Maristow House in the parish of

Bickleigh Bickleigh may refer to the following places in Devon, England: * Bickleigh, Mid Devon, a village near Tiverton ** Bickleigh Castle * Bickleigh, South Hams Bickleigh is a small village on the southern edge of Dartmoor in Devon, England. It h ...

(formerly

Tamerton Foliot Tamerton Foliot is a village situated in the north of Plymouth, England, that also lends its name to the ecclesiastical parish of the same name. Situated near the confluence of the rivers Tamar and Tavy, the village is situated in a valley ...

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 ...

, England, is a large country house set in landscaped parkland, on the

River Tavy The Tavy () is a river on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The name derives from the Brythonic root "Tam", once thought to mean 'dark' but now generally understood to mean 'to flow'. It has given its name to the town of Tavistock and the villages of ...

to the north of Plymouth. It was built in about 1560, rebuilt in the mid-18th century and further remodelled in the early 20th century. Between 1798 and 1938 it was the residence of the Lopes family, Barons Roborough. The house was ruined by fire after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but was restored and converted into apartments in the late 1990s by

Kit Martin Kit Martin CBE (born 6 May 1947) is a British architectural designer and country house property developer. Martin is the son of Sir Leslie Martin, Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Since the 1970s Martin has specialised i ...

. It is a grade II* listed building, having been so designated on 29 March 1960.

History

The Heywood family built an imposing

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

mansion here in the 1760s. In 1798, the house and estate were bought by the

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n-born

Manasseh Masseh Lopes Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes, 1st Baronet (27 January 1755 – 26 March 1831), of Maristow in the parish of Tamerton Foliot, Devon, was a British Member of Parliament and borough-monger. Parliamentary career Born in Jamaica, Lopes was a member of ...

, the son of a rich plantation owner, whose family later gained the title of

Baron Roborough Baron Roborough, of Maristow in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 24 January 1938 for Sir Henry Lopes, 4th Baronet. He had earlier represented Grantham, Lincolnshire, in Parliament as a ...

. The house was extended and altered in 1907. The Lopes remained seated at Maristow until 1938, after which the house served a variety of purposes: a servicemen's hospital during

; a retirement home for clergy; a residential school, and a field-study centre. Above the house rises the spire of St Martin's chapel, built in 1871 as a successor to an earlier 14th century chapel. Following two disastrous fires, the house has now been restored and converted into twelve private homes.

The house

The house has an E-shaped plan and consists of two storeys and an attic. It is built of rubble stone which has been rendered, and the dressings are stone. The mansard roof is slated and has a modillion cornice and a balustraded parapet. The wings project forwards from the west front, the three-storey porch being in the centre of the facade. It has large Ionic pilasters and a segmental pediment. The arms of Lopes and an iron balcony top the round-arched doorway. The west front has bays arranged in a 2:3:1:3:2 format, whereas the south front has a 2:3:2 arrangement. The interior was partly gutted by fire in the 20th century, but the 18th century staircase survived as did some of the plasterwork and some 18th century moulded door architraves. The ground floor room in the north-eastern corner of the house has 18th century moulded panelling, a moulded plaster ceiling, overdoors with segmental open pediments, a fireplace with eared architraves, and an overmantel carved with wooden festoons.

References

{{reflist Houses completed in 1560 Country houses in Devon Grade II* listed buildings in Devon Grade II* listed houses Bickleigh, South Hams