Reasons for Designation
Medieval great houses were the residences of high-status non-Royal households.
They had domestic rather than military functions and show little or no sign of
fortification, even of a purely cosmetic nature. Great houses share several of
the characteristics of royal palaces, and in particular shared similar
characteristics of size, sophistication, and decoration of the architecture.
Great houses usually consist of a group of buildings, including a great hall,
service rooms, one or more kitchens, several suites of chambers for the
owners, the household and its guests, and a gatehouse. Other ancillary
buildings are known to have been present but very rarely survive. Earlier
examples typically comprised a collection of separate buildings, but through
the 14th and 15th century there was increasing integration of the buildings
into a few larger buildings. By the later medieval period, such complexes were
commonly laid out around one or more formal courtyards; in the 16th century
this would occasionally be contrived so that the elevations were symmetrical.
Many great houses are still notable for the high quality of their architecture
and for the opulence of their furnishings. Several examples contain
substantially intact buildings, others consist of ruins or complexes of
earthworks.
Great houses are found throughout England, although there is a concentration
in the south and Midlands. Further north, great houses were more heavily
fortified, reflecting more unsettled political and social conditions, but
their domestic purpose and status were still predominant. Fewer than 250
examples of great houses have been identified. As a rare monument class which
provide an important insight into the lives of medieval aristocratic or gentry
households, all examples will be nationally important.
Despite the demolition of the lodgings and long gallery around the inner
courtyard, and the south end of the eastern lodgings range in the outer
courtyard, well-preserved buried remains survive at Dartington Hall
including walls, floors and stratified deposits. These relate to the
buildings, a buried water supply culvert, and later garden features, which
will add considerably to the future understanding of this monument. Holy
wells are water sources with specifically Christian associations,
sometimes originating as pre-Christian pagan sacred springs and often
associated with beliefs in their healing properties. Most holy wells date
from the later medieval period, but although they ceased to be built after
the Reformation, their veneration and use as public water supplies
continued. The spring head can take the form of lined well shafts or
conduit heads on springs, sometimes with a chapel or shrine over it, often
feeding a stone- lined reservoir which gathered the water at the surface.
The holy well 150m south west of Dartington Hall survives well. Its well
head and reservoir will contain remains relating to its construction and
use, while waterlogged and other deposits relating to its veneration may
survive beneath.
Details
This monument, which falls into two areas of protection, includes ruins
and buried remains of Dartington Hall, a medieval great house, which lies
on the north side of a combe overlooking rolling countryside in the valley
of the River Dart. It also includes a holy well. Extant and occupied
buildings are Listed Grade I and are not included in the scheduling. The
Hall, on the site of a manor first recorded in the ninth century AD, was
developed between 1388 and 1400 as a country residence for John Holland,
Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon, the half brother of King Richard
II. To the south of the surviving hall range of the house, a grass lawn
covers foundations and stratified archaeological deposits associated with
three further ranges of buildings which, with the south range of the
surviving hall, enclosed the inner court. These ranges covered a maximum
area of 55m from east to west and 45m from north to south. Partial
excavation in 1962 revealed the remains of a free standing stone building
of early 14th century date, 8.2m wide and 14.6m long with walls 1.1m wide,
aligned east to west 11m south of the hall range. The inner court was
constructed in the late 14th century; the buildings containing residential
apartments in the west with chamber wings to their west and a ground floor
pentice facing into the courtyard to the east. There was also a storied
long gallery to the south, overlooking at least one terraced garden and
fishponds in the valley below, and a narrow range of unidentified
buildings to the east. These buildings varied in their dates of
construction, the west range being of late 14th and 15th century date,
while the long gallery to the south was of early 16th century date. The
buildings were demolished in about 1700, but part of the south wall of the
long gallery, 24m long, 1m wide and 3.5m high was retained. A terraced
garden 80m long and 13m wide and known as the Bowling Green forms the
south side of the scheduling. Excavations here between 1991 and 1999
showed this to have been a formal garden of 17th century date, laid out
with a parterre, the bedding trenches for which have been located. A water
supply was brought in a covered culvert from a spring on the south side of
the valley to the late 14th century kitchen on its east side. The outer
courtyard was flanked by long ranges of lodgings, housing retainers of the
Duke of Exeter, and dating from the late 14th century. The south end of
the east range, comprising ten lodgings on two stories, with shared
latrine wings to the east and external stairs to the west, was demolished
in the early 19th century. Foundations and stratified remains of these lie
within the east part of the scheduling. The site of the medieval church of
St Mary, largely demolished around 1878 lies to the north west of the
Hall. The buried remains of its nave is under grass but the 15th century
tower remains at the west end of the site. The church tower is Listed
Grade I. The slate headstone about 7m west of the church tower in memory
of Edward Shapter is listed Grade II.
A holy well lies at the head of the combe to the south west of the hall in
the second area of protection. It consists of a rectangular depression,
revetted with stone rubble, measuring 4.5m wide, 6m long and 1.2m deep. In
the 19th century, the enclosure was dammed to make a pond, with a rustic
cascade of limestone rubble on the south east side, falling 1.5m into the
combe below. A shaft well, lined with stone rubble and measuring 4m deep,
1.3m in diameter at the top, widening to 2.5m at the bottom, lies 6m to
the east, but is now covered over. The gardens are Listed Grade II* on the
English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens.
Excluded from the scheduling are all path and road surfacings and the
standing remains of the church, although the ground beneath these features
is included.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
