Castle Hill, Barnstaple, North Devon, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Martin Fortescue, eldest son of Chief Justice Sir John Fortescue, acquired an estate at Filleigh through marriage in 1454. A house on the site of the present mansion was associated with a detached deer park to the north-east, and the medieval parish church stood immediately west of the house, surrounded by modest gardens and orchards and confined by roads to the south, north and north-west (Colvin and Moggridge 1991). Sir Hugh Fortescue (created Lord Clinton in 1721 and Earl of Clinton and Lord Fortescue in 1746), a leading Whig politician, inherited Castle Hill in 1719. A programme of improvement, with a concentrated period of activity in the early 1730s coinciding with his resignation from political office included the remodelling of both house and grounds. A new Palladian mansion was designed by Lord Burlington (1694-1753) with advice from the ninth Earl of Pembroke (1693-1749). The extent of Earl Clinton's landscape is recorded on field surveys (1763 and 1765), and views by John Wootton (about 1735-1740) and John Lange (1741). Bishop Pococke visiting in 1764 described the landscape created by 'the late Lord Clinton'. A close associate of Lord Burlington, Lord Pembroke and Lord Cobham, Clinton's half-sister was married to Lord Lyttleton of Hagley, Worcestershire, and it has been suggested that the Sham Castle at Castle Hill is related to Sanderson Miller's Castle at Hagley (Cherry and Pevsner 1989). Like Stowe, Buckinghamshire, Earl Clinton's landscape comprised a central north/south vista passing from the gothic Sham Castle on the hill behind the house to a Triumphal Arch on the southern horizon; it also included a viewing Platform or terrace below the south facade of the house, and a cruciform lake. A series of landscape buildings, including significant early examples of Gothic Revival, were built from the early 1720s and engravings of them illustrated Dr James Fortescue's Essays (1759). The design of the Palladian buildings may be attributed to Lord Burlington, but elsewhere Earl Clinton appears to have been his owner designer (Colvin and Moggridge 1991). In 1751 the estate was inherited by Earl Clinton's half-brother, Matthew, Lord Fortescue. From 1767 with the assistance of his agent, Hilliard, he undertook a series of alterations including the construction of the Holwell Temple (1770-1772) and an associated lake south-east of the house, balancing Earl Clinton's south-west vista to Filleigh church. The cruciform lake south of the house was naturalised into a serpentine river, and the formal lines of the planting east and west softened, in about 1771 as shown on a Field Map (1790).

Lord Fortescue died in 1785, leaving the estate to his son, created Earl Fortescue in 1789. From 1785 until his death in 1841, the first Earl consolidated and expanded the early 18th century park to include the formerly detached Deer Park east of the house through a land exchange. Between 1820 and 1840 the Tithe map (1838) shows that plantations were extended into adjoining agricultural land, and a series of ornamental drives through the woodland created. From the mid 19th century, under the second and third Earls Fortescue, agricultural land was improved and many of the mature woodlands replanted. The house and south terraces were extensively altered by Edward Blore in 1842-1843, and William Butterfield provided designs for estate buildings in about 1870. The mid and late 19th century landscape is reflected on both parish (1859; 1880) and Ordnance Survey maps (1886; 1903). In 1934 the mansion was partly destroyed by fire and was subsequently rebuilt (1935-1938) to designs by Lord Gerald Wellesley. The mature 18th and 19th century landscape suffered serious storm damage in 1990, which has been followed by an extensive programme of restoration to both the landscape and its structures. Castle Hill remains (1999) private property.