Winscott was a historic manor in the parish of Peters Marland, north Devon, England. Winscott House was built or re-built in 1865 and was demolished after 1931.
Winscott was a seat of the Stevens family also of Velstone, in the parish of Buckland Brewer and Cross, in the parish of Little Torrington, the latter existing today as a large Georgian mansion about 2 miles south of Great Torrington.
There must have been a house at Winscott for several centuries – it was the home of the Stevens family, long prominent in Torrington. The family also owned Cross, a large house on the outskirts of that town. The old Winscott property had vanished by October 1865 when plans for a large Victorian mansion for Mr J. C. Moore-Stevens were published in The Builder . The new house was built of local yellow brick from the Marland clay works nearby. Said to have cost over £7,000, the building incorporated a central hall almost 30 feet square. Left empty in 1920, it was finally demolished and all that remains today is a flat area in the middle of a field. [1]
The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor of "Winescote" as one of thirty-one manors, including "Mirland" (Peters Marland) and "Tuchbere" (Twigbeare), held by Roald Dubbed. Before 1066 it was held by Alwin. [2]
Richard Stevens (1702-1776) of Winscott, was MP for Callington in Cornwall. His mural monument exists in Peters Marland Church. He married Elizabeth (1707-1760), of unknown family, by whom he had three sons who pre-deceased him without children and two daughters who were also without children. His daughter Elizabeth Stevens (1727-1792) married twice, firstly to Robert Awse, [3] and secondly in 1782 to John Clevland (1734-1817) of Tapely, MP for Barnstaple 1766-1802. [4]
Thomas Moore-Stevens succeeded to Winscott under the will of Elizabeth Clevland, [5] He adopted the name and arms of Stevens, by royal licence dated 12 July 1817, on the death of John Clevland, as a condition of his wife's will.[ citation needed ] According to the death notices in the 1832 Annual Register, Thomas Moore-Stevens died by suicide. [6] [ better source needed ]
He was the son and heir of Thomas Moore-Stevens and was MP for North Devon and High Sheriff of Devon in 1870. [7] He rebuilt Winscott in 1865, immediately following his inheritance, at a cost of over £7,000. [8] He served as a Justice of the Peace and Winscott House was built with its own "Justice Room" with a separate entrance and lobby. [1]
He also rebuilt the nave and chancel of St Peter's Church, Peters Marland, in 1865, also to the designs of William White. [1]
Col. Richard Arthur Moore-Stevens (1854-1931), was the son and heir of John Curzon Moore-Stevens. In 1886 he married his third cousin May Clare Sophy Haworth. They had three children: John (born 1900), Ralph (born 1904) and Joyce. [9] A very religious man, he disinherited his son for marrying a Roman Catholic. He shut up Winscott House in around 1920 and moved to Exeter. [1]
Some time after Richard Arthur Moore-Stevens died, the Winscott estate was sold. A timber merchant purchased the grounds and felled the trees, whilst the building firm of Chambers of Winkleigh purchased the house, which was eventually demolished without a trace surviving above ground. Some materials were used to construct a new village hall. A few specimen trees survive, but all traces of the orchard, terraces, tennis court and walled garden have vanished. The imposing entrance gates and lodge survive. [1]
Peters Marland is a small village and civil parish in the local government district of Torridge, Devon, England. The parish, which lies about four miles south of the town of Great Torrington, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Little Torrington, Merton, Petrockstowe, Buckland Filleigh, Shebbear and Langtree. In 2001 its population was 234, down from the 286 residents it had in 1901.
William White, FSA (1825–1900) was a British architect, noted for his part in 19th-century Gothic Revival architecture and church restorations. He was the son of a clergyman and great nephew of the writer and naturalist, Gilbert White of Selborne.
Buckland Brewer is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England, 4.7 miles south of Bideford. Historically the parish formed part of Shebbear Hundred. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 777, increasing to 794 at the 2011 census The village is part of Waldon electoral ward. The population for this at the same census was 1,679.
Buckland Filleigh is a village, civil parish and former manor in the Torridge district of North Devon, England, situated about 8 miles south of the town of Great Torrington. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 170. It is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Peters Marland, Petrockstowe, Highampton, Sheepwash and Shebbear.
