Ugbrooke: A Historic House and Clifford Family Seat in Devon
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- High
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- British
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page10 sections
History
Ugbrooke is a historic house and estate in the parish of Chudleigh, Devon, United Kingdom. Its recorded history reaches at least 1086, when it appeared in the Domesday Book, England’s survey of land and property.
Medieval estate and Clifford ownership
Before the Reformation, the land belonged to the Church, and the house was occupied by precentors, church officials who organized worship, serving the Bishop of Exeter.
The estate later passed to the Courtenays of Powderham Castle. In 1604, it came into the possession of Thomas Clifford, a grandson of Piers Courtnay’s widow. Ugbrooke has remained the Clifford family seat for more than four centuries. Its owners have held the hereditary title Baron Clifford of Chudleigh since 1672.
Estate changes and Catholic worship
Capability Brown redesigned the grounds in 1761. Ugbrooke House is Grade I listed, while the gardens are Grade II* listed on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
St. Cyprian’s Chapel was originally Anglican. In 1673, it was rededicated for Catholic worship after Thomas Clifford, the first Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, converted to Catholicism. Catholics from the surrounding area attended services there.
James Dominic Darbyshire, a Dominican priest from a Catholic order associated with preaching and teaching, came to Ugbrooke and remained until his death in 1757. On 14 June 1796, Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle, from an old Catholic recusant family, married Lucy Bridget Clifford at Ugbrooke. She was a granddaughter of the third Baron Clifford of Chudleigh.
In 1813, about 100 people attended services at the chapel, where the French émigré priest Felix Vauquelin lived. Priests resident at Ugbrooke also tutored the Clifford children and provided pastoral care to nearby communities.
Church and family life in later centuries
A synod, an assembly convened to discuss church affairs, met at the chapel in 1854 to establish the organization of the new Plymouth diocese, a church district under a bishop. Parishes were later established at Bovey Tracey and Chudleigh. Ugbrooke also has close ties to Buckfast Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Devon. The generosity of the ninth Baron Clifford of Chudleigh helped support the abbey’s foundation.
Lewis Henry Hugh Clifford, the ninth Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1851–1916), served as an aide-de-camp, an officer assisting a senior royal or military figure, to Edward VII. He entertained Edward VII and George V at Ugbrooke Park. On 12 October 1912, Agatha Christie met her future first husband, Archie Christie, at a ball at Ugbrooke House. During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned for use as a school. Mass continues at St. Cyprian’s as part of Holy Spirit Parish in Bovey Tracey.
Remains
Ugbrooke House stands within an estate whose grounds include a park and gardens, St. Cyprian’s Chapel, an orangery, and a coach house.
House and grounds
Ugbrooke House
The principal residence is Ugbrooke House. Scottish architect and interior designer Robert Adam remodelled the house.
Park and gardens
The estate includes a park and gardens. The grounds may have contained some of the earliest plantings of European white elm in the United Kingdom.
Orangery and coach house
An orangery is located within Ugbrooke Park, and a coach house stands on the estate grounds.
St. Cyprian’s Chapel
The chapel includes a Lady Chapel, a baptistry, and an organ loft. Later Barons Clifford added these features.
