Bicton, Budleigh Salterton, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.  

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Bicton belonged to William Porto in the mid 11th century, and subsequently passed to the Arbalister, Sachvill and Copleston families. In the mid 16th century it was sold to Sir Robert Dennys, who built a manor house to the south of the present mansion, and enclosed a deer park. The estate passed by marriage and inheritance to Henry Rolle of Stevenstone in north Devon in the early 17th century. John Rolle (d 1730) demolished the 16th century manor house and began to construct the present mansion on a new site, but this remained incomplete at his death and was not finally completed until about 1800. Formal gardens were developed in about 1735 by John Rolle's son, Henry (d 1759), who was created Baron Rolle in 1748. Henry Rolle's brother, Dennis (d 1797) made extensive plantations at Bicton in the mid 18th century, including 101,394 Scots pines, for which he received a gold medal from the Society of Arts in 1761 (Jacques 1983). John, second Baron Rolle inherited Bicton in 1797, and employed James Wyatt to complete the house (Cherry and Pevsner 1989), and expanded the park, making improvements with the advice of John Webb (1754-1828) and William Sawrey Gilpin (1762-1843). In the 1830s Robert Glendinning (1805-1862) was head gardener at Bicton, and was advised on the development of the grounds by James Veitch of Exeter and J C Loudon (Elliott 1986). Glendinning was succeeded in 1839 by James Barnes (1806-1877), who remained in office until 1868. Under the supervision of these men, Bicton was recognised as one of the most important gardens in the country, and was praised by Loudon in 1842 (Gardener's Magazine). Lord John Rolle's second wife was Louisa Trefusis (d 1885), daughter of the seventeenth Baron Clinton, and after Lord John's death in 1842 Bicton passed to her nephew, the Honourable Mark Trefusis, who in 1852 assumed the name of Rolle. The dowager Lady Rolle continued to make improvements to Bicton in the mid 19th century. On the death of the Hon Mark Rolle in 1907, Bicton passed to his nephew, Charles, twenty-first Baron Clinton (d 1957), for whom the mansion was remodelled in 1908-1909. During the Second World War the House was used by a girls' boarding school evacuated from Sussex, and in 1946 a lease on the House, park and Home Farm was granted to Devon County Council to establish the Devon Farm Institute. In 1955 the Devon Agricultural College purchased the property, while the formal gardens and remainder of the park continued in private occupation. The formal gardens were opened to the public in about 1960, and were vested in the Bicton Park Trust Company in 1986. They were subsequently sold in 1998 and remain a commercial undertaking, while the south-west area of the park accommodates an equestrian arena developed in 1975, and, together with Baker's Brake to the north-west, remains (1999) private property.