Fallapit House (St Thomas More'S School) Including Arch Adjoining North East

Fallapit House, East Allington

A house now used as a school. The building represents a substantial early 19th-century reconstruction (1810-15) of a medieval house, incorporating some 16th and 17th-century features, subsequently remodelled and enlarged around the mid-19th century and again in the later 20th century. It is built near the site of the ancient Fortescue house, and a few fragments of the medieval structure are incorporated into the present building. The medieval house was still standing in 1727, when Edmund Prideaux depicted it in a drawing as a large medieval hall facing a courtyard flanked by what appear to be later ranges.

The house is constructed of coursed stone rubble with a steeply pitched slate roof with shaped barge boards to the verges of half-hipped gable ends and exposed rafter ends to the eaves. Axial stacks feature diagonally set brick shafts.

The plan comprises a front north-east main range with two principal rooms and a central vestibule leading to a stair hall behind in a central wing, flanked by two wings: the left-hand wing contains the ballroom, and the right-hand wing contains the services. This arrangement is largely the result of a substantial remodelling and enlargement in 1849 of the earlier 19th-century house, of which the rear wings may form a part. In 1947 the house became a school and the rear wings were extended. The Headmaster's accommodation was built on the left side later in the 20th century.

The exterior shows two storeys and an attic. The symmetrical east front displays a 2:1:2 window arrangement, with the centre advanced and gabled. The centre features a reused moulded four-centred arch granite doorway with a granite string and an oriel resting on reused carved brackets. A further reused moulded granite string runs at ground floor window sill level. The windows have been replaced in the 20th century, but original straight hood moulds remain intact. A 19th-century panelled and glazed Gothic door occupies the centre. The right and left-hand ends of the front range have full-height later canted bays. At the right-hand (north-east) corner is a carriageway arch: a moulded granite four-centred arch from the old house, complete with hood mould and arms above, buttresses and pinnacle at the end.

The left-hand (north) elevation features a polygonal stair turret at its centre with an arrow loop and wooden cupola. Two windows to the right are similar to those at the front, whilst four-centred arch windows appear to the left. The right-hand (north) elevation has windows similar to those at the front, except for one ground floor window which retains a 19th-century mullion-transom frame and a lintel above on carved brackets. The roof contains a row of hipped dormers. Twentieth-century extensions occupy the rear, though the central gable has a four-centred arch stair window.

The entrance vestibule contains fine late 16th or early 17th-century panelling with arcaded panels, strapwork cartouches with arms, carved anthemion and other motifs. The frieze displays trailing vines, rosettes and pegasus carving, and a complicated guilloche motif. Apart from one 18th-century two-panel door in the service wing, all other features are 19th-century in date. Numerous early 19th-century panelled doors are present, and the servants staircase is also 19th-century. The stair hall and landing above have large moulded four-centred arches with clustered shafts. The open-well, open-string staircase features arcaded thick balusters and a moulded mahogany handrail wreathed over clustered shafts at curtail and tread ends with quatrefoils and mouchettes.

The front left-hand room has a moulded modillion cornice and a late 19th-century Devon marble chimneypiece with colonnettes. The front right-hand room contains a triple four-centred arch chimneypiece. The rear left-hand ballroom (now commonroom) has a colonaded screen at its back. The rear right-hand room in the rear left-hand wing features a Gothic moulded plaster frieze, moulded plaster brackets on ornate corbels, and a brown marble chimneypiece. A front left first-floor room is probably 19th-century in date.

The Fallapit or Valeput family possessed the estate from the end of the 13th century or earlier. It passed to the Fortescues at the beginning of the 15th century. In 1734, following the death of Edmund Nathaniel Wells, whose eldest son adopted the name Fortescue, the property entered the ownership of that family, remaining with them until the mid-19th century. It was then sold to William Cubitt of the London building firm, who may have been responsible for the 1849 remodelling. In 1925 the estate was purchased by Lord Ashcombe. During the Second World War it served as accommodation for American servicemen, and in 1947 it became a school.