East Worlington House

East Worlington House is located in a prominent position in East Worlington Village with its south elevation facing the river Little Dart and the woods beyond.  The exact date of construction is not known however archaeologists using the evidence available to them suggest it is a C17th building. As no other use can be identified it is presumed to have been constructed as a rectory, and extended  through several different stages. The main original building materials are cob walls siting on stone foundation walls and a thatched roof. 

It remained as rectory until 1967 when it ceased to have ecclesiastical use and was sold as a private dwelling.

The north elevation of the house faces into a court yard area which is enclosed on its west side by a building previously a barn and now converted into East Worlington Parish Hall, on the north side by a number of buildings including a stable, now converted into holiday accommodation and to the east by a garage, greenhouse, and garden.

Between the House and the river is closest to the house a formal garden consisting mainly of a lawned area boarded on its southern edge partly by a metal post and rail fence and partly by a ha ha.

Beyond the ha ha a meadow goes down the hill, which finally levels off in the valley and carries on to the  river as the southern boundary of the meadow.

East Worlington House Fact File

Fact Number

Date

Facts

Fact One

1679

and

1727

The earliest record for East Worlington House was identified in the Glebe Terriers of 1679 and 1727 describe the house and outbuildings, the description of 1727 allowing no doubt as to the location of the parsonage house:

The Glebe Terrier of 1679 described the property:

• ‘The house is built with mud walls unless it be the front of the house and that is some part stone.

• A hall paved with stone with a chimney and a chamber over it

• A studio

• A kitchen with a chamber over it

• A cellar

• Dairy with a chamber over it

• Malt house with a chamber over it

• A drift (?) for drying of malt

• A barn built with mud walls

• A shiping and stable

The Glebe Terrier of 1727 added to the description of the property:

The Parsonage House situate forty paces south of the Churchyard contains eight under rooms viz. parlour, hall, kitchen, little parlour, cellar, bottle house, dairy and woodhouse having all common flooring except the parlours which are floored with oak board and hall whose floor is of lime ashes. No room is either wainscotted or hanged with any hangings. Over the eight under rooms are seven chambers all floored with oak board. All the walls are of mud except the great parlour which is built of stone. The house is all covered with thatch. The outhouses are a barn consisting of five bays, a sheeping of three bays and a stable of two bays all having mud walls and thatch covering. On the north of the said house is a court or yard enclosed with a mud wall which hath thatch covering. On the west is another ditto. On the south is a yard or garden built and covered

ditto…

Fact Two

1895

A Faculty Petition, dated 1895, provided evidence that adjacent to East Worlington House had a Coachman’s Cottage, Wash House, and Linhay which had all fallen into poor and dilapidated condition and were not required for the purposes of the Glebe. The Faculty Petition was a legal process required by the Church of England to gain permission to demolish them.

In 1895 the Reverend Thomas Holford Buckfast was the Rector of East Worlington Parish (Rector from 1877 to 1886).

The petition identified The Right Honourable Newton Wallop, Earl of Portsmouth as Patron of the Rectory and Parish Church.

Permission for the demolition was granted under the provision of the Ecclesiastical Dilapidation Act of 1871.

The main purpose of the Ecclesiastical Dilapidation Act of 1871 was to preserve the estate of the Church of England by regulating and enforcing the repair of ecclesiastical buildings, such as parsonages and other benefice buildings by requiring incumbents of the properties they had responsibility to maintain them in good condition and not leave the repair costs to successive incumbents. If properties fell into a poor state and required repair the Church introduced the role of Diocesan Surveyor who would inspect properties and establish repair costs requiring the incumbent to pay them before the following incumbent took responsibility for them. While the primary purpose of this requirement was to maintain properties if a property was in such poor condition that the cost of repair was greater than the value the property (not just in financial terms but in the value of the property’s function) and the incumbent demonstrated that the property was no longer required, a decision to demolish it could be granted by the Bishop of the Diocese.

In 1895 Edward Henry Bickersteth (25 January 1825 – 16 May 1906) was a bishop in the Church of England and he held the office of Bishop of Exeter between 1885 and 1900.

The process required the consent of any patron. The Patron for East Worlington Church and Parsonage was the Right Honourable Newton Fellows, Earl of Portsmouth, who granted his consent on 22^nd November 1895.