Endsleigh House Including Terrace Wall To The South East And Wall To The North East

Endsleigh House, including terrace wall to the south east and wall to the north east

Formerly the residence of the Dukes of Bedford and known as Endsleigh Cottage, now in use as a hotel. Designed in 1810 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville for the 6th Duke of Bedford. The house is constructed of stone rubble with stucco blocked out with a variety of rustication, slate roofs, rendered diagonally-set chimney shafts, and stone dressings. It has been described as "the outstanding and probably most nearly perfect surviving instance of a romantic cottage orne, devised for an aristocratic owner under the influence of the taste for the Picturesque".

The building has a crescent-shaped plan forming a semi-circular courtyard entrance, with the garden elevation commanding extensive views across the Tamar and overlooking landscaped gardens by Humphry Repton. The garden elevation consists of two blocks linked by a curved terrace and colonnade. The east block contains the principal rooms with service rooms to the north, while the colonnade links this to a smaller cottage at the west, originally designed as a separate house for the children with a raised garden between the blocks. The house is 2 and 3 storeys.

The garden front of the principal block consists of a "triple-faceted nucleus". The east-facing elevation is 3-storey with a shaped coped gable containing a window with moulded stone mullions and a high transom, with a stone parapet above featuring panels of ornamental ironwork. Above this sits a 3-light timber mullioned window with high transom and a square-headed hoodmould. A 2-light casement sits in the gable. The south-west facing elevation, overlooking the raised garden, has a battlemented parapet with segmental merlons. Two ground floor stone mullioned and transomed canted bay windows share a common pent roof. The first floor contains a statue niche holding a statue of the first Abbot of Tavistock Abbey. A projecting stack at the right end of this elevation bears recessed panels of armorial bearings. The south elevation is picturesquely irregular with an asymmetrical front gable featuring decorative bargeboards and a rustic verandah to the right. Two stone mullioned transomed ground floor windows—one a canted bay—are located here. The rustic verandah is floored with knucklebones, has a decorative timber eaves board, and contains a recess for a rustic seat. One first floor oriel has timber mullions and transoms, with 3 first floor half-dormers and 2 full dormers above.

The children's block to the west is more regular in form with a T-plan and roof gabled at ends and half-hipped to a central wing. The eaves are decorated with ornamental boards, and a fine timber lattice verandah of Regency character overlooks the raised garden, which originally featured a parterre with a central fountain designed by Repton—a very early revival of formal garden design. A rustic verandah stands in the right angle between the central wing and the north end.

The entrance front forms a semi-circular curve with a central stone portico featuring battered rectangular piers with moulded capitals below an entablature with a depressed pyramidal roof. The colonnade linking the west and east blocks has a scantle slate roof and stone piers, which replaced the original rough tree trunks.

The 1810 interior remains largely intact. The panelled entrance hall contains a large stone fireplace with internal Gothick inglenooks furnished with corbel seats and a timber lintel with blind tracery. The dining room features grained wainscot below trompe l'oeil painting of blind Gothick tracery and numerous armorial bearings. The library is panelled with a contemporary marble chimney, with double doors opening into an adjoining study that has a contemporary chimney piece and joinery. The contemporary stair displays elaborate Gothick balusters alternating with stick balusters. The original heating system of hot air vents in marble panels survives in several rooms.

Documentation suggests that the Duchess of Bedford was the driving force behind the creation of Endsleigh, with a plaque in the stables stating that she chose the site. The house took 6 years to complete, with final accounts dated 1816 showing that Wyatville was paid £1,526.4s 11½d out of a total expenditure of £4,046.13s 1d. Full documentation of the building's construction, including correspondence from Wyatville and Repton and monthly progress reports and accounts, exists in the Bedford Estate Papers in the Devon Record Office (Devon Letters L 1258/82).

Renovations were underway at the time of survey in 1985.