Killerton | |
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![]() Killerton House | |
Type | Country House |
Location | Broadclyst |
Coordinates | 50°47′29″N3°27′28″W / 50.7915°N 3.4578°W |
OS grid reference | SS 97349 00089 |
Area | Devon |
Built | 1778 |
Architect | John Johnson |
Owner | National Trust |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Killerton House and Ha Ha approximately 20 metres in front of entrance |
Designated | 11 November 1952 |
Reference no. | 1098331 |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | The Bear's Hut 220 metres North West of Killerton House |
Designated | 20 May 1985 |
Reference no. | 1170706 |
Official name | Killerton House |
Designated | 12 Aug 1987 |
Reference no. | 1000694 |
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public. The National Trust displays the house as a comfortable home. On display in the house is a collection of 18th- to 20th-century costumes, originally known as the Paulise de Bush collection, shown in period rooms.
The estate covers some 2590 hectares (25.9 km2, 6400 acres). [1] Included in the estate is a steep wooded hillside with the remains of an Iron Age hill fort on top of it, known as Dolbury, which has also yielded evidence of Roman occupation, namely a triple-ditched Roman fort or marching camp which is still visible in aerial photographs, despite heavy ploughing within the hill fort. [2]
Killerton House itself and the Bear's Hut summerhouse in the grounds are Grade II* listed buildings. [3] [4] The gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [5]
The manor of Columbjohn in the parish of Broadclyst was purchased by Sir John Acland, MP and High Sheriff of Devon. Shortly afterwards, in 1612, the adjoining estate of Killerton was purchased by his nephew Sir Arthur Acland of Acland in the parish of Landkey. [7] [8] The present Georgian Killerton House was built by the 7th baronet, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, in 1778. The chapel was built in 1738 to the designs of Charles Robert Cockerell.[ citation needed ]
The garden was created in the 1770s by John Veitch, one of the leading landscape designers of the time. It features rhododendrons, magnolias, herbaceous borders and rare trees, as well as an ice house and early 19th-century summer house. The surrounding parkland and woods offer a number of circular walks. Plans attributed to William Sawrey Gilpin (1762-1843) for a new drive from Killerton to Columbjohn (1820) were not implemented. [5] A short play about the meeting between Veitch and Gilpin was commissioned by the National Trust to be performed in the gardens of Killerton in mid 2016. [9]
Killerton was given to the National Trust by the British politician Sir Richard Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet in 1944, [10] and in September 2015 the National Trust commissioned a short drama to be staged on the site entitled The Gift, written by Eileen Dillon, telling the story of Sir Richard's decision to hand over his estate.[ citation needed ]
In 2016 an archaeological dig discovered what is believed to be a footprint of an intended replacement home to the current Killerton. Reports believe that this is what has been known in history as the lost house of Devon, of 240 years, designed by architect James Wyatt. It is within the grounds a shortish walk from the current site, and its existence was obscured by a copse that looks to have been deliberately planted to hide it.[ citation needed ]
The National Trust has placed woodwork in the four corners of what is believed would have been the corners of the intended property. They have also placed a door and frame on what they believe would have been the entrance to the intended billiard room. Killerton's information boards on the site state that there is an intention for further archaeological digs in the future. [11]
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet was a British politician and baronet.
Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party in 1942, having previously been a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP). He joined the Labour Party in 1945 and was later a Labour MP. He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
Broadclyst is a village and civil parish in the East Devon local government district. It lies approximately 5 miles northeast of the city of Exeter, Devon, England, on the B3181. In 2001 its population was 2,830, reducing at the 2011 Census to 1,467. An electoral ward with the same name exists whose population at the above census was 4,842.
Holnicote in the parish of Selworthy, West Somerset, England, is a historic estate consisting of 12,420 acres of land, much situated within the Exmoor National Park.
