Clovelly Court is a privately owned

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peop ...

Clovelly Clovelly () is a privately-owned harbour village in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The settlement and surrounding land belongs to John Rous who inherited it from his mother in 1983. He belongs to the Hamlyn family who have managed t ...

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. Devo ...

. The house and adjacent stable block are

Grade II 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 Ir ...

s. The gardens and parts of the estate are open to the public.

History

The manor of Clovelly was for over 600 years owned by the Cary family but in 1738 the estate was sold to locally born

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...

lawyer Zachary Hamlyn (1677-1759). He rebuilt the old manor house in 1740, but this was burnt down in 1789 and rebuilt in the Gothic style by his successor. On his death he left the property to his great-nephew James Hammet (1735–1811) who changed his name to Hamlyn. He married Arabella Williams, a

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

heiress, and was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

in 1795 (see Hamlyn-Williams baronets). In that year he carried out substantial improvements to the house. The 4,600-acre estate passed on the death of the 3rd and last baronet in 1861 to his son Neville and then following his early death to the baronet's eldest daughter Susan Hester Hamlyn-Williams who married Henry Fane, creating the Hamlyn-Fane family. The house and estate remain in the family and are managed by the Hon. John Rous (born 1950), great-great-grandson of Susan Hester Hamlyn-Fane, great-grandson of Prime Minister

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ...

and son of the 5th

Earl of Stradbroke Earl of Stradbroke, in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1821 for John Rous, 1st Baron Rous, who had earlier represented Suffolk in the House of Commons. He had already succeeded his fat ...

All Saints Church

The parish church of Clovelly, dedicated to All Saints, is located immediately to the west of the manor house, and thus at a considerable distance from the village of Clovelly. It contains many mural monuments and

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pav ...

es to the Cary family, longtime lords of the manor, and to their successors the Hamlyns and Hamlyn-Fanes. Most of the stained glass windows are 19th century, but some small fragments of ancient stained glass are set into the north chancel window, displaying the arms of Berkeley and Newburgh

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation ...

(without the ermine cheveron).Victoria County History re Sopley Church, Hampshire, in which parish was the estate of

Avon Tyrrell Avon Tyrrell is an historic manor within the parish of Sopley, Hampshire. It is situated within the New Forest, near Christchurch. The present manor house was built in 1891 by John Manners-Sutton, 3rd Baron Manners (1852–1927). Avon Tyrrell ...

, a possession of the Fane family which married the heiress of Clovelly: ''"The east window contains some old glass mixed with modern; among it is a shield of Berkeley impaled with a quarterly coat of Nevill of Raby (Nevill Earl of Salisbury would be the more natural coat), Newburgh Earl of Warwick (without the ermine cheveron), Clare and Despenser quarterly, and Beauchamp differenced with a crescent sable"''. Victoria County History, ''Hampshire'', Volume 5, London, 1912, pp.127-132, ''Parishes: Sopley

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References

{{coord, 51.0008, -4.4097, region:GB-DEV_type:landmark, display=title Grade II listed buildings in Devon Houses completed in 1740 1740 establishments in England

History

All Saints Church

See also

References