Lupton, Brixham

Domesday Book

The manor of Lupton was listed as Lochetone in the Domesday Book of 1087 and formed one of the 107 Devonshire holdings of Juhel of Totnes, within his feudal barony of Totnes. Before the Norman Conquest of 1066 it was held by the Saxon Otre (Othere).

Peverell/Pennells

Lupton later became a seat of the Peverell family, which according to the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (d. 1640) occupied it for ten generations. Pole (d.1635) called this family "Peniles" of "Luckton (which) lieth in this parish of Brixham". Vivian (1895) called them "Pennells". John Peverell (alias Pennells, Peniles, etc.) was the last of the male line and his heir was his sister, Agnes Peverell (or Pennells, etc.), wife of John Upton of Puslinch, the descendants from which marriage thus inherited the manor. Pole gave the arms of "Peniles of Luckton" as "Argent, on a chevron azure three fishes or". These arms are visible as the 4th of 8 quarterings of the arms of Sir William Strode (1562–1637) of Newnham on his mural monument in St Mary's Church, Plympton St Mary.

Upton

The ancient family of Upton originated at the Cornish manor of Upton. A notable member of this family was Nicholas Upton (1400? – 1457), English cleric, precentor of Salisbury, and writer on heraldry and the art of war.

Hayne

Charles I Hayne (d.1769), Sheriff of Devon and Colonel of the 4th Battalion Devon Militia, of Lupton and Fuge House in the parish of Blackawton in Devon, was the eldest son and heir of Cornelius Hayne (d.1733) who had inherited Lupton from his Upton ancestors. His son and heir was Charles II Hayne (1747-1821), Sheriff of Devon in 1772 and Colonel of the North Devon Militia, who inherited from his father Lupton and Fuge. The Hayne family had come to prominence in the person of John Hayne (d.1671) (grandfather of Cornelius Hayne), a merchant at Dartmouth during the reign of King Charles I (1625-1649), who had "acquired by inheritance and purchase various properties in Devon".

Charles II Hayne was only 22 when he inherited Lupton in 1769 and he built Lupton House which largely survives today. He did not marry but lived there alone for about twenty years. In 1788 he sold Lupton to Judge Francis Buller and made Fuge House his principal residence. He died in 1821, having bequeathed Fuge House to his great-nephew Charles I Seale-Hayne (d.1842) (on condition he should adopt the additional surname of Hayne), the second son of Sir John Henry Seale, 1st Baronet (1780–1844), of Mount Boone, Dartmouth, the son of his sister Sarah Hayne. The son of Charles I Seale-Hayne was Charles II Seale-Hayne (1833-1903), Member of Parliament for Ashburton in Devon (1885-1903) and Paymaster-General (1892-1895), who by his will founded Seale-Hayne College near Newton Abbot in Devon.

Sir Francis and Lady Susanna Buller

Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet (1746-1800) of Churston Court and Lupton, was the third son of James Buller (1717-1765) of Morval in Cornwall and of Downes, Crediton and of New Place, King's Nympton in Devon, a Member of Parliament for East Looe in Cornwall (1741-7) and for the County of Cornwall (1748-1765). Francis Buller's mother was Lady Jane Bathurst, his father's second wife, a daughter of Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst. Morval, the most ancient Buller seat, and Downes, were inherited by his father's eldest son from his first marriage, and thus Francis as a younger son, had to make his own fortune. The Buller family had a history of service in politics, church and law. Francis was an excellent student and at the age of seventeen he entered the Inner Temple to study law. In the same year he married Susanna Yarde, six years his senior, daughter and heiress of Francis Yarde of Churston Court, one mile north of Lupton House. He began practicing law at age 19 and was immediately successful. Aged 32, he became a judge and in 1789 he was made a baronet. Judge Buller also had a residence on Dartmoor known as Prince Hall where he was a pioneer of moorland reclamation. In 1788 Francis bought Lupton House. He immediately began an extensive program of planting and landscape improvement. Rev. John Swete visited the house in 1793 and painted the property as shown above. He noted that the north drive passed through 'newly planted grounds' and 'a most luxuriant shrubbery' which included a variety of flowering shrubs.

Francis died in 1800 and his son, also named Francis, inherited Lupton house. Francis the younger incorporated his mother's maiden name into his surname, and thus became known as Sir Francis Buller-Yarde-Buller, 2nd Baronet. He married Elizabeth Hallidat. The couple did not live at Lupton House and for some years it was let. The baronet's son and heir was John Yarde-Buller, 1st Baron Churston (1799-1871), who made extensive improvements to the property to the design of George Wightwick, in 1860 by royal licence dropped the first "Buller" from the family surname.

Sir John Yarde-Buller 1st Baron Churston and Lady Elizabeth Yarde-Buller

John Yarde-Buller was born in 1799 in Staffordshire. He was educated at Oxford and in 1834 was elected to Parliament as the member for South Devon. He held this position for about 20 years. In 1823 he married Elizabeth Wilson-Patten, the daughter of Thomas Wilson-Pattern, a wealthy land owner. The couple had two children John and Bertha.