Sir Hugh Acland, 5th Baronet was an English Member of Parliament, from a family of Devonshire gentry. He obtained a confirmation of the family baronetcy in 1678, and served as a Member of Parliament for two boroughs in Devon in 1679 and from 1685 to 1687. Never very active in national politics, he was one of the many Tories estranged by James II's pro-Catholicism, but remained a Tory after the Glorious Revolution. He continued to hold local office in Devon off and on until his death in 1714, when he was succeeded by his grandson.
Sir Charles Thomas Dyke Acland, 12th Baronet, DL, JP, of Killerton in Devon and of Holnicote in the parish of Selworthy in Somerset, was a large landowner and a British politician and Barrister-at-Law. He was known to family and friends as "Charlie", but demanded to be known in public as "Sir Thomas", not only because that was the traditional name of the Aclands, there having been a "Sir Thomas Acland" at Killerton for 170 years, but also because following the creation of a second and much newer Acland Baronetcy in 1890, for his uncle Sir Henry Wentworth Acland, 1st Baronet, he wished people to know "which was the real head and owner of Killerton".
Goodleigh is a village, civil parish and former manor in North Devon, England. The village lies about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) north-east of the historic centre of Barnstaple. Apart from one adjunct at the south, it is generally a linear settlement.
Sir Hugh Acland, 6th Baronet of Killerton Devon was a British landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1721 to 1727.
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet of Killerton in Devon and Petherton Park in Somerset, was Member of Parliament for Devon, 1746–1747, for Somerset, 1767–1768, and was High Sheriff of Somerset in 1751. He was a prominent member of the West Country gentry, and a famous staghunter who used as his hunting seats his wife's Exmoor estates of Pixton and Holnicote.
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 9th Baronet of Killerton in Devon and Holnicote in Somerset, was a prominent landowner and member of the West Country gentry. He was especially noted for his passion for staghunting, in which respect he took after his father. Like his father he was known locally in Devon and Somerset as "Sir Thomas his Honour".
John Veitch was the Scottish horticulturist who founded the Veitch dynasty who created the Exeter based firm of Veitch Nurseries.
James Veitch was the second in a long line of horticulturists who established the renowned family business Veitch Nurseries.
Huntsham is a small village and civil parish, formerly a manor and ecclesiastical parish, in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. The nearest town is Tiverton, about 5.8 miles (9.3 km) south-west of the village. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Bampton, Hockworthy, Uplowman and Tiverton; it is bounded on the east by the River Lowman and by a minor road on Bampton Down to the north west, where it reaches a maximum height of 914 feet (279 m). In 2001 the population of the parish was 138, down from 222 in 1901.
Sir John Acland of Columb John in the parish of Broadclyst, Devon, was an English knight, landowner, philanthropist, Member of Parliament and Sheriff of Devon. He was one of John Prince's Worthies of Devon.
John Acland was described as "the first of the [Acland] family to emerge from the shadows of history as a visible human being". His great-grandson was the Royalist colonel Sir John Acland, 1st Baronet of Columb John. Little if anything is known of his life and career, he was possibly a minor Tudor official, but he is chiefly remembered for his surviving portrait which is displayed at Killerton House, the earliest surviving image of an Acland and one of the most cherished in that family's former collection, now owned by the National Trust.
The estate of Acland in the parish of Landkey, near Barnstaple in North Devon, England, was from 1155 the earliest known seat of the influential and wealthy family of Acland, to which it gave the surname de Acland. It is situated about 3/4 mile north-east of the village of Landkey, from which it is now cut off by the busy A361 North Devon Link Road.
Tetton is an historic estate in the parish of Kingston St Mary in the English county of Somerset. The present grade II* listed Tetton House dates from 1790 and was enlarged and mainly rebuilt in 1924–6 by Hon. Mervyn Herbert (1882–1929) to the design of the architect Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel.
Mount Radford is an historic estate in the parish of St Leonards, adjacent to the east side of the City of Exeter in Devon.
Columb John in the parish of Broadclyst in Devon, England, is a historic estate that was briefly the seat of the prominent Acland family which later moved to the adjacent estate of Killerton.
The descent of the Holnicote estate in Somerset, England, is as follows: