Burnville House (or Farm) in Brentor, West Devon, England, is a building of historical significance and is Grade II listed on the English Heritage Register. [1] It was built in about 1800, possibly by William Sleman, who was a wealthy landowner and described as "a gentleman". It was the home of several notable families over the next two centuries. Today it provides bed and breakfast accommodation and has self-catering cottages. [2]
The map of Brentor of 1809 shows that the Burnville Estate was then called East Langstone (or Longstone). At this time it was owned by William Sleman (1780-1814) who possibly built the house. In 1802 he married Agnes Cundy (1776-1831) who was also from the parish of Lamerton and the couple had three children. Unfortunately William died in 1814. The death notice is given at this reference. [3] In the same year the house and the nearby farm were advertised separately as rental properties. The notice is shown. The house is described in the following terms.
"It consists of an elegant mansion having an entrance hall, very handsome dining and drawing rooms of large dimensions with a good sized breakfast room, five bedrooms equally proportional (excluding servants rooms), an excellent kitchen, back kitchen, dairy, cheese house and salting room with stone troughs, pump etc. Two large underground cellars, a wine cellar, excellent stables with suitable outbuildings." [4]
In 1819 the whole of William Sleman’s property was sold including East Langstone. A description of the large number of assets that he owned in the Tavistock area is given in this reference. [5] John James and his wife Anne bought the East Langstone estate. He renamed the house “Burnville Lodge” but retained the name of the nearby East Langstone Farm. Later the whole of the estate was called Burnville.
John James (1794-1854) was part of a family listed in Burke’s Landed Gentry. [6] He was born in 1794 and in 1815 married Anne Herring (1795-1832) who was the daughter John Pyne Herring who owned the West Langstone Estate which is shown on the above map. The couple had one son. John became the Deputy Lieutenant of Devon. Anne died in 1832 [7] and in 1835 he married Patience Luxmoore who was the daughter of Thomas Bridgman Luxmoore of Fair Place Okehampton. They had two children. John died in 1854 [8] and Patience continued to live at the house until 1860 when it was advertised for sale. The house was a rental property until about 1875 when it was bought by Mary Ann Ward.
Mary Ann Ward (1820-1893) was the widow of Daniel Ward who owned a property called Uppaton in Milton Abbot. He was a land surveyor and farmer. He died in 1861 and Mary Ann continued living at Uppaton and running it as a farm. She is shown in the 1871 Census at Uppaton with her three sons John, Frank and Daniel and her daughter Mary Northway Ward. In the 1881 Census she is living at Burnville and operating it as a farm of 278 acres. She is with her son Frank who is now a surveyor and auctioneer.
Frank Ward (1850-1928) was born in 1850 in Tavistock. He went into partnership with John Chowen to form the very successful firm of Ward & Chowen who were auctioneers in Tavistock. In 1911 Frank was the star in what has been described as “the sale of the century” when the lands and properties in the town belonging to the Eleventh Duke of Bedford were sold. [9]
In 1892 he married Mary Harvey (1846-1930) from Portland Villas in Plymouth. [10] His mother Mary Ann died in the following year in 1893 and Frank and his new bride took up residence at Burnville. Besides being an auctioneer Frank devoted much of his leisure time to cattle breeding and he won many awards. He was also a county counsellor and Justice of the Peace. [11] The couple had no children. Frank died in 1928 and left his properties to his wife Mary. When she died in 1930 their properties were left to various relatives. Burnville was inherited by their nephew Frank Ward (1892-1969).
Frank Ward (1892-1969) was born in Tavistock Devon. His father was Daniel Ward and his mother was Mary Eliza Willion. In 1918 he married Mary Abbott Green (1896-1988), daughter of Daniel Abbott Green of Fingringhoe Hall. They lived there until the 1950s. By 1957 John L Bodman [12] owned the property.
William Crossing (1847–1928) was a writer and chronicler of Dartmoor and the lives of its inhabitants. He lived successively at South Brent, Brentor and at Mary Tavy but died at Plymouth, Devon.
Okehampton is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based in the town. Their joint population at the same census was 7,500.
The South Devon and Tavistock Railway linked Plymouth with Tavistock in Devon; it opened in 1859. It was extended by the Launceston and South Devon Railway to Launceston, in Cornwall in 1865. It was a broad gauge line but from 1876 also carried the standard gauge trains of the London and South Western Railway between Lydford and Plymouth: a third rail was provided, making a mixed gauge. In 1892 the whole line was converted to standard gauge only.
Tavistock was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Devon between 1330 and 1974. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the town of Tavistock; it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1868, when its representation was reduced to one member. From 1885, the name was transferred to a single-member county constituency covering a much larger area.
