Eggesford House

Eggesford House is the extensive ruins of a country house built between 1820 and 1830 for the Honourable Newton Fellowes. The architect was Thomas Lee of Barnstaple. The house was abandoned in 1911.

The building was constructed from squared blocks of local iron stone with granite ashlar dressings and some Hatherleigh stone detail. Many interior walls and stacks are of brick. The roofs have completely disappeared and much of the building has collapsed, though the plan can still be appreciated in general outline.

The house was conceived on a grand scale as an irregular and rambling complex of buildings. It faced south-west, with the main block positioned at the right (south-east) end. This main block was apparently three rooms wide and three rooms deep, and its shell survives. Another block along the left side was recessed from the front and two rooms deep, though it has largely collapsed. From the back, a range extended at right angles to the left towards the north wing, itself two rooms wide and two rooms deep. From the front of this a single storey range extended to a tower set diagonally to the axis of the rest, creating a courtyard with a low wall across the front.

The building comprised three storeys with extensive cellars throughout. The Elizabethan Gothic style was applied consistently across the complex. The facades are irregular with bold embattled parapets, projecting stacks and buttresses. Windows are square-headed with stone mullions and Tudor arch-headed lights, some enriched with cusped cinquefoils and hoodmoulds. The larger windows have transoms.

The south-west front of the main block survives in part, with remains of a two-storey porch and part of the large Hatherleigh stone outer arch surmounted by an heraldic achievement in a Gothic style plaque. To the right is the tall stair window, now missing its tracery. The two-window front to the right is more or less intact. The south-east return is also nearly intact, with its 3:1:1 window arrangement serving the principal rooms and chambers. The central bay contains an enormous first floor window with the hood mould rising around an heraldic achievement. The bay to the left includes a canted bay window to ground and first floors, while the right bay has a full height square-cornered bay window. Most of the rear wall remains up to parapet level with an irregular 1:2:2:1 window arrangement. The north wing projects as a massive canted bay with four forward windows and two on each side. The tower to the left of the main front is the best-preserved part of the building, with a window on each floor on three sides and a newel stair projecting to the front left side. Part of the front courtyard wall also survives.

The interior has been completely stripped of all detail and most beams have collapsed. Until 1911, Eggesford House was the home of the Earls of Portsmouth. The building is set in parkland with fine views over the River Taw. A 19th-century print of the exterior is held in the Devon Record Office, and the 1913 sale catalogue included photographs of both the exterior and the fine Gothic style interior.