page_title: Bowden, Ashprington
section_title: Description of Bowden House
hierarchical_section_title: Bowden, Ashprington / Description of Bowden House
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo: H. van Koten
context_page_description: Bowden is an historic estate in the parish of Ashprington, near Totnes in Devon, England. The present mansion house known as Bowden House is a grade I listed building and, having been modified over many centuries, is composed of various building styles, with an emphasis on English Baroque and Tudor.
context_section_description: On first approach Bowden’s primary facades provide a consistent and refined 18th C screen to the mixture of ages and styles of its much remodeled interior (Fig.1). The massive rendered chimney stacks - some with their roots in the 16C - appear a little crude in contrast to the cleanly square dressed stone of the S and W elevations. These elevations together, contain 30 well proportioned openings with two main entrances and 30 sliding sash windows all set within polished ashlar architraves. The secondary elevations to the E and N display much more clearly the many modifications made over time and incorporate masonry remnants and leftovers from previous builds.
  The oldest parts of the house lie to the N and E. Land at Bowden was occupied by the de Broase family in 1154 but nothing is visible in the structure of the house to suggest it contains anything as early as this. Much of the foundation and some of the internal walls of the current building are therefore likely to have their origin in the construction work done during the ownership of Thomas Giles (or Gyles, or Gylles) who acquired Bowden in 1464. A large Tudor Mansion arose early in the 1520s - about one third of which remains today and was incorporated into the current building. Evidence of the original plan layout of Giles’ construction can be gleaned from studying the still existing cellar walls (Figs. 2, 3) (now supporting the 18th C. S range) and the Southern outer courtyard walls, which contain significant sculpted masonry features: a large granite gateway with an arched four centered head, continuously moulded jambs and leaf carved spandrels. (Figs. 5, 6) It leads to a former stable range on the E side of the courtyards.  This now external granite gateway is similar to the (now internal) W entrance of the screens passage (Fig. 7) of the remaining Tudor (or Giles) Hall. Hinges to the inner face of the gateway and a worn and polished doorsill with a central latch bolt hole might indicate that these outer courtyard walls once carried a roof. Alternatively the gateway was reused as a courtyard entrance (as suggested in the listing description above) as was the tracery window frame behind the beebole - though the wall running further to the East contain further doorways and other features. The cellar and courtyard walls together suggest a possible original H-shaped arrangement of internal spaces with the afore mentioned stable yard to the N- E and the still remaining Tudor Hall to the N-W.
  The Giles Family lived at Bowden for about 250 years during which - it is reported - they prospered and being of generous spirit shared their wealth and their home as ‘there is evidence that John Giles fed as many as two hundred hungry townspeople at his own table during a period of near famine’ (Fanthorpe, 1999).
  Shortly after his purchase [in 1704], Nicholas Trist enlarged the house by the addition of ranges to cover two sides of the original building, but probably retaining part of a N cross wing as well as the 'Giles' [Tudor] hall. Any previous structure to the S of this hall has been obliterated by Trist's additions [apart from the cellar walls mentioned above which appear to have been retained as foundations], but a three-storey range outside the E screens doorway (Fig 22), appears likely to have contained the usual service room of pantry and buttery, with chambers over (raised by a further storey in the late 18th century). The existence of a stone and slate outbuilding across the courtyard, with an unusually massive chimney breast (8 ft x 12 ft 8" in plan), in its East wall, suggests that it may have been an original detached kitchen block (Fig. 8).
  Access to the kitchen from the screens passage may have been by way of a covered passage or walkway (Fig. 9) - a feature which seems to have been repeated by the Trists in their alterations, by providing a brick arcaded passage across the court to the same building (Fig 10). It has been suggested these arcaded spaces functioned as aviaries (Northan, 1987) though there is little evidence for this.
  Initially, after the Trists ad
caption: Bowden House as viewed from the South
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 450D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2014:02:10 23:38:57", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9648", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9386", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "13", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:02:10 23:38:57", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:02:10 23:38:57", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "59/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "30", "EXIF SubSecTime": "46", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "46", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "46", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3088", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2056", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9506", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1544000/439", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "257000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}