Well House Stone Pier And Rustic Seat In The Dairy Dell

SX 37 NE MILTON ABBOT ENDSLEIGH

9/222 Well-house stone pier and rustic - seat in the Dairy Dell 21.3.67

GV II Well-house pier and rustic seat forming a single Picturesque composition of 1810. The well house is medieval, as is part of the masonry of the seat. The well-house was moved from Leigh Barton (qv) to Endsleigh in circa 1810 by the 6th Duke of Bedford to form part of the landscaped gardens designed by Humphry Repton. The internal masonry is local ashlar and probably medieval, the rustic stone rubble exterior is probably 1810. The well-house and a gabled stone pier of similar size flank a rustic seat which is a timber bench in front of a medieval stone slab with blind trefoil-headed arcading. The well-house has a gabled stone slate roof. Small rectangular structure with a rectangular opening with 1 moulded stone applied as a jamb which may not be original to the well-house. The interior has a moulded stone corbel with a decoration of blind pointed arcading. A cobbled drain leads from the well into the pond in the Dairy Dell. A picturesquely irregular inscription panel in the gable reads "This simple structure inclosed the holy well which served as a baptismal font to the Abbots of Tavistock at their hunting seat at Leigh in this parish". The stone pier has rustic stone rubble masonry and a gabled stone slate roof. Numerous pieces of moulded and carved medieval masonry are scattered about the well-house and no doubt originated at Leigh Barton.

Listing NGR: SX3897078601