Youlston Park also known as Youlston House is a privately-owned 17th-century mansion house situated at

Shirwell Shirwell is a village, civil parish and former manor in the local government district of North Devon, in the county of Devon, England. It was also formerly the name of a hundred of Devon. The village lies about 3.5 miles north-east of the town ...

, near Barnstaple, North

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The parkland is Grade II listed in the

National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

. The game larder and stables are individually listed Grade II. The pair of entrance lodges are listed Grade II*. The mediaeval origins of the house including a detached hall and a kitchen block were incorporated into the new house built in the late 17th century by

Sir Arthur Chichester, 3rd Baronet Sir Arthur Chichester, 3rd Baronet (c. 1662–1718), of Youlston Park, Devon was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1685 and 1718. Chichester was the second son of Sir John Chichester, 1s ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

, who died in 1718. (He was a younger son of the first of the

Chichester baronets There have been three baronetcies created for persons with the surname Chichester, one in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Only the 1641 creation is extant. Chichester baronets, of Raleigh (1641) The ...

.) The south-facing two-storey entrance front has seven bays, two of which are set within each of the gabled projections to the east and west. The entrance porch supported by four classical columns sits within the western projection. A recessed wing of seven bays adjoins to the west. The rear domestic wing carries an octagonal bell turret and clock dial. There are many fine 17th- and 18th-century internal features. In 1872 the mansion sat within its own park and estate of some 7000 acres''The Acre-ocracy of England'' 1876 John Bateman

References

External links

Archives of Chichester of Shirwell, North Devon Record Office, 1478M
{{coord, 51.1185, -4.0209, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Devon Georgian architecture in England Grade I listed houses in Devon Grade II listed parks and gardens in Devon Houses completed in the 17th century North Devon