Beam, Great Torrington

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Beam House, Great Torrington, Devon BeamHouseGreatTorrington.jpg
Beam House, Great Torrington, Devon
Beam Aqueduct, now viaduct forming commencement of entrance drive to Beam House, beyond to right. View looking south-east, with A386 road behind viewer BeamAqueduct ApproachFromNW.jpg
Beam Aqueduct, now viaduct forming commencement of entrance drive to Beam House, beyond to right. View looking south-east, with A386 road behind viewer
Beam Aqueduct viewed from south BeamAqueduct ViewFromSouth TorringtonDevon.jpg
Beam Aqueduct viewed from south

Beam is an historic estate in the parish of Great Torrington, Devon, England. Beam House is situated about 1 1/2 miles north-west and downstream of that town, on the right-bank of the River Torridge. Both the Rolle Canal and the railway crossed the river nearby. It occupies a particularly beautiful setting, described by Lauder (1986) thus: "For lovers of rivers and woodland there can be few lovlier settings for a house than this. Steeply wooded banks shelter the valley and the house is situated on slightly higher ground above lush water meadows, almost completely surrounded by the Torridge" [1] The estate was a subsidiary seat of the Rolle family, lords of the manor of Great Torrington, whose main seat was Stevenstone on the other (south) side of that town and therefore upstream from Beam. It was an outpost of the Royalists during the Civil War. Much of the estate is today owned by Baron Clinton, as heir to the Rolles, but it has had many occupants, including use by the army in both world wars and as a borstal. Tarka the Otter was born at Beam, by what the author Henry Williamson called the "Canal Bridge" (i.e. the Beam Aqueduct) and particularly favoured the River Torridge at Beam Weir. Thus the cycleway which crosses the river at Beam, formerly the railway line, was named the "Tarka Trail", due to its association with these and other haunts of the fictional animal. Today Beam is used as an adventure centre for young people.

Contents

Geography

Beam is a crossing-point of several lines of communication. Map of environs of Beam House. Henry Williamson made several references to Beam in his 1927 novel Tarka the Otter including the following descriptive passage: "A quarter of a mile below Rothern Bridge the river slows into the lower loop of a great S. It deepens until half-way, where the S is cut by the weir holding back the waters of the long Beam Pool. Canal Bridge crosses the river at the top of the S" BeamGreatTorringtonMap.PNG
Beam is a crossing-point of several lines of communication. Map of environs of Beam House. Henry Williamson made several references to Beam in his 1927 novel Tarka the Otter including the following descriptive passage: "A quarter of a mile below Rothern Bridge the river slows into the lower loop of a great S. It deepens until half-way, where the S is cut by the weir holding back the waters of the long Beam Pool. Canal Bridge crosses the river at the top of the S"
Otter swimming in the River Torridge near Beam, 2011 Otter in the Torridge.jpg
Otter swimming in the River Torridge near Beam, 2011

Beam House is situated about 1 1/2 miles north-west of Great Torrington, on the right-bank of the River Torridge almost encircled by a loop of the river. Beam Quarry is situated within the cliff-like hills on the opposite side of the river from the house. When the Rolle Canal was built by John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle between that town and the navigable part of the river below Weare Giffard, he chose Beam as the place where the canal was carried by an aqueduct across the River Torridge. The aqueduct was later filled in and is now a viaduct which carries the entrance drive to Beam House from the A386 road. Later the railway crossed the river at a slightly lower place, and continued toward Torrington over the Beam estate.

Beam Weir

Beam Weir, favoured haunt of Tarka the Otter, with Old Railway Bridge behind (now carrying Tarka Trail cycle-path) BeamWeirRiverTorridgeDevon.JPG
Beam Weir, favoured haunt of Tarka the Otter, with Old Railway Bridge behind (now carrying Tarka Trail cycle-path)

The weir at Beam, situated downstream from Rothern Bridge and upstream of Beam Aqueduct, features in Henry Williamson's novel Tarka the Otter as one of the otter's favoured haunts with its fast running water and languid pools beneath the weir; Below the fish-pass the water rushed in a foamy spate. Above, it slid black and polished (Williamson). It is still today a renowned place for salmon fishing. [3]

History

Beam was for long a subsidiary seat of the Rolle family of nearby Stevenstone, who were latterly lords of the manor of Great Torrington. During the Civil War Beam House was used as an outpost for the Royalist army whose last holding in the West Country was at Great Torrington, lost in 1646 to the Parliamentarian Sir Thomas Fairfax.

