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 | Poltimore has a long history, starting with the Domesday Book (1086). The manor of Poltimore was gifted to an officer in William the Conqueror's army, one Haimerius de Arcis. It soon passed to the Poltimores who sold it in about 1280 to Simon Lord Montacute. Then on to William Pointington, a canon of Exeter, who gave the property to his pupil John Bampfylde in 1306. In 1550, Richard Bampfylde started building his Tudor mansion. Part of the original remains. Successive generations built, rebuilt and added to the house. Large changes took place from 1720-1750, in the 1830's and again in 1908 when the ballroom was added. John was created a baronet in 1641 by Charles I and George was raised to the peerage as the 1st Baron Poltimore in 1831. In 1646 the Treaty of Exeter was negotiated and signed at Poltimore, so ending the Civil War in the southwest. George was the fourth Bampfylde to sit as an MP for Exeter, going back to his great grandfather. As a new Whig peer he helped put the great Reform Bill through Parliament in 1832. The estate was sold in 1921, ending 600 years of ownership by the Bampfyldes. It became a girls school - Poltimore College; then a home for the evacuated Dover College; in 1945 a change to a private hospital and then it became part of the National Health Service until 1975. Post 1975, subsequent owners were not so careful. For the last 20 years the House has been allowed to decay. It has been vandalised, set alight, looted and pillaged. The present grounds and many of the standing trees were probably laid out and planted by the famous Veitch nursery in the 1830s. The great Lime avenue may be earlier, planted to celebrate the accession of George I in 1714. The Poltimore House Trust, formed in 2000, has taken over the ravaged estate and, with help from East Devon District Council and English Heritage, is now seeking end uses and grants to achieve the restoration of Poltimore to its former eminence. The Friends of Poltimore House were formed in 2004. They help financially, actively and practically in the affairs of the House to achieve the objectives of the Trust. | |||||||
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Here is a small extract from the memories of Aubray Sandford (nee McNeil) who has written to us from New Zealand. She was 11 when she came to Poltimore College in 1928. “A traditional, wide, red-carpeted stairway swept up from the rear wall of the hall, parting into separate flights before turning back to the floors above. Polished banisters and enormous family portraits of people of yesteryear, whose eyes followed your every movement accompanied you up the stairs”.
The book A DEVON HOUSE: the story of Poltimore has been written by Jocelyn Hemming is is available from the Poltimore House Trust. Click here for more information.
For information on some of the plans for the future of the house, click here...
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