Endsleigh Cottage (now "Endsleigh House") is a country house near Milton Abbot, about 6 miles NW of Tavistock, Devon in England. It is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are Grade I listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [1] The house was built in the early 19th century for the Duke of Bedford. Today, it is a hotel.
The house was built between 1810 and 1816 [2] by John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, as a private family residence, to the designs of Sir Jeffry Wyatville, in the style of the picturesque movement, and is a grand form of the cottage orné. It has been a Grade I Listed Building since 21 March 1967. It was situated within the manor of Milton Abbot, a former manor belonging to Tavistock Abbey, which had been granted with its lands by King Henry VIII to his ancestor John Russell, 1st Baron Russell (created in 1550 1st Earl of Bedford). [3] It is situated on the east bank of the River Tamar, over which it commands superb views to the south and west. Pevsner stated that "the situation of Endsleigh can hardly be matched". [4] It was usefully positioned as a residence whilst the Duke, normally residing at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, was inspecting his extensive Bedford estates in Devon and Cornwall. [5] Before the Civil War, when in Devon the Earl of Bedford resided occasionally at Bedford House in Exeter, built by the family on the site of the Blackfriars Monastery, which had been granted, along with many other lands, to the first Earl of Bedford after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. [6] Endsleigh was also used by the family as a summer holiday home and salmon-fishing lodge. The London streets Endsleigh Street, Endsleigh Gardens and Endsleigh Place, leading off Tavistock Square, all built by a former Duke on the extensive Bedford Estate are named after the family's Devon property.
Hussey described it as "the outstanding and probably most nearly perfect surviving instance of a romantic cottage orné, devised for an aristocratic owner under the influence of the taste for the picturesque". [7] The site was chosen by the Duchess, as a plaque in the stables records. It consists of a main range with two swept-back wings on either side. The roofline displays several chimney stacks in the Elizabethan style and dormer windows. The east wing was principally a service range, whilst the west wing is in the form of a pavilion known as the "Children's Cottage" linked by a rustic colonnade to the central block.
The landscaping was designed by Humphry Repton and the grounds originally comprised a plantation of 300 acres, including a thickly wooded slope going down to the river, and gardens of 20 acres. The buildings in the grounds include the Shell Grotto, a polygonal summer-house and the Swiss Cottage, restored by the Landmark Trust with a thatched roof. Also, the Dairy Dell, by Repton, Pond Cottages by a pool and the octagonal Dairy surrounded by a loggia, and the Holy Well, part of which is an ancient structure formerly situated at Leigh Barton, and used as the baptismal font of the hunting seat of the Abbots of Tavistock Abbey. [8] The following structures as well as the main house are Grade I listed: Rockery and Grotto, Stables, Salmon Larder and Ice House, Shell House and Grotto.
Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford died in 1953, aged 64, as a result of a gunshot wound in the grounds of Endsleigh. The coroner recorded his death as accidentally inflicted, but his elder son suggested it may have been deliberately self-inflicted.[ citation needed ]
In 2004 Endsleigh was owned by a fishing syndicate. Since 2005 it has been a hotel, which retains 108 acres (44 ha) of the grounds. Hotel Endsleigh is owned by Olga Polizzi and has been managed by her daughter, Alex Polizzi, [9] known as the host of Channel 5's The Hotel Inspector since 2008.
Woburn Abbey, occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, along with the diverse estate surrounding it, including the historic landscape gardens and deer park, as well as more recently added attractions including Woburn Safari Park, a miniature railway and a garden/visitor centre. It was built by William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh.
Humphry Repton was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of the 19th century. His first name is often incorrectly spelt "Humphrey".
(Henry) Robin Ian Russell, 14th Duke of Bedford, DL, of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, was a British peer, stockbroker and animal conservationist. He became well known to the public by appearing in three series of the BBC reality television programme Country House. During his childhood he was styled by the courtesy title Lord Howland, one of his grandfather's lesser titles, and from 1953 and for most of his adult life was styled by the courtesy title Marquess of Tavistock, his father's senior subsidiary title, and as he survived his father by only 7+1⁄2 months, he himself held the dukedom for that short period during 2002–2003.
Tavistock is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards had a population of 13,028. It traces its recorded history back to at least 961 when Tavistock Abbey, whose ruins lie in the centre of the town, was founded. Its most famous son is Sir Francis Drake.
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. Almost exactly square, to the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row. Russell Square tube station sits to the north-east.
Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden.
Ston Easton Park is an English country house built in the 18th century. It lies near the village of Ston Easton, Somerset. It is a Grade I listed building and the grounds are listed Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and St Rumon, was destroyed by Danish raiders in 997 and rebuilt under Lyfing, the second abbot. The church was further rebuilt in 1285 and the greater part of the abbey between 1457 and 1458.
Werrington is a civil parish and former manor now in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Prior to boundary changes it straddled the Tamar and lay within the county of Devon. The portion on the west side was transferred to Cornwall in 1966. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) to the west of the Tamar, the traditional boundary between Devon and Cornwall, and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Launceston.
John Foulston was an English architect who was a pupil of Thomas Hardwick and set up a practice in London in 1796. In 1810 he won a competition to design the Royal Hotel and Theatre group of buildings in Plymouth, Devon, and after relocating he remained Plymouth's leading architect for twenty-five years.
Henry Clutton was an English architect and designer.
Sarsden is a village and civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) south of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. The 2001 Census recorded the parish population as 83. Since 2012 Sarsden has been part of the Churchill and Sarsden joint parish council area, sharing a parish council with the adjacent civil parish of Churchill.
The Bedford Estate is an estate in central London owned by the Russell family, which holds the peerage title of Duke of Bedford. The estate was originally based in Covent Garden, then stretched to include Bloomsbury in 1669. The Covent Garden property was sold for £2 million in 1913 by Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option to the Beecham family for £250,000; the sale was finalised in 1918.
Sir Jeffry Wyatville was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatville. He is mainly remembered for making alterations and extensions to Chatsworth House and Windsor Castle.
Sheringham Hall is a Grade II* listed building which stands in the grounds of Sheringham Park which is in the care of the National Trust. The house is close to the village of Upper Sheringham in the English County of Norfolk in the United Kingdom. The hall was built on the instructions of Abbot and Charlotte Upcher who engaged the architect and landscape designer Humphry Repton and his son John Adey Repton to build the house and to present designs for the surrounding parklands. Humphry worked on the landscape and John designed the hall. The house is privately owned is not open to the public but can be viewed from the surrounding parkland.
Stover is a historic estate in the parish of Teigngrace, about half way between the towns of Newton Abbot and Bovey Tracey in South Devon, England. It was bought by James Templer (1722–1782) in 1765 and passed through three generations of that family before being bought by Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset in 1829.
Milton Abbot is a village, parish, and former manor in Devon, 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of Tavistock, Devon, and 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Launceston, Cornwall.
The British Medical Association War Memorial, officially the War Memorial at British Medical Association House, Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, London, commemorates men and women of the medical professions from the British Empire and Commonwealth who died in the Second World War. The memorial was commissioned by the British Medical Association and designed by the sculptor James Woodford. Unveiled in 1954 by Sir John McNee, then President of the BMA, and dedicated by Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, it became a Grade II* listed structure in 1998.
Tavistock Town Hall is a municipal building in Bedford Square, Tavistock, Devon, England. The structure, which remains the main venue for civic events in the town, is a Grade II listed building.
