New Shute House is a late Palladian country house built between 1785 and 1789 by Sir John de la Pole, 6th Baronet (1757–1799) and is situated within the grounds of Old Shute House, in the parish of Shute, near Axminster, East Devon. It was given Grade II* listing on 8 May 1967.Listed Building text "Shute House" It was vacated by the Pole family in 1926 and was let between 1933 and 1974 to a girls' school. In 1974 it was sold by the family to a developer who converted it, together with stables and outbuildings, into 8 freehold apartments.Turner, p. 6 It remains in private ownership and the main block has now been converted back into a single residence from the two vertically divided apartments created in 1974.
History
The builder's 5 times great-grandfather William Pole Esquire (1515–1587), MP, had purchased Old Shute House in 1560 and had acquired a 1,200-year lease of the surrounding estate in 1562. The old house had been built in 1380 and had been substantially enlarged in the Tudor period and by William Pole's son Sir William Pole (1561–1635), the Antiquary. The 6th baronet, having determined to purchase the freehold of the Shute estate from the Petre family, which was completed in 1787,Pulman, George P.R., The Book of the Axe, Bath, 1969, p. 765 clearly considered the old house to be old-fashioned, and perhaps encouraged by his wife Anne Templer,Turner, p. 19 whose father had just built Stover House in 1777 at Teigngrace near Newton Abbot, he decided to demolish half of it and build a new Palladian house about 1/2 a mile to the south. The demolition was carried out in 1785. The contemporary historiam Polwhele wrote in about 1806:Polwhele, Richard, The History of Devonshire, 1793–1806, published 1806, p. 315 "Sir John William de la Pole lately destroyed a great part of a very old seate within the manor of Shute, called Shute House. He has now finished another upon a larger scale. New Shute House, begun in 1787, is distant from the old mansion two furlongs south east. It is pleasantly situated under Shute Hill. The aspect is nearly south by east. It is a beautiful three quarter view in front with a very handsonme lawn. The English Channel is distant about four miles". The decision to build was certainly a hasty one as a field of growing corn was cut down to lay the foundations. The family moved to temporary lodging at Colyton House in nearby Colyton where they remained for two years.Turner, p. 21 That part at least of the ancient mansion has survived is unusual, as often in the case of 18th. century re-builds the new house was built on the exact site of the old, which was either completely demolished or incorporated beyond recognition into the new structure.cf. e.g.Castle Hill, Filleigh (1730), Poltimore House, etc. Clearly the old site was considered unsuitable, perhaps being too close to the village and parish church of Shute, and whilst the mediaeval house may have been sited with its defensibility as a prime criterion, the new site was more spectacular and had views to the sea.
20th century In 1926 the owner of the Shute Estate, Sir Frederick de la Pole, 11th Baronet, died, and his distant cousin Sir John Carew Pole, 12th Baronet succeeded as the Pole Baronet of Shute House. As a result Pole legally charged his surname from Pole Carew to Carew Pole in 1926; for the remainder of his life he was styled as Sir John Carew Pole, 12th Bt.
Under the terms of Sir Frederick de la Pole's will, Shute House was to be placed in a trust for John, with a remainder to his male heirs. In addition to the early-Georgian New Shute House, the estate then also comprised Old Shute House, Haddon House, and 4,339 acres spread across the Parishes of Shute, Colyton and Southleigh. Sir Frederick also bequeathed his residuary personal estate to the Shute Estate Trust; the total value had been proved at a gross value of £153,915 for probate, with a net value of £61,745. Sir John lived at Shute House until c. 1928; he had vacated the property by early 1929 owing to the costs of death duties on the 11th Baronet's estate as well as the ongoing depression in income from agriculture.
