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)
St Giles in the Wood is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village lies about 2.5 miles east of the town of Great Torrington, and the parish, which had a population of 566 in 2001 compared with 623 in 1901, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Huntshaw, Yarnscombe, High Bickington, Roborough, Beaford, Little Torrington and Great Torrington. Most of the Victorian terraced cottages in the village, on the east side of the church, were built by the Rolle Estate.
View of St Giles in the Wood, looking eastwards from the ruined terrace of Stevenstone House
Stevenstone House, built by Hon. Mark Rolle between 1868 and 1872, demolished
The present house of Winscott Barton