During the 18th century, William Rolle (1720–1747) lived here. He was the third son of John Rolle (1679-1730) of Stevenstone and a younger brother of Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (d.1759). [4] He described himself in his will dated 1747 as "of Beam". [5]

In October 1792 the Devon topographer Rev. John Swete (1752–1821) passed by Beam on his way to Frithelstock and made the following record in his Journal: [6]

... I went in quest of the Priory of Frithelstoke, in the way to which we descended to the bridge at the S.W. end of Torrington, which passing over, we again rose up a steep hill, introducing us to a common precipitous towards the river but having a delightful prospect on the north of 'Beam' a seat of Dennis Rolle Esq., a most lovely and sequestered spot, protected on every side by the richest woods of the finest amphitheatrical form, the roots of which were washed by the river, which, as if enamoured of the spot, winds round it in many a meander and seems reluctant to retire from it.

Another occupant was the Very Rev. Joseph Palmer (1749–1829) Chancellor of Ferns, later Dean of Cashel. He was the author of A four Month Tour Through France (1776). [7] He was the son of John Palmer, of Palmer House, Mayor of Great Torrington, by his wife Mary Reynolds, sister of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), [8] [9] and he married Eliza Edwards, daughter of Cadwallader Edwards Esq. of Wexford, Ireland. His monument survives in Exeter Cathedral. [7]

In the later 19th century, the house was occupied by Alfred Robert Hole (1815-1898), [10] Justice of the Peace for Devon [11] and Major, 13th Hussars, North Devon Yeomanry. [12] He was born at Heavitree, Exeter, the son of Major William Hole by his wife Louisa Mallet. He married Elizabeth Mercer (1816-1902), eldest daughter of J. Mercer of Maidstone and Major, 13th Hussars, North Devon Yeomanry. [12] He attended the opening ceremony of the new church of St Giles in the Wood built by Hon. Mark Rolle.[ citation needed ] He and his wife were buried in Weare Giffard churchyard, where their inscribed monument survives. [10]

20th century

Much of the estate surrounding Beam House is owned by Lord Clinton (Clinton Devon Estates), whose family was the heir of Hon. Mark Rolle (d.1907). [13] Lord Clinton's family had long owned the manor of Frithelstock, adjoining Beam on the opposite side of the River Torridge.

During World War I Beam House was used as a convalescence home for injured soldiers. This was possibly the hospital established by William Pethebridge Martin (1859-1935) lord of the manor of Colleton, Chulmleigh (see below). In World War II the house was occupied by the 2nd Battalion, Gloucester Regiment, and was used for training in clandestine operations. In the 1950s Beam was used for ten years as a borstal, and then as an educational establishment, when a new accommodation block was built. [14]

In 1959 Beam was the home of Philip Michael Pethebridge Martin, High Sheriff of Devon in that year. He was the third son of William Pethebridge Martin (1859-1935) of Colleton and of New South Wales in Australia, by his wife Maude Price [15] daughter of William Price of Sydney, NSW. [16] William had founded the Sydney wool-brokerage firm W.P. Martin & Co, but later moved to Devon, where he purchased and resided at Colleton Manor near Chulmleigh, and was lord of the manor of Chulmleigh. He was High Sheriff of Devon 1918-19, and Master of the Eggesford Foxhounds. With his partner Harry Austin, William equipped a hospital for soldiers during WW I, possibly at Beam House, which he later donated to the municipal council as a children's hospital. He died at Colleton in 1935. [17]

In the 1970s a Mr Osbourne of Barnstaple purchased the property and used it as the base for the "Kingsley Adventure Centre". The operation was then taken over by Quest Adventure Centres, which business failed and was purchased by PGL Travel Ltd which, as of 2013, continues to operate the site under lease from the Osbourne family as an adventure centre [14] providing holidays for young people.

Related Research Articles

Great Torrington Town in Devon, England

Great Torrington is a market town in Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to the River Torridge below, with the lower-lying parts of the town prone to occasional flooding. Torrington is in the centre of Tarka Country, a landscape captured by Henry Williamson in his novel Tarka the Otter in 1927. Great Torrington has one of the most active volunteering communities in the United Kingdom.

