Wembury House (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Wembury.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Devon.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SX53124920
Latitude 50.32408° Longitude -4.06486°

Wembury House has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

Large wall possibly defensive which is all that survives of a late C16 mansion. Enormous rampart faced in stone rubble with granite dressings, with a grassed walk on top. The outer (west) revetment wall has buttresses with set-offs, and moulded saddle-back coping. Eastern side also buttressed but without stone coping. The eastern side has a flight of steps leading down to a lawn in front of the house. The current Wembury House was built on the site of a great mansion of Sir John Hele who bought the estate in 1592 and built what was reputedly an enormous house of which only this wall survives. It is said to have been a fortification against pirates because of its proximity to the coast. (Listed Building Report)

Wembury house. A medieval manor originally the property of Plympton Priory. A manor house was not built till 1591. By 1797 building was a ruin and present house was built on the site in 1803 (Evans).
The site of a medieval manor that was in ecclesiastical possession down to the dissolution (Reichel).
Country house in landscaped garden, built on the site of a late 16th century house, 1803 built for sir Thomas Lockyear. Two storeys, attic and ashlar basement. Slate hipped roof. Sash windows with moulded architraves. Retains many original features (DOE). The Elizabethan manor has a deer park and a huge fishpond still visible below the house but not on trust property.(National Trust). (Devon and Dartmoor HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1169185
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 438361.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1733.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Devon Rural Archives
Books
- Hoskins, W.G., 1954, A New Survey of England: Devon (London: Collins) p. 513
  Reichel, O.J. 1933, 'The Hundred of Plympton in early times' in The Hundreds of Devon Vol. 6 Plympton and Ermington (Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art) p. 245, 251 ,260, 268, 281-282, 302
Periodical Articles
- Evans, H.M., 1910, Wembury: its bay, church, and parish' Transactions of the Devonshire Association Vol. 42 p. 517-37 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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