Heanton Satchville

Heanton Satchville is a country house and estate seat, completed in 1938 by Sir Walter Tapper. The house is built of rendered stone with rusticated quoins, and has a hipped slate roof with stone ashlar stacks. It was designed in the style of Pratt’s Clarendon House, Piccadilly (1665), although it is not a double-pile house; its plan and scale more closely resemble Groombridge Place, Kent.

The main house is H-shaped, with a central hall flanked by cross-wings to the left and right. The left-hand cross-wing contains a stairhall at its centre, an entrance at the front, and a dining room at the rear. The right-hand cross-wing houses the library at the front and a Chinese room (parlour) at the back. A service wing is attached to the left-hand side of the left cross-wing.

The symmetrical front elevation has three bays, with the outer two bays formed by projecting hipped roof wings. The windows are mostly 15-pane sashes, with oculus windows on the first floor of the central bay and the inner faces of the wings. A doorway is situated on the inner face of the left-hand wing. Below the central first-floor window is a heraldic shield, with cartouches on either side. The right-hand elevation is also symmetrical, featuring five 15-pane sashes and projecting lateral stacks to the left and right of the centre. A semi-circular stone balustraded portico with four Doric columns fronts the central section, behind which are part-glazed doors. The rear garden elevation is similarly arranged in three bays, with a large central lateral stack displaying an armorial shield and two narrow 10-pane sash windows on either side. An irregular service wing extends from the left end of the house, recessed from the front, with original square section stone mullion windows.

The interior retains high-quality late 17th century style joinery, including panelling, moulded chimneypieces, doorcases, and panelled doors. A massive wooden open-well staircase features heavy turned balusters, square newels, and a pulvinated closed string. The stairwell has a moulded plaster ceiling, and the stair window contains reused stained glass, with three roundels bearing arms said to have originated from Little Marland, Petrockstowe. The main hall includes a screen of two columns in front of the fireplace in the back wall. The Chinese Room displays fine 18th century Chinese painted wallpaper in six panels.