Rolle Canal

The Rolle Canal in north Devon, England, extends from its mouth into the River Torridge at Landcross 6 miles southwards to the industrial mills and corn-mills at Town Mills, Rosemoor, Great Torrington and beyond to Healand Docks and weir on the Torridge, where survive the ruins of Lord Rolle's limekilns, upstream of today's Rosemoor Garden. Town Mills were built by Lord Rolle and were powered by a stream which flowed past his seat of Stevenstone to the east of Great Torrington and also supplied water to the canal. Rosemoor and North and South Healand farms were part of Lord Rolle's Stevenstone estate on the east bank of the Torridge.

Beaford Village and civil parish in Devon, England

Beaford is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village is about five miles south-east of Great Torrington, on the A3124 road towards Exeter. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 393, compared to 428 in 1901. The western boundary of the parish is formed by the River Torridge and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of St Giles in the Wood, Roborough, Ashreigney, Dolton, Merton and Little Torrington.

River Torridge River in Devon, England

The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England. The River Torridge rises near Meddon. The river describes a long loop through Devon farming country where its tributaries the Lew and Okement join before meeting the Taw at Appledore and flowing into the Bristol Channel. The river is spate dependent and often flows between wooded banks which can be steep. The Torridge local government district is named after the river.

John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle

John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle was a British peer who served as a Member of Parliament in general support of William Pitt the Younger and was later an active member of the House of Lords. His violent attacks on Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox in the early 1780s led to his being the target for satirical attack in the Rolliad. He was colonel of the South Devon Militia and was instrumental in forming the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry and the North Devon Yeomanry.

Annery kiln

Annery kiln is a former limekiln of the estate of Annery, in the parish of Monkleigh, North Devon. It is situated on the left bank of the River Torridge near Half-Penny Bridge, built in 1835, which connects the parishes of Monkleigh and Weare Giffard. Running by it today is A386 road from Bideford to Great Torrington. Weare Giffard is the start of the tidal section of the River Torridge, and thus the kiln was sited here to import by river raw materials for the kiln, the product of which was lime fertiliser for use on inland agricultural fields. The old lime kiln is thus situated between the River Torridge and the now filled-in Rolle Canal built circa 1827 and railway that ran formerly from Bideford to Torrington, opened in 1872 and closed in 1966. The old trackbed now forms a stretch of the Tarka Trail.

Bicton House, Devon

Bicton House, or Bickton House, is a late 18th- or early 19th-century country house, which stands on the campus of Bicton College, Bicton, near Exmouth, East Devon. It is a Grade II* listed building. The park and gardens are Grade I listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Colleton, Chulmleigh

Colleton is a hamlet and former manor in the civil parish and ecclesiastical parish of Chulmleigh, in the North Devon district of Devon, England. It is situated on the north side of a valley containing the River Taw. Its nearest town is Chulmleigh, which lies approximately 3.6 miles (5.8 km) to the south-west. It consists of the grade I listed Colleton Barton and Colleton Mill, the former manorial mill, with another former industrial building situated at the approach to the bridge over the River Taw.

Hugh Pollard (sheriff)

Sir Hugh Pollard lord of the manor of King's Nympton in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1535/6 and in 1545 was appointed Recorder of Barnstaple in Devon.

Weare Giffard Village, civil parish and former manor in Devon, England

Weare Giffard is a small village, civil parish and former manor in the Torridge district, in north Devon. The church and manor house are situated 2 1/2 miles NW of Great Torrington in Devon. Most of the houses within the parish are situated some 1/2-mile east of the church. The church is situated on a hillside to the north and slightly above the wide and flat valley floor of the River Torridge. The Church of the Holy Trinity and the adjacent Weare Giffard Hall are designated members of the Grade I listed buildings in Devon.

John Rolle Walter

John Rolle Walter was Tory MP for Exeter in 1754–1776 and for Devon in 1776–1779. He held the honorary position of Town Recorder of Great Torrington in 1739–1779, due to his family's long-standing importance as the major local landowner.

Stevenstone

Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 with an annual gross value of nearly £46,000.

Samuel Rolle (1669–1735)

Samuel Rolle (1669-1735) of Hudscott, Chittlehampton, Devon, was MP for Barnstaple between 1705 and 1708. He was a member of a cadet branch of the influential Rolle family of Stevenstone.

Denys Rolle (died 1638)

Denys Rolle (1614–1638) of Bicton and Stevenstone in Devon was Sheriff of Devon in 1636. He was one of the biographer John Prince's Worthies of Devon.