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.
St Giles in the Wood is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village lies about 2.5 miles east of the town of Great Torrington, and the parish, which had a population of 566 in 2001 compared with 623 in 1901, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Huntshaw, Yarnscombe, High Bickington, Roborough, Beaford, Little Torrington and Great Torrington. Most of the Victorian terraced cottages in the village, on the east side of the church, were built by the Rolle Estate.
Tapeley is a historic estate in the parish of Westleigh in North Devon, England.
Sir Hugh Pollard, 2nd Baronet was an English soldier and MP elected for Bere Alston in 1640, Callington in 1660, and Devon in 1661. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Huish is a small village, civil parish and former manor in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The eastern boundary of the parish is formed by the River Torridge and the western by the Rivers Mere and Little Mere, and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Merton, Dolton, Meeth and Petrockstowe. In 2001 the population of the parish was 49, down from 76 in 1901.
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.
Hall is a large estate within the parish and former manor of Bishop's Tawton, Devon. It was for several centuries the seat of a younger branch of the prominent and ancient North Devon family of Chichester of Raleigh, near Barnstaple. The mansion house is situated about 2 miles south-east of the village of Bishop's Tawton and 4 miles south-east of Barnstaple, and sits on a south facing slope of the valley of the River Taw, overlooking the river towards the village of Atherington. The house and about 2,500 acres of surrounding land continues today to be owned and occupied by descendants, via a female line, of the Chichester family. The present Grade II* listed neo-Jacobean house was built by Robert Chichester between 1844 and 1847 and replaced an earlier building. Near the house to the south at the crossroads of Herner the Chichester family erected in the 1880s a private chapel of ease which contains mediaeval woodwork saved from the demolished Old Guildhall in Barnstaple.
The Manor of Combe Martin was a medieval manor estate in Combe Martin, Devon, England.
Merton is a village, ecclesiastical parish, former manor and civil parish administered by the local government district of Torridge, Devon, England. The parish, which lies about five miles south east of the town of Great Torrington, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Little Torrington, Beaford, Dolton, Huish, Petrockstowe and Peters Marland. In 2001 its population was 331, down from the 507 residents it had in 1901. The eastern and northern boundaries of the parish follow the loops of the River Torridge and the other sides are defined by the River Mere. The village forms part of the electoral ward of Clinton. The population at the 2011 census was 1,537.
John Rolle of Stevenstone and Bicton in Devon, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English House of Commons from 1703 to 1705 and in the British House of Commons from 1710-1730. He declined the offer of an earldom by Queen Anne, but 18 years after his death his eldest son was raised to the peerage in 1748 by King George II as Baron Rolle.
Richard Stevens (1702–1776) of Winscott in the parish of Peters Marland, Devon, was Member of Parliament for Callington in Cornwall (1761–1768).
John II Clevland of Tapeley in the parish of Westleigh, Devon, was seven times Member of Parliament for Barnstaple from 1766 to 1802.
Mount Radford is an historic estate in the parish of St Leonards, adjacent to the east side of the City of Exeter in Devon.
The Recorder of Barnstaple was a recorder, a form of senior judicial officer, usually an experienced barrister, within the jurisdiction of the Borough of Barnstaple in Devon. He was usually a member of the local North Devonshire gentry. The position of recorder of any borough carried a great deal of prestige and power of patronage. The recorder of a borough was often entrusted by the mayor and corporation to nominate its Members of Parliament, as was the case with Sir Hugh I Pollard, Recorder of Barnstaple, who in 1545 nominated the two MP's to represent the Borough of Barnstaple. In the 19th century a recorder was the sole judge who presided at a Quarter Sessions of a Borough, a "Court of Record", and was a barrister of at least five years' standing. He fixed the dates of the Quarter Sessions at his own discretion "as long as he holds it once every quarter of a year", or more often if he deemed fit.
John Curzon Moore-Stevens (1818-1903), JP, DL, MP for North Devon, High Sheriff of Devon in 1870.
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.
Colby, Frederic Thomas, Pedigree of the family of Stevens of Vielstone, Cross, and Winscott. Published by W. Pollard, Exeter, 1891.