Tower and Adjoining Outbuilding Approximately 40 Metres to North of Buckland Abbey is a Grade II* listed building in the West Devon local planning authority area, England. First listed on 26 January 1987. A C15 Tower, outbuilding.
Tower and Adjoining Outbuilding Approximately 40 Metres to North of Buckland Abbey
- WRENN ID
- under-pier-wagtail
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- West Devon
- Constituency
- South West Devon MP: Rebecca Smith (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 26 January 1987
- Type
- Tower, outbuilding
- OS grid reference
- SX 487 668
- Coordinates
- 50.48169, -4.13373
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
This is a late 15th-century tower, likely originally part of the abbot’s lodgings, with an adjoining outbuilding probably dating to the 17th century. The tower is constructed of stone rubble with granite ashlar dressings, and the outbuilding has a gabled slate roof. The tower is small, containing a room on each of its three floors, with a basement. The outbuilding to the right was likely used as stables. The tower is two-storeys high with a basement, while the outbuilding is single-storey.
At ground level of the tower, there is a square-headed granite window opening with iron bars. The principal floor above features a two-light transomed granite mullion window with cinquefoil lights and recessed spandrels, set within a rebated granite frame with a hollow chamfer. A relieving arch is present above this window. A small, blocked granite light with an arched head is located to the left-hand side of the tower at the same level. A moulded stringcourse separates the principal floor from the next, where arched lights are found on both the front and left-hand sides. The top floor is adorned with a frieze of carved 11-petal flowers in a string course. The tower is battlemented and has diagonal ashlar buttresses extending to the first floor at the front, alongside a pentagonal stair turret with granite-framed slits on the right-hand side. The attached outbuilding features a segmental-headed, chamfered granite doorway immediately adjacent to the tower, with a granite mullion window to its right. A cottage was added to the left of the tower in the mid-20th century.
Inside the tower, stone newel stairs lead to a two-centred arch doorway at the bottom and a chamfered ogee arch doorway to the first-floor chamber. The basement contains a wide, chamfered four-centred arch doorway leading to the former cellar under the main range. The outbuilding’s roof structure shows lapped and pegged collars and principals crossing at the apex; the north end has been rebuilt with tie-beam trusses, while the south end contains 19th-century loose boxes.
Local climate
Tower and Adjoining Outbuilding Approximately 40 Metres to North of Buckland Abbey sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 980 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 80% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 19 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 8 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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