Tetcott Manor

Tetcott Manor is sited on an eminence of land within a small C18/19 park in the Picturesque tradition. The early C18 ashlar granite gate piers with ball finials mark the entrance from where the drive meanders across the parkland landscape to the C13 Holy Cross Church and Tetcott Manor.  Although small, the landscape is clearly designed mature parkland trees, and a fishpond; copses of trees near the entrance and beyond the church and farm buildings contain the views from within the site.  The Tithe Map shows a formal layout of rides through the woods but this had disappeared by the time of the Ist edition OS Map of 1880s/90s which shows typical English parkland, annotated as The Wilderness; both maps show the fishpond and an orchard south west of the church, which no longer exists. 

 The Manor has been owned by the Molesworths of Pencarrow, Cornwall since 1788, before that it was the manor house of the Arscotts. The Manor dates from the late C17 but has been adapted and modified over the years. The Manor is constructed of granite and a slate roof.  There are a number of fine outbuildings, including a brick granary (recently restored) and  brick stables which may have been associated with the very grand brick house of c.1700 which was demolished in 1831.  There is a walled garden with brick walls on three sides adjoining the house and another smaller walled garden adjacent to the Church.

Tetcott Manor with its farm buildings and cottages form an interesting informal composition of historic vernacular Devon buildings in a parkland landscape.

Cherry & Pevsner: The Buildings of England – Devon, 1989: 802