
Sydenham House (anciently Sidelham, Sidraham, etc.) in the parish of
Marystow in Devon, England, is a seventeenth-century
manor house. The
Grade I listed
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 ...
building is situated about thirteen miles south-west of
Okehampton, on a estate. It was built by Sir
Thomas Wise (d.1629) between 1600 and 1612, incorporating an older structure.
It was partially destroyed by fire in 2012. The gardens are Grade II listed in the
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
History

According to the
Domesday Book of 1086, immediately before the
Norman Conquest of 1066 the
manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
of ''SIDREHA
~'' was held by the
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
magnate
Brictric Brictric was a powerful Saxon thegn whose many English landholdings, mostly in the West Country, are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Life
According to the account by the ''Continuator of Wace'' and others, in his youth Brictric declined the ...
, a great landholder in Devon and more widely in England.
[Open Domesday Online: Sydenham]
accessed June 2018. Following the Norman Conquest, it was one of the 107 Devonshire landholdings of
Juhel de Totnes (died 1123/30), the first Anglo-Norman
feudal baron of Totnes {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022
The feudal barony of Totnes was a large feudal barony with its caput at Totnes Castle in Devon, England. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed in the mediaeval era. The first feudal baron w ...
and
feudal baron of Barnstaple
From AD 1066, the feudal barony of Barnstaple was a large feudal barony with its caput at the town of Barnstaple in north Devon, England. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed in the Middle Ages. In 1236 it comprised ...
, both in Devon.
Juhel's tenant was a certain William. On his banishment by King
William Rufus, Juhel's property was confiscated, and Sydenham later became the seat of the ''de Sydenham'' family, which as was usual took its name from its seat, whose
overlord
An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or serje ...
s were the subsequent
feudal barons of Totnes.
[Thorn, part 2 (notes), 17:8] In the 13th century
Book of Fees
The ''Book of Fees'' is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the medieval (Latin: 'Book of Fiefs'), being a listing of feudal landholdings or fief (Middle English ), compiled in about 1302, but f ...
''Maurice de Sideham'' is listed as holding lands in ''Parva Sideham'' ("Little Sydenham") (which adjective was used to distinguish it from
Sydenham Damerel
Sydenham Damerel, previously South Sydenham, is a village, parish and former manor in Devon, situated 4 miles north-west of Tavistock.
The village lies 1 mile east of the River Tamar which forms the border of Devon with Cornwall, and which als ...
, also in
Lifton Hundred
Lifton Hundred was the name of one of thirty two ancient administrative units of Devon, England.
The parishes in the hundred were:
Bradstone,
Bratton Clovelly,
Bridestowe,
Broadwoodwidger,
Coryton,
Dunterton,
Germansweek,
Kelly,
Lamerton,
Lew ...
) from Reginald de Vautortes, feudal baron of Totnes,
and is recorded by Pole (d.1635) as holding ''North Sidenham'', this manor, in 1242. The ''de Sydenham'' family was succeeded by that of ''de Mauris'', from which it passed by marriage to Trevage,
[Risdon, p.219] and thence to the Wise family,
which later was also seated at
Mount Wise, Plymouth.
Part of the house dates from the fourteenth century, and is said to have originally formed a quadrangle or "H", but in the reign of Elizabeth it was built into the shape of an "E", and is a very perfect example of Tudor domestic architecture. Sir
Thomas Wise (c.1576–1630),
Knight of the Bath, of Sydenham, was
Sheriff of Devon in 1612 and in 1621 served as a member of parliament for
Bere Alston in Devon. He much beautified the house, and added such height and such a great amount of granite to it that his contemporary
Risdon (d.1640) Risdon remarked: "as the very foundation is ready to reel under the burthen". A story is repeated in many histories of Devon, including Lysons (1822), that during the
Civil War this Sydenham was captured in 1644 by
Colonel Holborne. However it appears that the house which was in fact garrisoned and taken was
Combe Sydenham, in the parish of Stogumber in Somerset. However, within the last forty years a sword and other weapons, also seventeenth century horseshoes, have been found may be taken as a proof that fighting of some sort did take place at the Wise seat. It is quite likely that King
Charles II, when Prince of Wales, did come here, as he is known to have spent many weeks in the vicinity.
His son was
Thomas Wise (c.1605–1641), of Sydenham,
Sheriff of Devon in 1638 and in 1625 a member of parliament for
Callington in Cornwall and for
Bere Alston in the parliaments of King Charles of 1625, 1626 and 1628 to 1629, and for
Devon twice in 1640. The son of the latter was
Edward Wise (1632–1675) of Sydenham, thrice MP for
Okehampton, who was predeceased by both his childless sons, and whose sole heiress became his only daughter Arabella Wise, who married Edmund Tremayne (1649–1698)
[ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.732, pedigree of Tremayne] of
Collacombe in the parish of
Lamerton on Devon, to which family passed Sydenham.
Architecture and fittings
Sydenham House has four separate entrances, each opening on to a court or garden. Access to the front-entrance, commonly called the Green Court, is through an iron gateway, and above the central door are sculpted the Wise arms. Most of the windows have eight rounded granite mullions and small leaded panes of glass, and in some the original glass survives. Two windows in the front date from the reign of Charles I (1625–1649) and have unusual fan-shaped lights. Over the large granite open fireplace in the
great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great ...
is engraved the date "1656", when the house underwent repair after damage, caused, it is said, in the Civil War. In making alterations to the kitchen chimney in about 1888, a little hiding-place, or priest's room, was found opening out of it, and in it was an oak table and the remains of a chair; and since then large and small unsuspected rooms have been discovered, and it has been said that in the largest a troop of cavalry could lie hidden. A secret passage leading from the house towards the river was found, bearing out the legend "that the Lady Wise of the day escaped with a large party by a secret passage near the river, and got into the woods undetected by the soldiers who were round the house." There is oak panelling in most of the rooms, and in the dining-room, the panelling is inlaid with an ivory-like substance. Secret passages exist to this day in the walls, which are of immense thickness, in some places being seven feet thick. There are three oak staircases, the main one being carved with figures standing at the angles, and another having newels. In the so-called "King's Room" there is an ancient bed, with old red silk curtains and the
Prince of Wales's feathers over it, in which Kings Charles I and Charles II are reported to have slept.
Grounds
Sydenham stands in a valley on the banks of the
River Lyd. It is overshadowed by woods on a hill-side that is steep and fairly high. At the foot, there is a rushing stream which is crossed by a bridge exactly opposite the front of the house. A wide lawn slopes away from the house, and a very small straight rivulet runs through it just a foot or two from the path. At the foot of the slope, there is a tiny lake, which, though very narrow, divides the lawn from end to end, and beyond the water the ground rises gradually.
Sources
*
Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon,
Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p. 349, ''North Sidenham''
References
:
{{coord, 50.6331, -4.2240, display=title
Grade I listed buildings in Devon
Grade II listed parks and gardens in Devon
Country houses in Devon
Manor houses in England