Details
BICTON BICTON PARK
SY 08 NE
3/6 Bicton House, Devon School of
-
11.11.52 Agriculture
- II*
Country mansion, now Devon County Council School of Agriculture. Circa 1800 for 1st
Lord Rolle by J Wyatt; remodelled, improved and enlarged 1908-9 by Tapper. Red
brick on limestone plinth; brick stacks and chimney shafts; slate roofs. The basic
plan is of a courtyard enclosed by buildings on all sides with the main house
projecting forward on the southern side. The main house block has a double depth
plan with a main front and back room either side of a large entrance hall and rear
stair. The main stair also projects a short distance to rear and there is a
secondary staircase on the right (eastern) side. The front rooms are served by
axial stacks either side of the entrance hall and the rear rooms by rear lateral
stacks. From each end and set back from the rear of the main block are flanking
wings which are connected to it by quadrant walls. The left (western) wing is
mainly taken up by a large parlour whilst the right wing contains smaller rooms and
another stair. To rear both wings are brought back to the rear of the main block by
more quadrant walls. The 2 wings are connected at ground floor level by a
projecting corridor across the back of the main block and passing underneath the
main stair. A stair for the left wing is included in a block projecting into the
courtyard. The left (western) side wing is occupied by stables and coach houses
shielded off from the main courtyard by a tall brick wall. The right (eastern) side
wing comprises 2 parallel wings and houses the main service rooms such as the
kitchen and laundry. The courtyard is enclosed on the north side by more service
rooms and includes a large central carriageway which projects into the courtyard and
is surmounted by a large bellcote. Most of the rooms are heated. The main block is
3 storeys with cellars and all the other wings are 2 storeys. Before the
alterations of 1908-9 the main block was only 2 storeys. It was refurbished in neo-
Georgian style.
The main block has a symmetrical 2:3:2 window front with plastered plat bands at
each floor level , and the centre bay bowed forward. The ground floor has 15-pane
(6/9) sashes, first floor tall 18-pane (9/9) sashes, and second floor 12-pane
sashes. All have flat skewback gauged brick arches over. Central doorway contains
fielded panel double doors an overlight with wrought iron work in front, panelled
reveals and a relatively plain doorcase. Across the whole of the ground floor is a
heptastyle portico with pairs of Tuscan columns, 2 limestone steps to flagged floor,
moulded architrave and flat roof fenced by a balustrade with turned balusters. The
deep eaves are carried on a series of large modillions carved as ascanthus leaves
and the cornice is richly moulded. Above there is a balustraded parapet similar to
that over the portico. The roof is hipped each end. Both end walls have similar 4-
window fronts.
The front of the left western wing has a 2:2:1:3 window front, the last 3 on the
quadrant walls, and the centre bay of the rest recessed a little bit. Here too
there is plastered plat band at first floor level and there is a dripcourse at first
floor sill level. All the windows are 12-pane sashes. There is a moulded eaves
cornice including a band of dentils with a balustrade of turned balusters like that
on the main house. The front of the right eastern wing is a mirror copy. Both wing
roofs are hipped each end and the quadrant sections are flat roofed. The sides and
rear walls are less regular and plainer. The windows are mostly 12-pane sashes.
Inside the courtyard the walls have a plain plat bands at first floor level and a
dentil cornice made of projecting brick headers. Most of the windows here too are
12-pane sashes. The stair block projecting to rear of the main house contains 3
large round-headed windows containing early C20 iron frames and probably earlier
stained glass representations of the Rolle Arms. In the centre of the north wing
opposite the centre bay breaks forward into the courtyard. It contains a large
segmental headed carriageway arch (and full height plank doors to the outside arch).
The inner projection is flanked by broad stucco pilasters with a plain stucco
entablature over and a projecting cornice with flat dentils along the soffit. There
is a circular clockface over the carriageway. On top is a large granite bellcote in
Neo-Classical style. It has square corner posts with incised panels and a key
pattern frieze along the top. It has a low pedimented head with antefixa and is
surmounted by a wrought iron weather vane. The sides are louvred. On the west side
the former stables and coach house have their own courtyard behind a high brick
wall. The gate piers have soffit-chamfered limestone caps with wrought iron lamp
holders on top. Directly opposite in the west side wing are a pair of tall round-
headed arches one containing a fanlight with radial glazing bars. Between them and
little higher is a reset Beerstone plaque with the Rolle arms in bas relief with
intials IR and the date 1668. Around the north-west corner is an external single
storey block with mostly blind arcading facing north and west.
Interior includes a great deal of original carpentry detail and moulded plaster
cornices. Most of the chimneypieces however have been removed although one remains
in the entrance hall. A good deal of the detail however is circa 1908-9 and in Neo-
Georgian style and therefore sometimes difficult to distinguish from the original.
The entrance hall has a rich moulded plaster cornice with fluted modillions
alternating with rosettes. There is a 3-bay arcade to the stairs; the centre bay is
occupied by a marble statue of Lord Rolle, signed E. B. Stephens, Sculpt, London.
The imperial staircase is 2 then 1, flights. It has an open string, the steps are
marble, mahogany handrail and cast iron balusters enriched with scrolls. The large
top landing has 4 large fluted Ionic columns and an ornate moulded plaster ceiling.
It is coved with swags over a frieze of acanthus and other leaves. Some of the
floorboards around the edge have inlaid strips of a paler wood. The finest rooms in
the house are those first floor front of the main block. They are very tall and
lined with large field panelling in 2 heights divided by the dado. The panel-frames
are carved with ornate scrolled foliage and the dado has Vitruvian scroll
enrichment. All have ornate moulded plaster cornices. The secondary front block
stair is geometric, open string with limestone steps, mahogany handrail and cast
iron balusters. The western front wing has been done out in Queen Anne style. Here
the stair case has a closed string, square newel posts with ball caps, moulded flat
handrail and heavy turned balusters. The large ground floor room here has large
field bolection-moulded panelling, a marble bolection chimneypiece, a moulded box
cornice, and a moulded plaster ceiling featuring Tudor roses and other floral
sprays.
Bicton House, according to Hoskins, is said to have been built about 1730, the same
time as the park and gardens were laid out. Nothing, however, seems to be that
early. It is a grand house of circa 1800, extensively remodelled in Neo-Georgian
style 1908-9. The early C20 work, it is generally agreed, was an improvement.
There has been a house here since Sir Robert Denys built or rebuilt a mansion in the
1560's. It came with other large estates to the Rolles by marriage in the C17 at
which time the family became the largest landowners in Devon. Bicton became one of
their principal houses for several generations.
Sources: Devon S.M.R. David Watkin, The Buildings of Britain. Regency. (1982) p.
138: W.G. Hoskins, Devon (1954) p 335; N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. South
Devon. (1952) p51.
Listing NGR: SY0704086432
