Cherry and Pevsner (2002:338)
- ↑ Zuckermann (1971:12)
- ↑ Burke's Landed Gentry, p.1439, with names confused
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Zuckermann, Wolfgang (1971) "Running away from america", The Village Voice, July 15, p. 11 et seq. On line here
- ↑ A directory entry can be found in Anonymous (1973) The Register of Early Instruments, Early Music Vol. 1, No. 3 (Jul., 1973), pp. 179-181+183+185-190.
- Anonymous (2013) "Stafford Barton manor" webpage.
- Burke's]] Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Devon, 1952; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8
- Smith, Michael Townsend (n.d.) "Dream books". Blog entry.
- Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book Vol. 9: Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985.
- Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L.]], (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620. Exeter, 1895
