Denbury Manor

Denbury Manor

Large house with a complex building history spanning from the late 17th or 18th century, though it likely incorporates an earlier structure. The building was remodelled in 'Tudor' style during the early or mid 19th century, and again comprehensively remodelled between 1912 and 1914 for Walter Septimus Curtis in a mixture of 15th and 16th century styles. The structure is constructed of stone rubble, rendered on the south side, with slated roofs featuring lead ridges and hips.

The house is arranged around four sides of a narrow courtyard, with the best rooms positioned on the south and west sides. The north side, which now contains the main entrance, originally housed the kitchen before 1912. The building is two storeys tall with a half-storey in the south range.

The south front displays the romantic early or mid 19th century 'Tudor' style remodelling and is six windows wide. The left-hand windows in the ground and second storeys have five mullioned-and-transomed lights with small panes, set within a gabled projection. The four-window centrepiece contains tall mullioned-and-transomed wood casements with hood moulds on both floors, topped by two dormer gables with wood casements and hood-moulds. The right-hand window of both storeys is flanked by massive square pillars with decorative tops (now reduced in height), with sections of mock-battlement visible behind them. The second-storey windows include a canted oriel with moulded base and a large dormer gable matching those in the centrepiece.

The west front, which was the original entrance, abuts the two-window side-elevation of the south range. It comprises a four-window section to the left with six-pane barred sashes, except for the two left-hand ground-storey windows which have 20th century wood casements. To the right is a two-window projection with hipped roof, its windows all being 20th century mullioned-and-transomed wood casements. An older doorway with two-centred arch is positioned to the left.

The north front features a large 20th century projection in its centre with a 'Tudor' doorway and diamond-leaded stone mullion windows. To the right in the second storey is a corbelled projecting stone chimney, the top of which has been removed. Within the roof, offset to the left, stands a large stone chimney with tapered top.

The east front displays, at its south end, a large mock Gothic stair window of early or mid 19th century date. The east ridge in the ground storey contains a three-light wood ovolo-moulded mullioned window with diagonally-set vertical bars in each light, possibly reset.

The west range contains a reset 17th century straight-headed wood doorway with ovolo and hollow mouldings and large urn stop. The old plank door features wrought-iron strap-hinges with fleur-de-Lys terminals, with added 19th or 20th century wood ribs. The upper part of an early or mid 19th century staircase with mock Gothic detail survives at the south end.

The south range features several windows with raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panels. The second storey of the south wall in the north range contains two mullioned-and-transomed wood windows of late 17th or early 18th century date with rectangular leaded lights. The roofs of the east, west and north ranges date to the 18th or early 19th century.

Internally, a large fireplace in the present entrance-hall, formerly the kitchen, features a segmented arch with voussoirs and evidence of a former oven on the left-hand side.

According to local tradition, the Manor was originally a cell of the monks of Tavistock, with some later medievalizations undertaken by Hurrell Froude in 1825.