Stevenstone
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Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 with an annual gross value of nearly £46,000.
Stevenstone House, built by Hon. Mark Rolle between 1868 and 1872 to design of Charles Barry Jr. Now a largely demolished ruin. Surviving today is the Palladian library outbuilding, visible to the left, built by Lord Rolle's grandfather John Rolle (died 1730). The contemporaneous orangery behind it also survives, both now the property of the Landmark Trust. Published in Morris, Rev. F.O. Picturesque Views of Seats of Noblemen & Gentlemen of Great Britain & Ireland, London, 1880
The ivy-covered ruins of Stevenstone House in 2012. Hoskins described it in 1954 as "A villainously ugly house whose present dereliction need bring no tears", and "An ugly ruin in a naked and devastated park". To the left is the Palladian Library Room and behind it the Orangery, built c. 1715–30
Arms of Rolle: Or, on a fesse dancetté between three billets azure each charged with a lion rampant of the first three bezants
1602 escutcheon within a strapwork surround, showing the arms of Sir Henry Rolle (1545–1625) impaling Watts, of 6 quarters, the family of his first wife. Abbots Lodge, Cathedral Close, Exeter (destroyed in WW II)
Great Torrington
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Great Torrington is a market town in Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to the River Torridge below, with the lower-lying parts of the town prone to occasional flooding. Torrington is in the centre of Tarka Country, a landscape captured by Henry Williamson in his novel Tarka the Otter in 1927. Great Torrington has one of the most active volunteering communities in the United Kingdom.
Great Torrington Town Hall in the centre of the town
"Castle Hill, Torrington, England", ca. 1890 – 1900.
Alderman Nathaniel Chapple, Mayor of Torrington (1871, 1879 & 1889) by Henry Jamyn Brooks
Torrington station on 15 June 1969 looking towards Bideford.