Torre Abbey

Torre Abbey

A Premonstratensian abbey founded in 1196, converted to a house in 1598 and progressively remodelled during the late 17th, 18th and early 20th centuries. The complex is built in local grey limestone and red sandstone rubble, partly rendered, with stone or brick chimney stacks.

The buildings are arranged around a courtyard plan. The ruins of the abbey church lie to the north, with the chapter house and first-floor dormitory occupying the east range, which has a covered cloister on its west side. The west range originally housed the guest hall and private apartments; the guest hall was partly converted to a Roman Catholic chapel in 1779. The south range contained the refectory over a cellar, with a southwest wing adjoining. An offset 14th-century gatehouse stands to the southwest.

The gatehouse is the best-preserved medieval structure on the site. It is embattled with octagonal corner turrets and features one large and one smaller double-chamfered archway, both with rib vaults and carved bosses, along with scattered fenestration.

The main west front displays a 2:1:3-window arrangement with a projecting three-stage embattled tower at its centre. Adjoining this tower to the north is an embattled porch block with a moulded archway leading to a flight of steps. Tall chapel windows of 1779 with 24-pane sashes and pointed-arched glazing bars in the upper tier occupy the left side. Two-light transomed windows appear to the right. The tower itself has a crank-headed doorway and 2 and 3-light windows of the 19th or 20th century, mullioned in Ham Hill stone with hoodmoulds. A 12th-century moulded window is visible on the tower's south side. Low embattled screen walls flank the tower to left and right.

An embattled southwest wing with a four-window front adjoins the gatehouse to the right of the main front. The south range is embattled and features a largely Georgian south front of 5:7:5 bays, with the central seven bays recessed and two storeys in height. Twelve-pane sashes occupy the outer bays, whilst the centre has 24-pane sashes except on the first floor, which has French windows opening onto individual cast-iron balconies. A central open porch on columns with a segmental pediment and modillion frieze provides the principal entrance.

The east wing is irregular and partly ruinous, with two small late Tudor towers to the northeast. The chapter house ruins on the east side of the cloister preserve a Transitional moulded archway flanked by round-headed windows. The ground plan of the church remains discernible: it comprises a transept with a rectangular chancel and original north aisle.

The interior of the south range preserves a medieval undercroft with groin vaults on columns. The west range undercrofts are similarly intact with groin vaults on square-section or cylindrical columns. The west range roof, thought to be late medieval, survives as a plastered barrel vault with bosses, visible in the 18th-century chapel. The first floor of the tower contains an intersecting beamed ceiling with chamfered, stopped joists. A large recess in the passage entrance to the chapel may be a domestic piscina. A medieval stair leads to the southwest wing. The gatehouse preserves its original medieval stair and garderobe shaft.

The 17th-century features include a service stair with turned balusters in the southwest range. 18th-century domestic features include a staircase between the south and west ranges with turned balusters and carved tread-ends, and a fine dining room with a good cornice and white marble chimneypiece. The chapel contains a reredos by Kendall of Exeter. Early 20th-century additions include stained glass, probably dating from Colonel Cary's residence, which began in 1906–7.

The site is of major archaeological as well as architectural interest. Archaeological investigations undertaken in 1987–88 by the Exeter Field Unit established further details about the abbey church, and the site has potential to yield additional evidence of significance.