Stafford Barton

Stafford Barton in the parish of Dolton in Devon is an ancient manor house.

A house of some form has existed on the property probably since the 11th century. Still-existing walls can be dated to the 16th century.[1] Many additions and renovations have taken place in the intervening years. In the nineteenth century, the property was a very substantial one, with 400 acres of associated farmland and a large staff.[1]

History

Domesday Book

The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the manor of STAFORD as the first of the 7 manors or other landholdings held by Ansger of Montacute, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. It is not stated whether he held it in demesne of sub-infeudated it to his own tenant. The other manors and landholdingshe held in Devonshire were: one virgate of land in Great Torrington; Brimblecombe; Cheldon; Muxbere; Sutton; Dolton.[2] His holdings later became the property of the feudal barony of Gloucester,[3] the Devonshire caput of which was Winkleigh. Ansgar is called elsewhere in Domesday Book "Ansgar of Senarpont", which manor is situated in the French department of Somme. He is apparently the same man as "Ansgar the Breton" who held other estates in Devon and Somerset from Robert, Count of Mortain,[4] half-brother of William the Conqueror, in Devon namely: Buckland Brewer, East Putford, Bulkworthy and Smytham.[5] Staford was in the historic Hundred of North Tawton.[6]

Kelloway/Stowford/Stafford

Arms of Kelloway of Stowford in the parish of Dolton and of Stafford of Dowland and Upton Pyne: Argent, two grozing irons in saltire sable between four Kelway pears proper

The manor was called "Stowford" during the mediaeval era, and was held for many generations by a gentry family of unknown origins named Kelloway (or Kellaway, etc.).[7][8] The canting arms of this family display an ancient variety of pear from France called variously Caillou, Cailloel, Cailhou, etc.,[9] Anglicised as "Kelway pear". This is combined, for reasons unknown, with grozing irons, tools used by glaziers for cutting and shaping stained-glass panes. In the 16th century, for reason unknown, this family adopted the surname "Stowford" (later "Stafford") in place of "Kelloway",[10] but retained the arms of Kelloway.

The earliest dated member of the Kelloway family of Stafford is Thomas Kelloway (son of William Kelloway), who according to the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (d.1640) at "about the end of King Henry the third's reign" (1216-1272) gave the manor of Stafford to his younger son Philip Kelloway, together with the estate of "Edrescot". It is unclear where the senior line of the family resided thenceforth. In the 16th century a junior line became established in the neighbouring parish of Dowland and Hugh Stafford (1674-1734) of Dowland, a noted authority on cider and apple trees, purchased the manor of Upton Pyne near Exeter, where he built the grand Pynes House, surviving today, as his main residence. He left a daughter as his sole heiress who married into the Northcote family, bringing them several estates including Dowland and Iddesleigh. In 1852 the statesman Sir Stafford Northcote, 8th Baronet was ennobled by Queen Victoria as Earl of Iddesleigh. They remained at Pynes until the 1990s, when they sold it and moved to a new house nearby.[11]

Eliza Stafford, the last member of the Stafford family to occupy Stafford, died in 1887. Following financial difficulties the estate was sold by the Stafford family in 1889, and has belonged to variety of individuals since then.[1]

Luxmoore

It was sold in 1912 to Charles F. C. Luxmoore, an Amazonian explorer,[12] who added a substantial, crenellated West Wing;[1] he also brought back tropical plants which he grew in the mild Devon climate.[13] Luxmoore installed a plaster ceiling and other decorative items taken from other historic homes.[14] He also kept a prestigious historical harpsichord made by the 18th century Italian builder Vincentio Sodi.[15] An image of the Old Hall in about 1960 shows a suspended tile ceiling,[16] perhaps installed to cover up damage; and Smith describes "half-shattered" greenhouses he saw on a visit in Spring 1970.

Zuckermann

Starting in 1969 and for a number of years thereafter, Stafford Barton was owned and occupied by the German-American harpsichord builder Wolfgang Zuckermann, who had "run away from America" having become disillusioned with the alternative culture and anti-war radical movement in New York of which he was a member. He claimed three radicalizing events had persuaded him to quit America: having been jailed for producing an "obscene play"; having taken part in a protest sit-in on the steps of the Pentagon; and having watched the Democratic Party's convention. In 1971 he wrote a letter to the New York weekly newspaper Village Voice[17] setting out his disillusion with America, his feelings at living outside America, and recording his impressions of England and of rural life in Devon and made certain amusing observations about English life such as:

"The English are a hardy race. I have yet to find a toilet (here called loo or bog) in all of England with any form of heating" and: "English hippies look the part - the clothes, the hair - but scratch an English freak and you find an Englishman underneath. Not very rebellious, not very interesting. The girls tend to have bony noses and fleshy thighs and they tend to be rather large and very sporty".

The property seems to have been somewhat run down at the time; Zuckermann reported in his letter he had been able to buy it for "no more than the average one-family house in suburban New Jersey." He had sold his harpsichord business and emigrated from the United States. He continued to build harpsichords at Stafford, though hardly on his former quasi-industrial scale.

Doran

In 2007 Stafford Barton became the property of the Doran family, and the house and gardens have been extensively restored. This work was completed before 2015.[1]

External links

Sources

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Haigh (2009)
  2. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, 40,1-7
  3. ↑ Thorn & Thorn, part 2 (notes), chap.40
  4. ↑ Thorn & Thorn, part 2 (notes), chap.15, 12-13
  5. ↑ Thorn & Thorn, part 1, 15,12-15
  6. ↑ Thorn & Thorn, part 2 (notes), chap.40,1
  7. ↑ "Kelloway", spelling given in Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.510, pedigree of "Kelloway of Stowford"
  8. ↑ According to Haigh (2009), "it was the home to the Caillaway family (who gradually became Stofford and then Stafford) for over 700 years starting about 1150."
  9. ↑ http://www.kellawayhouse.co.uk/pears.htm
  10. ↑ Vivian, p.510, footnote
  11. ↑ Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.113
  12. ↑ http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/6e079c57-3b22-4460-8aa4-fd7f75418be9
  13. ↑ Zuckermann (1971:12)
  14. ↑ Cherry and Pevsner (2002:338)
  15. ↑ Luxmoore's widow sold the instrument in 1934. It is now part of the collections of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter and has been restored recently. See .
  16. ↑ Haigh
  17. ↑ Zuckermann, Wolfgang (1971) "Running away from America," The Village Voice, July 15, p. 11 et seq. On line at

Coordinates: 50°53′07″N 4°00′50″W / 50.8853°N 4.0140°W / 50.8853; -4.0140

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