Hareston, Brixton

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Hareston Farm in 2006

Hareston (anciently Harestone, Harston, etc.) is an historic estate in the parish of Brixton, about three miles from Plymouth in Devon. The mansion house built during the reign of King Henry VII (1485-1509) burned down partially in an accidental fire at the beginning of the 18th century, and in 1822 the surviving part, the Hall and Chapel, was being used as a farmhouse.[1] It was described by Candida Lycett Green in her 1991 book The Perfect English Country House as: "The most forgotten Manor House Farm In England, untouched for hundreds of years, sits safely, impossible to find, down miles of private sunken lanes which in the spring brim with Campion, Bluebells, Purple Orchids, Primroses, Violets, Speedwell and Stitchwort. Wooded hills rise behind this, the quintessence of an ancient English Manor House".[2]

Descent

Domesday Book

It is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as two separate holdings, both spelled Harestane, the 29th and 51st of the 79 Devonshire holdings of Robert, Count of Mortain, [3] half-brother and one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. His tenant at the first mentioned holding was a certain "Reginald", namely Reginald I de Vautort,[4] Feudal baron of Trematon in Cornwall, who held several estates from the Count of Mortain in Devon, Somerset and Cornwall.[5] Before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 it had been held by an Anglo-Saxon named Edric. The Count's tenant at the second named holding (whose earlier Anglo-Saxon tenant had been Sweet) was also Reginald.[6]

Later holders

Arms of Woode of Hareston: Argent, on a mount in base proper an oak tree vert fructed or[7]
Thomas Winter-Wood (1818-1905), the noted chess-player, who sold Hareston in several lots in 1888 and moved to The Crescent, Plymouth. He founded Devon's first chess club in Plymouth in 1888[8]

The earliest holder recorded by the Devon historian

Plympton Grammar School, was a member of this family, and sold the Hareston estate in 1868/9,[18] his father having in 1824 reversed the order of the surname.[19]
Another prominent descendant of a branch of the Wood family of Hareston was Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet (1768-1843),[20] ancestor of the present Page-Wood baronets, who quarter the arms of Carslake of Hareston: Argent, a bull's head erased sable.[21]

References

  1. ^ Lysons, Daniel & Lysons, Samuel, Magna Britannia, Vol.6, Devonshire, London, 1822, p.74
  2. ^ Quoted in [1]
  3. ^ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, Chapter 15:29
  4. ^ Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, p.91
  5. ^ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, Part 2 (Notes), Chapter 15:26
  6. ^ Thorn & Thorn, Chapter 15, 51
  7. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.801; Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.508)
  8. ^ "Thomas Winter-Wood". Archived from the original on 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
  9. ^ Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, pp.194-5
  10. ^ Risdon, p.194
  11. regnal date
    27 Henry III
  12. ^ Risdon, p.194
  13. Regnal date
    40 Edward III per Risdon p.194
  14. ^ Risdon, p.194-5; Vivian, p.801
  15. ^ Encyclopædia of Heraldry, Or General Armory of England, Scotland and ... By Sir John Bernard Burke[2]
  16. ^ Risdon, 1810 Additions, p.392
  17. ^ Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1822
  18. ^ Vivian, p.801, footnote
  19. ^ "Thomas Winter-Wood". Archived from the original on 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
  20. ^ "Manor House Wedding Venue Devon".
  21. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895; quartering illustrated in: Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, quartered arms illustrated on p.875