Hudscott Historic estate in Devon, England

Hudscott is a historic estate within the parish and former manor of Chittlehampton, Devon. From 1700 it became a seat of a junior branch of the influential Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and in 1779 became a secondary seat of the senior Rolle family of Stevenstone, then the largest landowner in Devon. Hudscott House, classified in 1967 a Grade II* listed building, is situated one mile south-east of the village of Chittlehampton. It was largely rebuilt in the 17th century by the Lovering family and in the late 17th century became a refuge for ejected Presbyterial ministers. In 1737 its then occupant Samuel II Rolle (1703-1747) purchased the manor of Chittlehampton and thus Hudscott House became in effect the manor house of Chittlehampton.

Richard Stevens (MP)

Richard Stevens (1702–1776) of Winscott in the parish of Peters Marland, Devon, was Member of Parliament for Callington in Cornwall (1761–1768).

Clinton Devon Estates

Clinton Devon Estates is a land management and property development company which manages the Devonshire estates belonging to Baron Clinton, the largest private landowner in Devon, England. Lord Clinton is of the Fane-Trefusis family, and is seated at Heanton Satchville in the parish of Huish, in Devon. The organisation's headquarters are situated on part of the estate at the "Rolle Estate Office" in the Bicton Arena at East Budleigh, near Budleigh Salterton, East Devon.

The Manor of Bicton is an historic manor in the parish of Bicton in east Devon, England.

Speccot, Merton Historic estate in Devon, England

Speccot is an historic estate in the parish of Merton in Devon, England. It was the seat of the de Speccot family, one of the oldest gentry families in Devon, which founded almshouses at Taddiport, near Great Torrington, Devon, in the 13th century. It is situated about one mile south-west of Potheridge, the seat of the Monck family from before 1287 to the late 17th century, who were thus close neighbours of the de Speccot family for many centuries. The present farmhouse known as "Speccot Barton" is Victorian and although no obvious traces of an earlier house survive, is marked "On Site of a Mansion" on the First Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch map of 1880-99. The estate is today operated as a family-run sheep farm with six holiday cottages to let. A smaller house known as "Little Speccot" is situated on the approach lane to Speccot Barton.

References

  1. ↑ Lauder, Rosemary, A Tale of Two Rivers, Tiverton, 1986, p.28
  2. ↑ Williamson, Henry, Tarka the Otter, first published 1927, 1978 edition, Bodley Head, London, p.237
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.656
  5. ↑ Will of William Rolle Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) Mur 1, vol.28, 161 Potter[ full citation needed ]
  6. ↑ Swete, Rev. John, Travels in Georgian Devon: the Illustrated Journals of the Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, vol.1, ed. Gray, Todd, Tiverton, 1997, p.28
  7. 1 2 Colby, Frederick Thomas (1884). Pedigrees of Five Devonshire Families, Colby, Coplestone, Reynolds, Palmer and Johnson. Exeter: William Pollard. p. 14. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  8. ↑ Lee, Elizabeth. Mary Palmer. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Vol.43.
  9. ↑ "Palmer House. A new Chapter in its History". The Johnson Society: Dr. Samuel Johnson 1709-1784. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  10. 1 2 Weare Giffard graveyard, inscribed gravestone no. N-140
  11. ↑ East Riding of Yorkshire Archives and Records Service DDTR/24 17 Aug 1874 : Draft conveyance relating to property in Balkholme DDTR/24 17 Aug 1874, Parties: 1) Thomas Stephen Whitaker, Everthorpe Hall, barrister 2) Philip Saltmarshe, Saltmarshe, esquire Property: tithe commutation rent charges payable out of land at Balkholme Consideration: £730 Witnesses: George England, Edward England, Alfred R Hole, Justice of the Peace for Devon, Beam, Torrington
  12. 1 2 Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1886
  13. ↑ Clinton Devon Estates renovation work on Beam carriage drive bridge over former railway line, per commemorative brass plaque on parapet of bridge
  14. 1 2 The History of Beam House, PGL leaflet
  15. ↑ "fhsofmartin.org.uk • View topic - Ralph P Martin". fhsofmartin.org.uk. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014.
  16. ↑ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.1538-9, pedigree of Martin of Colleton
  17. ↑ Obituary, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 1935

Coordinates: 50°57′54″N4°10′35″W / 50.9650°N 4.1764°W / 50.9650; -4.1764

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