Hillersdon House

Description

It is a two-storey building arranged around a central hall, built of red brick with Portland stone dressing and a hipped slate roof. The red brick stable block was built at about the same time as the main house along with "Jane's Cottage" within the grounds. The main house is set out on an "H" plan around a central hall. The north-east front is the main entrance with a porte-cochère flanked by Tuscan columns, while the south-west side mirrors the north east but without the porte-cochère. It is surrounded by landscaped gardens with ponds and a deer park.

Odo FitzGamelin

The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the manor of HILESDONE as the 18th of the 24 Devonshire holdings of Odo FitzGamelin, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. He was the son-in-law of Theobald FitzBerner, another of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief. The lands of both men later formed part of the feudal barony of Great Torrington. His tenant at Hillersdon was Reginald. In the Book of Fees (13th century) it is listed as held from the feudal barony of Great Torrington.

de Hillersdon

The estate was the seat of the de Hillersdon family, whose family as was usual had taken their surname from their seat. They remained for several generations, as Pole (d.1635) relates: "untill beinge advanced by their matches in diverse howses they left their dwellinge heere & removed unto their other howses of better valewe & sold this land away". The first favourable "match" appears to have been made by Andrew Hillersdon (son and heir of Robert Hillersdon (d.1499)) who according to the Heraldic Visitations of Devon, married Anne Edgecombe, "daughter and heir of Sir Richard Edgecombe of Edgecombe" and widow of Sir William Trevanion of Caerhays. (The Edgcumbe pedigree in the Heraldic Visitations of Devon however lists no "Sir Richard Edgecombe of Edgecombe" who left female heiresses at this date, and the estate of Edgcumbe in the parish of Milton Abbot remained in the Edgcumbe family until at least 1725.) The seat of his son Roger Hillersdon, who married into the prominent Fortescue family, was Membland in the parish of Holbeton, Devon, where his descendants remained for several generations.

Cockeram

At the time of Risdon (d.1640), Hillersdon was the seat of "Mr Cockrane" (sic), whose father and grandfather had also held it. The Cockeram family descended from George Cockeram (d.1577) of "Hunington" in Devon, whose younger grandson Robert Cockeram (1554-1632) was a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and whose monument survives in Cullompton Church. In his will he bequeathed to the young scholars of Cullompton Grammar School, his "Cooper's Dictionary", to be kept chained to a desk. In the 17th century a branch of this family descended from Robert's brother David Cockeram (d.1634), was seated at Grewen (modern: Growen), in the parish of Cullompton, immediately to the east of Hillersdon.

Prous

At the time of Pole (d.1635), Hillersdon was owned by "Mr Prous of Taunton", Somerset, whose eldest son resided there. Pole, although a contemporary of Risdon, makes no mention of the Cockram tenure. The Prouse family was an old Devon gentry family, branches of which were seated at Gidleigh Castle; Chagford; Barnstaple; Tiverton and Exeter and descended from the marriage of Peter Prouz of "Eastervale" to Mary de Redvers, daughter and heiress of William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon (d.1217) of Tiverton Castle, and widow of Sir Robert de Courtenay (d.1242) feudal baron of Okehampton, ancestor of Hugh de Courtenay, 1st/9th Earl of Devon (d.1340).

Colman

Shortly before 1810 Hillersdon was listed by Rev. John Swete (d.1821) as the seat of Francis Colman (d.1820), who was also lord of the manor of Cullompton. He was the son and heir of William Colman of Gorney in Devon by his wife Jane Seymour, a sister of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset (1701–1757), of Berry Pomeroy in Devon. Francis Colman died in 1820 without male progeny, leaving three daughters and co-heiresses, the eldest of whom married into the Collins and then the Shiell families; the second married into the Pettiward family of Finborough Hall in Suffolk and the youngest Laura-Anne Colman married Thomas-Joseph Trafford of Trafford Park in Lancashire.

Sweet

Shortly before 1810, after the Colman tenure, Hillersdon was the seat of David Sweet, who purchased the manor of Cullompton from Francis Colman. The manor of Cullompton descended to John Laxon Sweet, who held it in 1822.

William Charles Grant (1817-1877)

The estate was purchased in about 1847 by William Charles Grant (1817–77), a Lieutenant of the First (Kings) Dragoon Guards and a nephew of Sir William Grant (1752-1832), Member of Parliament, Solicitor General and Master of the Rolls, who had retired to Barton House, Dawlish, Devon. William Charles Grant was lord of the manor of Cullompton. He was descended from a younger son of Alexander Grant of Hillochhead in Scotland, a branch of Grant of Elchies. In 1843 Grant married Maria May (d.1891), a grand-daughter of Joseph May of Membland in Devon and of Hale Park in Hampshire. She was a noted pteridologist, an adept of the "Victorian Fern Cult", in whose honour her son established the "Mrs Maria Grant's Memorial Prize for 10 varieties of Athyrium filix-femina", Silver Gilt Flora Medal, at the Royal Horticultural Society's Exhibition of British Ferns held in London in August 1892. He built the surviving house to replace the earlier house which was in a dilapidated state, and which had been offered for rent in the early 19th century.

William John Alexander Grant (1851-1935)

Hillersdon passed to his second and eldest surviving son "Johnny" William John Alexander Grant (1851-1935), JP, the distinguished Arctic photographer who in 1895 married Enid Maud Forster, a daughter of William Forster (1818-1882), Premier of New South Wales, Australia, whom he divorced in 1901. In the 1890s Hillersdon became known for its wild parties. One incident occurred after the Exeter Ball, when four young gentlemen plunged into one of the lakes, and were subsequently washed off in baths of Champagne. Elinor Glyn, a noted society beauty was part of the house party on this occasion.

Sturgis

After the death of William Grant in 1935 the house was inherited under his will by Sir Mark Beresford Russell Sturgis (1884–1949), KCB, Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland, who took the additional surname of Grant, as a condition of the will. In the Second World War it housed US Officers and then became a bed and breakfast and later was divided into five flats.

Glynn

It was purchased in 1982 by David and Gale Glynn, who having undertaken some refurbishment work sold it in 2009 for an asking price of £3 to 4 million.

Lloyd

In 2010 Hillersdon was purchased by International business man Michael Lloyd and has since undergone a complete refurbishment and is now used as a wedding venue.