The Belvedere

POWDERHAM SX 98 SE 6/337 The Belvedere 11.11.52 II*

Belvedere in the Powderham Castle Park. Ruinous. 1771-4, built for the 2nd Viscount Courtenay (Girouard). Flemish bond brick, rendered, with Portland stone dressings. Gothick, with refined detail. Plan: Overlooking the Exe estuary, triangular on plan with corner towers, one containing the remains of stair. Damaged by fire after the war and now a roofless shell, the original plan included a ballroom with ornamental plasterwork. The building was used as an estate cottage in the early C20. Exterior: 2 storeys. Embattled parapet above a deep moulded string, platband at first floor level, deep moulded stone plinth. Each of the 3 faces has a large moulded 2-centred arched stone doorway and a similar large first floor window. The corner towers have nicely-detailed quatrefoil windows with moulded stone frames on the ground floor and 2-centred arched first floor windows with moulded stone frames, some retaining sash windows (glazing missing) with intersecting glazing bars. Trefoil upper windows with moulded stone frames to the embattled towers which rise above the height of the main building. Interior: Gutted by fire and roofless. 2 of the towers are 6-sided internally, one retaining the remains of a cantilevered timber stair, the third tower is round on plan internally. No other surviving interior fittings except for the remains of a flagpole in a case, date uncertain. High quality C18 Gothick.

Girouard, Mark, 'Powderham Castle, Devon - II', Country Life, July 11th 1963, p.4.

Listing NGR: SX9622184172