- C18
Coryton Park was built in 1754-6 for Benedictus Marwood Tuckers, sheriff of Devon in 1763. The house replaced a late seventeenth-century building. Only the north wing,probably the service wing, of the former survives. The original caption which =accompanied the steel line engraving by S.Lacey after J.P.Neale, dated 1831 noted it was built ‘near the site of the old house, on a pleasant knoll, nearly in the centre of a small but picturesque park, containing some fine trees, particularly a stately avenue of the horse-chestnut, through which was the approach to the old mansion. Some thriving plantations, formed about thirty years since, by the present possessor, supply a good back-ground and shelter to the house, which is built of brick, much ornamented with Portland-stone, and has three handsome fronts. The entrance, in the centre of the southern front, is adorned with two pilasters of the Corinthian order, supporting a pediment. The door-way is flanked by two three-quarter Ionic columns, surmounted by an entablature. The eastern and western fronts project in a bay in the centre, rising to the height of the house, and terminated by a balustrade. The ornamental tower, seen on the right of our plate, contains a forcing engine for supplying the house with water. The apartments are spacious, and conveniently arranged on either side of a long and lofty gallery, terminated by an elegant geometrical staircase. The library is furnished with a valuable collection of books, and various philosophical instruments. Coryton is of that class of residences of the country gentleman, numerously scattered through this county, which, whilst they do not presume to vie, either in extent or grandeur, with the more stately mansions of the nobility, unite solidity, and respectability, with every domestic comfort.’
The house is listedGrade II
Cherry & Pevsner: The Buildings of England – Devon, 1989: 519
T Gray: Devon Country Houses and Gardens Engraved Vol I, 2001: 90-1
