Colleton Manor

Colleton Manor is a house of medieval origin, substantially remodelled or rebuilt probably in 1612 by Humphrey Bury, with further alterations made around the late 17th or early 18th century and again in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building is constructed of local sedimentary stone dressed and brought to course with granite dressings. It has a slate roof with granite coped gable ends featuring moulded caps and ball finials at the apexes. The gable end, axial and lateral stacks are built with dressed stone shafts and moulded caps.

Plan and Development

The existing house largely resulted from a major remodelling, if not entire rebuilding, by Humphrey Bury in 1612. Few recognisable features survive from the medieval house (apart from the separate chapel/gatehouse). These medieval remnants include cellar windows at the lower west end, the hall's small rear window and the former passage rear doorway, though none are certainly in their original positions.

The present house has a large hall at the right-hand (east) end, heated by a lateral fireplace at the back. The hall is unusually long and narrow, suggesting it occupies the site of the medieval house. The screens passage at the left (west) end of the hall has a two-storey porch at the front. The lower left side partition of the passage was removed to form a wide entrance hall, probably in the late 17th or early 18th century. This work was probably contemporary with the construction of the stair tower behind the entrance hall, which rises to a spacious landing on the first floor and continues up to attics in the roof.

The stair tower stands in the angle with a wide cross-wing at the lower left end. This cross-wing contains a cellar, a parlour on the ground floor heated by a lateral stack on the left side, two heated bedchambers above, and an attic in the roof. The common rafter and tie-beam roof structure provides two large attic spaces: one over the cross-wing and another over the main range, both accessible from the stair tower.

Despite the early character of its gable end stack and stair turret, the kitchen wing at the rear of the higher right-hand end is a 19th-century replacement of an earlier parallel rear range depicted in a 19th-century engraving. This earlier range must have dated back to the 17th century and would explain the 17th-century doorcase in the back wall of the high end of the hall. The present rear wing returns with a later 19th or early 20th-century single-storey service range, forming a rear courtyard.

The courtyard (now garden) at the front is now open on the left (west) side. On the right side there is a long wing projecting from the higher end of the house, which might be 17th century or at least partly so. The gatehouse/chapel archway is not aligned with the screens passage of the house. In front of the gatehouse there was probably another 17th-century courtyard surrounded by stables and other outbuildings.

Exterior

The house is of two storeys and attic with cellar and the left-hand cross-wing. The five-bay south front is symmetrical except for the long wing to the right. The central feature is a two-storey gabled porch, with a wide gabled cross-wing to the left. All windows are granite mullion-and-transom type with hood moulds and later casements with leaded panes. On the ground floor, left and right of the porch are four-light windows, and to the left in the cross-wing is a six-light window, all with king mullions. Most first-floor windows are later replacements.

The granite porch doorway has roll moulding with a segmental, almost round arch and hood mould. Above is a niche holding arms. There is a moulded timber inner doorframe.

The long two-storey wing to the right has an inner west elevation of five bays with three-light mullion windows; only three at the left end retain original granite frames. The gable end has a four-light window in place of an earlier doorway. The right-hand (east) gable end of the main range has granite two-light windows at first-floor and attic levels.

The left-hand side of the cross-wing has a lateral stack with set-offs, and to left and right are late 19th or early 20th-century two-light windows and earlier cellar windows with four-centred arch-headed lights.

The rear north elevation has a gabled cross-wing to the right with a 20th-century oriel, and a projecting gabled stair tower in its left-hand angle. The main range to the left has various early windows and a large projecting lateral stack with set-offs and tall shaft with moulded cap. To the left of the stack is a four-light granite mullion window with king mullion and a wooden four-light moulded-transom window above. To the right of the stack, the back doorway of the screens passage has a moulded (cavetto and cyma) two-centred arch frame with convex stops and hood mould. Above to the left is a two-light window with four-centred heads, and above that are late 17th or early 18th-century two- and three-light wooden windows.

The rear service wing projects to the left and has a large projecting gable end stack with tall shaft, late 19th-century casements and a pentice for access to the single-storey service wing which returns to form a courtyard behind the house.

Interior

The hall has a fine single-rib moulded plaster ceiling. From three large pendants, ribs radiate into kite-shaped designs and moulded rib panels with floral sprays at the corners. The moulded plaster frieze is dated 1612. The large lateral fireplace has hollow-chamfered granite jambs with ball stops, the chamfer continued into a large cambered timber lintel. The doorway at the rear of the high end of the hall has a cyma-moulded wooden frame with the stops worn away. The 17th-century dado panelling in the hall has a carved frieze.

The screen at the lower end of the hall has chamfered stiles and rails with small panels and a carved pulvinated frieze above. On the lower left side of the screen is the entrance hall with a 19th-century moulded plaster cornice and granite fireplace. Behind the entrance hall is a staircase in a closed well with a late 19th or early 20th-century balustrade.

The parlour (drawing room) has fine early 17th-century panelling on two sides, divided by pilasters with strapwork bases and palm leaf carved shafts in pairs with debased Ionic capitals. Above these are the arms of the Bury family in a strapwork frieze. The ceiling is embossed paper in imitation of plasterwork and the chimneypiece is 19th century.

A Tudor arch doorway with double cyma moulding leads into the cellar under the parlour. The cellar has two large chamfered cross-beams (the stops rotted) and unchamfered joists. An 18th-century panelled door is at the top of the cellar stairs.

The joinery on the first floor is mainly 19th century except in the two bedchambers in the cross-wing. The front room has early 18th-century fielded panelling and cornice with a fireplace across the corner. The back room has only panelled window reveals and a moulded wooden cornice. Both rooms have 18th-century fielded two-panel doors. The large timber column on the landing supporting a beam in the front wall is a later introduction.

The joinery and plaster cornice in the front (north-east) wing are 19th century, as probably is the small Tudor arch fireplace on the ground floor. The kitchen in the rear wing has a large blocked fireplace and in a turret at the side a wide newel staircase.

Roof

Unusually for Devon, there are 17th-century common rafter roofs over the main range and cross-wing providing two large uninterrupted attic spaces. The large scantling oak rafters have mortice and tenon jointed apexes and are similarly jointed at their feet to the ties, on which there are floorboards. The attics were probably originally plastered. There is no ridge-piece or purlins to prevent racking and the roof depends on the battens for lateral support. There is an opening in the rafters connecting the two attics. The roofs over the front and rear wings at the higher end are nailed softwood structures.

Historical Note

Colleton was the seat of the Bury family from the late 14th century until 1804, when it passed to Captain Richard Incledon RN. One of his daughters married the Reverend John Russell, the hunting parson. The chapel at Colleton was first licensed in 1318 and again in 1402 and 1413.