In 1833 John inherited Lupton house and some years later made significant changes to the house and garden. A notice appeared in 1841 in a local newspaper;

“The recent alterations and improvements at Lupton, the splendid residence of Sir J Yarde Buller having been completed the Honourable Baronet has again returned to it with all of his establishment."

These alterations were made by George Wightwick, a well-known architect. Twenty six plans exist of the additions that he made to the house. The entrance to the house was moved from the south to the west side and a Doric porte-cochere was added. A Tudor Gothic lodge was also added to the property. At the same time formal gardens and terraces were constructed to the south and east of the House. A new south drive was constructed, and cedars and pines planted in the park.

Wightwick also designed the stables, conservatory and kennels as plans also exist for these structures. At about the same time Samuel Cook the artist was commission to paint, in the staircase on the walls, the views that were immediately outside the house. Further remodeling of the house was made by John in 1860 when he commissioned Anthony Salvin to make more additions.

It seems that two famous designers were involved in the laying out of Lupton Gardens in 1840 – James Veitch and George Wightwick. The Italian gardens appear to have been at least partially designed by George Wightwick as a detailed coloured plan exists in his portfolio, “Design for the Italian gardens, Lupton House, near Brixham: general plan and elevation and section of balustrade on its dwarf wall”. An online copy of this plan is given at this reference.

A very graphic description of the whole garden was given in a garden journal in 1869. This article states that James Veitch designed the gardens, road and the kitchen garden. Some of the highlights of the garden outlined in this two part magazine feature are as follows:

The second part of the feature describes the kitchen garden in the following terms:

“The garden is divided into two portions – the fruit garden and the vegetable garden; good wide slips of ground are also carried all round outside the walls for cultural purposes and a nice young orchard of thriving trees occupies a space between the garden and a public road. The ground in the fruit garden has been made almost if not quite level that in th vegetable garden has a regular and even fall. Immense quantities of earth had to be moved to secure these forms of surface and it was turned to account thus:- At the boundary of the fruit garden a thick retaining wall was built; in front of this the back wall for a range of glass running right across the garden was built leaving room for fruit rooms, sheds stoke holes etc. between the two walls. All the spare earth was thus used to fill up the space between the two walls and to carry a terrace walk right across the garden, eight or ten feet above the vegetable ground."

John died in 1871 and his grandson inherited the property as John's only son had predeceased him.

John Yarde-Buller, 2nd Baron Churston and Lady Barbara Yarde-Buller

John Yarde-Buller owned Lupton for about 40 years from 1871 until his death in 1910. He was born in 1846 and until his inheritance served in the Scots Guards. After he became 2nd Baron Churston in 1871 he resigned from the military and concentrated on his estate. He married Barbara Yelverton, daughter of Admiral Sir Hastings Reginald Yelverton. They had three children, the youngest of whom, Giles, died of pneumonia at Lupton House in 1900, aged 24.

After John inherited his grandfather's property he became interested in local community affairs. He was President of the Churston Cricket Club and Torquay Club and it was mainly through his efforts that the Churston Golf Club was established. He was also a keen yachtsman and belonged to the Royal Yacht Squadron. He was a friend of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George and Queen Mary) and was a member of the house party that entertained them at Ugbrooke Park when they visited Devon in 1899. John died in 1910 and his son, John Reginald Lopes Yarde-Buller inherited Lupton House.

John Reginald Lopes Yarde-Buller, 3rd Baron Churston and Lady Jessie Yarde-Buller

John was born in 1873. He was educated at Winchester and after this he served for many years in the Scots Guards. A photo of him in this uniform is shown on the right. He served in the Boar War and was awarded the Queens Medal. Later he was Aide-de Camp to the Viceroy of India and the Duke of Connaught.

In 1907 at the age of 36 he married Jessie Smither, an actress whose stage name was Denise Orme. When they married the newspapers reported the event. After the death of his father in 1910, John inherited Lupton House. John and Jessie had six children, including Joan Yarde-Buller, who, in 1936, married Prince Aga Khan in Paris. In 1926, a very serious fire in the house occurred and the third story had to be removed as it was so badly damaged. Much of the fine paneling and decorative plasterwork were lost. John died in 1930 and his son, Richard Yarde-Buller, inherited the property. He owned it until 1960 but during that time it was mostly rented out as he did not live there. In 1943 both the house and land were requisitioned by the military. The estate played a major role in the support and training of the U.S. Infantry in their preparations for Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings.

Modern history

In 1926 much of the interior was destroyed by fire, and the house was rebuilt, but with the top floor omitted. During World War II the house and grounds were used by American forces. Following the war it became a hotel and then housed successively three schools, Fenton School, Lupton House School, and, between 1990 and 2004, Gramercy Hall School.

In 1960 the property was acquired by Rowland Smith (d. 1979), proprietor of Rowland Smith Motors in Hampstead, North London, and of the Palace Hotel in Torquay, and who in 1949 had purchased as his country residence nearby Coleton Fishacre House.

In 2008 the Lupton Trust was established which currently uses the house and grounds for a variety of commercial activities, mainly concerning community groups, charities and social enterprises, all designed to assist in financing a restoration.