Saltram House

Saltram House is a large country house developed from a great house with 16th and 17th-century origins. The core represents the remains of the former house of Sir John Bagg, but the predominant character results from phased remodelling in the 18th century, much of it designed by Robert Adam (1768-72 and 1779-82) and carried out on behalf of the Parkers, formerly of Boringdon House. John Foulston added a porch in 1818 and enlarged the library in 1820.

Materials and Construction

The house is stuccoed with stucco detail including rusticated quoins to the principal outer elevations; otherwise constructed of local rubble with granite dressings. The roofs are dry slate, mostly hipped, with the gables coped and urns on acroteria. The south and east fronts sit behind stuccoed parapets with modillion cornices. There are rendered axial, end and lateral stacks.

Plan

The large overall plan is approximately square, built around two courtyards, with the principal stair hall possibly occupying the position of another courtyard.

Exterior

The house is of three storeys and two storeys. The three principal elevations are symmetrical and articulated, with hornless sashes with glazing bars, many of which are 18th-century sashes with thick glazing bars.

The west elevation is arranged 2:3:5:3:2 bays with the central and end bays broken forward and taller. The end bays form pedimented gables with half-domed niches containing Classical statues to the ground floor. A central round-arched freestone doorway has a triangular pediment. Flanking the five-bay centre, the two-storey bays have central Diocletian windows over Venetian windows, with the central light of the one on the right now converted to a doorway.

The south elevation is arranged 3:2:3:2:3 bays with pedimented central bays broken forward and the end bays canted. There is a granite plinth over a hidden cellar, part of which extends in front of the present line of the house, and a moulded first-floor sill string. The central bay has a coat of arms to the pediment over tripartite windows to the first and second floors. The tripartite doorway is fronted by a Doric porch with two pairs of fluted columns by John Foulston of Plymouth.

The east elevation is arranged 2:3:2 bays with the central bays broken forward and with a balustraded parapet; the end bays are surmounted by triangular pediments with modillion cornices. The central bays have a plinth with balustrades under the windows. The central Venetian window has a central sash with fanlight head above a wooden bottom panel, so that with the lower part of the sash lifted and the panel opened, it can be used as a doorway, presumably a later modification.

The north elevation is irregular with a canted bay on the left, then a stair window for a large back stair, then a two-storey service range with a single-storey wing projecting in front of a large lateral stack. Right of this is a wide doorway and then the tall end of the west front.

The inner courtyard has four good elevations. The elevation on the north side of the courtyard has an altered arrangement of mullioned windows to the ground floor and evidence of former mullioned windows to the first floor. To the east side is a two-light mullioned window with hoodmould on the left, above a doorway with a six-panel door with fielded panels, and on the right a round-arched stair window with fanlight head. To the south side is a tower on the left and a bowed stair window to the right. The west side is a symmetrical three-window front with central doorway and 18th-century sashes with thick glazing bars.

The other courtyard has the kitchen front to the north with four large early or mid 19th-century sashes rising into what was a two-storey building. On the east is a two-window range over a three-bay round-arched loggia. On the south is a two-storey-plus-attic six-window range with one blocked window opening. To the right-hand end of this range, and of considerable interest, is a 16th or 17th-century tower with a balustraded parapet, the spaces between blocked when the tower was heightened to create a bell tower. Right of this (within the rear entrance passage) is a 16th-century granite moulded and carved four-centred arched doorway.

Interior

Saltram contains what is claimed to be the finest suite of reception rooms in Devon. The best rooms to the south and west fronts were designed by Robert Adam and demonstrate his development as a designer, from using the conventional Rococo to the low-relief kind of Neo-Classical detail that became his hallmark and with which he broke new ground in interior design. The earlier rooms are towards the west and develop to the east, and this development continues in the east range from south to north, terminating in a room which is so characteristic of Robert Adam that, were it not at Saltram, it might be taken to be a reproduction of his style. All the reception rooms have good plasterwork and their original chimneypieces, doors and window shutters.

From the west, the rooms include the following principal features. The room second from left has wall panels, eared doorcases, a Doric entablature, Rococo ceiling plaster with a central panel containing an angel, and a superb chimneypiece with herms, a broken pediment and a carved overmantel depicting a rural scene. The next room has a chimneypiece with Ionic columns and a carved frieze with an egg-and-dart cornice, a rococo ceiling with four cherubs playing musical instruments, and a dado with egg-and-dart and other detail. The south-east room has a very light relief rococo ceiling over a richly carved entablature with a modillion cornice, a marble chimneypiece with consoles over pilasters with carved fruit and dado similar to the previous room. At the north end of the room is a distyle-in-antae Corinthian colonnade with the ceiling beyond divided into panels.

The very large room north of this and central to this range is Robert Adam at his most recognisable best. The room has a coved ceiling vault divided into three panels with ovals and concave diamonds and very light anthemion and other decoration all painted in pastel colours. The ceiling is set on a moulded and carved entablature and the walls have embossed wallpaper. The chimneypiece has marble columns and its original brass and iron grate. Opposite the chimneypiece is the Venetian window with fluted columns supporting the central arch, and there are pilastered doorcases. The room to the north of this range has a chimneypiece with tapered pilasters and a brass and iron grate, and the ceiling has a central circle containing four semi-circles and an inner circle.

The rooms in the west range are more simply detailed but have good ceiling cornices and other 18th and early 19th-century features. There are five staircases, four of which are 18th-century with turned balusters. The principal staircase is part of one of the best spaces in the house. The wide open well has two landings plus a balconied landing, over a Greek key pattern, the full length of the room. The staircase has alternate twist and turned balusters, in groups of three, over an open string and with a ramped mahogany handrail. The balcony is carried on a distyle-in-antae Doric colonnade with an entablature above each capital in the Roman manner. The lower doorcases have pediments; the others have moulded entablature, all are eared. The stair hall is lit by an oval lantern above a carved frieze and the ceiling below has a modillion cornice. The staircase next to the main staircase is a small open well, and the staircase near the north-east corner is a larger open well.

Upper floors and service rooms were not inspected but all are likely to be of interest, particularly the first-floor rooms above the reception rooms.

Significance

Saltram is a very important house: restrained and gracious on the outside and extravagant and complex on the inside. The early visible remnants are but a small part of what survives of the fabric of the 16th-century house and this makes the achievement of the 18th-century conversion to one of the most fashionable houses of its time even more remarkable. Saltram survives virtually complete and unaltered since the 18th century with most of its best original furnishings which are beyond the scope of this description.