Sandridge Park, Devon (geograph 1881542)

Sandridge Park, near Stoke Gabriel,

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 ...

, is an English country house in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, designed by John Nash around 1805 for the Dowager Lady Ashburton, née Elizabeth Baring, the wife of

John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton (18 October 1731 – 18 August 1783), of Spitchwick the parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, was an English lawyer and politician, born in Ashburton in Devon, who served as Solicitor-General from 1768. ...

. It is a 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 Irel ...

. By 1822 it was leased to Sir Robert Newman. It is considered to be a late intimation of Nash's development of the

. Commissioned by the dowager Lady Ashburton as a country retreat, this small country house clearly shows the transition between the picturesque of William Gilpin and Nash's yet to be fully evolved Italianism. While this house can still be described as

Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

, its informal asymmetrical plan together with its loggias and balconies of both stone and wrought iron; tower and low pitched roof clearly are very similar to the fully Italianate design of

Cronkhill Cronkhill, Atcham, Shropshire, designed by John Nash, is "the earliest Italianate villa in England". Drawing on influences from the Italian Campagna and the Picturesque, including the art of Claude Lorrain, it began an architectural style th ...

History

Sandridge, on high ground at the head of the

River Dart The River Dart is a river in Devon, England, that rises high on Dartmoor and flows for to the sea at Dartmouth. Name Most hydronyms in England derive from the Brythonic language (from which the river's subsequent names ultimately derive fr ...

estuary, was held by the Sandridges under the Bishop of Exeter in Henry II's reign. Captain John Davis, the great Elizabethan navigator and explorer, was probably born at Sandridge Barton, the manor farm, in 1543. The Nash house took the place of the former house, which had belonged to the descendants of Sir Thomas Pomeroy until the eighteenth century. "Gilbert, Esq." was the owner in 1763; it was unoccupied in 1951, "the park ragged and decaying". Restoration included preservation of the existing fabric and the addition of pergolas to the east and west of the existing building. The work was awarded the Highly Commended, Single Dwelling Category Architect of the Year Awards 2006.

Notes

References

*Howard Colvin, ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840'' 3rd ed. 1995: "John Nash"
Devon County Council: Stoke Gabriel
{{coord, 50.3971, -3.6054, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Devon Grade II* listed buildings in Devon