North Tawton is a small town in Devon, England, situated on the river Taw. It is administered by West Devon Council. The population of the electoral ward at the census 2011 was 2,026.
The Exeter to Plymouth railway of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) was the westernmost part of a route competing with that of the Great Western Railway (GWR) and its 'associated companies' from London and Exeter to Plymouth in Devon, England. Whereas the GWR route from Exeter followed the coast to Newton Abbot and then went around the southern edge of Dartmoor, the LSWR route followed the northern and western margins of Dartmoor, passing through the towns of Crediton, Okehampton, and Tavistock.
Hugh de Courtenay, 1st/9th Earl of Devon of Tiverton Castle, Okehampton Castle, Plympton Castle and Colcombe Castle, all in Devon, feudal baron of Okehampton and feudal baron of Plympton, was an English nobleman. In 1335, forty-one years after the death of his second cousin once-removed Isabel de Redvers, suo jure 8th Countess of Devon he was officially declared Earl of Devon, although whether as a new creation or in succession to her is unknown, thus alternative ordinal numbers exist for this Courtenay earldom.
John Luxmoore or Luxmore (1766–1830) was an English bishop of three sees.
Cowick is a suburb of the City of Exeter in Devon. Historically it was a manor situated in the parish of St Thomas, Exeter, within the hundred of Wonford. It was formerly the site of a Benedictine monastery.
Blackborough is a hamlet and former manor in the parish of Kentisbeare, Devon, England. It is situated within the Mid Devon district. The nearest substantial town is Cullompton, approximately 4.7 miles (7.6 km) to the south-west. Within Blackborough are situated the large mansion of Blackborough House also notable are Hayne Farm and the Old Smithy. The former neo-Gothic Early English style parish church of All Saints, built in 1838 by George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont, lord of the manor, who also built Blackborough House was demolished in 1994, having become structurally unsafe. The churchyard however is still maintained and the ecclesiastical parish and parochial church council still exist.
Milton Damerel is a village, parish and former manor in north Devon, England. Situated in the political division of Torridge, on the river Waldon, it covers 7 square miles (18 km2). It contains many tiny hamlets including Whitebeare, Strawberry Bank, East Wonford and West Wonford. The parish has a population of about 450. The village is situated about 5 miles (8.0 km) from Holsworthy, 13.081 miles (21.052 km) from Bideford and 22.642 miles (36.439 km) from Barnstaple. The A388 is the main road through the parish.
Heanton Satchville was a historic manor in the parish of Petrockstowe, North Devon, England. With origins in the Domesday manor of Hantone, it was first recorded as belonging to the Yeo family in the mid-14th century and was then owned successively by the Rolle, Walpole and Trefusis families. The mansion house was destroyed by fire in 1795. In 1812 Lord Clinton purchased the manor and mansion of nearby Huish, renamed it Heanton Satchville, and made it his seat. The nearly-forgotten house was featured in the 2005 edition of Rosemary Lauder's "Vanished Houses of North Devon". A farmhouse now occupies the former stable block with a large tractor shed where the house once stood. The political power-base of the Rolle family of Heanton Satchville was the pocket borough seat of Callington in Cornwall, acquired in 1601 when Robert Rolle purchased the manor of Callington.
The feudal barony of Okehampton was a very large feudal barony, the largest mediaeval fiefdom in the county of Devon, England, whose caput was Okehampton Castle and manor. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed during the mediaeval era.
Stafford is an historic manor in the parish of Dolton in Devon, England. The present manor house known as Stafford Barton is a grade II* listed building. 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. 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". In the nineteenth century the estate was very substantial, with 400 acres of associated farmland and a large staff, and by 1956, at the end of the Luxmoore tenure, it had grown to 1,460 acres with 7 farms, several cottages and smallholdings.
Collacombe is an historic manor in the parish of Lamerton, Devon, England. The manor house survives as a grade I listed building, known as Collacombe Barton or Collacombe Manor (House).
Eagle House Hotel is a Grade II* listed building located in Castle Street, Launceston, Cornwall. Formerly a townhouse, it is now a hotel and is built in the Georgian style in red brick.
Hayne in the parish of Stowford in Devon, is an historic manor, about 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Okehampton. The surviving Manor House, a grade II* listed building known as Hayne House was rebuilt in about 1810 by Isaac Donnithorne, who later adopted the surname Harris having married the heiress of Harris of Hayne.
The manor of Alverdiscott was a manor situated in north Devon, England, which included the village of Alverdiscott.
Okehampton Town Hall is a municipal building in Fore Street, Okehampton, Devon, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Okehampton Town Council, is a Grade II* listed building.