An auction of the entire Shute Estate was held on 16 October 1929; the auctioneer reportedly suggested an opening bid of £100,000 for the entire estate, but no bids were forthcoming. Various minor holdings, farms and fishing rights were sold for a total of £13,140. Many of the historic portraits hung at Shute were subsequently transferred to Sir John's main residence Antony House, Cornwall in 1930, and Shute House was subsequently let and used as a school until the mid-1950s. Following the closure of the school Sir John sold Shute House in 1956; advertisements for the sale published in the Daily Telegraph in September 1956 stated that the estate then comprised 1,111 acres, with an annual rental income of £2,425. The Medieval Old Shute House was not included in the sale of the Shute Estate, and Sir John subsequently gifted this property to the National Trust.
Architect
The identity of the architect as Thomas Parlby, the uncle of Lady Anne Pole and business partner of her father the self made magnate James Templer, was first discovered by Maureen Turner in her 1999 MA dissertation. The identity had eluded both Pevsner and Bridie, the principal historian of the two buildings. Pevsner had written "One would like to know the architect of this handsome late Palladian composition of 1787". Whilst at Antony House in Cornwall researching the Pole family Turner inspected closely the roll of paper held in the right hand of Sir John Pole the builder in his portrait, and discovered thereon drawn a partial plan of the new house with the following words written beneath: "Plan of Shute House built by Sir John William De la Pole Bt. July 1787, T. Parlby Esqr. Archt." Thomas Parlby (1727–1802) was of humble origins, the son of John Parlby of Chatham, KentFollowing quoted from Proceedings of the ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers), Engineering History and Heritage, Volume 163, Issue 3, 1 August 2010, pages 189–198 "James Templer (1722–1782) and Thomas Parlby (1727–1802) were men of humble origin who became prominent contractors in the second half of the eighteenth century, working mainly, though not exclusively, in the royal dockyards for the Navy Board. Over 40 projects have been attributed to them or to one of their constituent organisations. England's quest for maritime supremacy throughout the eighteenth century led to an expansion in the royal dockyards, requiring large-scale civil engineering and building projects. These were undertaken variously by dockyard workers or by external contractors or, sometimes, both working together. Templer, a house carpenter and Parlby, a stonemason, emerged from the ranks of artisans to create a large and effective workforce operating across the south of England. Between them, they acquired properties in London, Middlesex, Kent, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon. Although their businesses brought them wealth and social standing, their interests were not pursued by later generations of either family and their firms shrank into obscurity after 1802" or possibly from Gravesend.Turner states Parlby to have been from Gravesend, quoting "Thorne, History of Parliament, p.358" He was for all of his adult life one of a trio of business partners with John Line and James Templer (1722–1782), in the business of constructing dockyards, generally under government contract.
James Templer James Templer 1722–1782) had married Mary Parlby (d.1784), his partner's sister, and his daughter was thus the future Lady Anne Pole. Templer was a self-made magnate. He was born in Exeter of a humble family, the son of Thomas Templer a brazier. He was orphaned young, whereupon his elder brother apprenticed him to John Bickley, a carpenter or architect of Exeter. He broke his indenture and set off for India where he made a fortune, either from government building contracts or possibly from dealing in silver bullion,Extract from www.templerfamily.co.uk: "The log of one of the East India Company ships which was carrying silver bullion suggests that on arrival in Madras the bullion was handed over to a small group consisting of, amongst others, Line and Templer. Another snippet derived from a remote family source is that James Templer and his partners were actually trading in Mexican silver dollars, but why and how they came by the dollars is not explained. However, there are two other possibly completely irrelevant facts worth noting. The first is that adulterated silver became a problem in India, and secondly that James's father and elder brother were both 'braziers', i.e. brass craftesmen, so James would have had some knowledge of foundries and metallurgy. In a printed book of the Madras Record Office Extracts to be found in the Society of Genealogists Library, there is evidence that he was engaged in transactions, legalised by the Madras Mint, in connection with exchanging old and new Mexican silver. In view of James' young age, it seems likely that this was the main basis of his later fortune rather than the building of docks" before returning to England aged 23. He settled at Rotherhithe, Kent, where he obtained a government contract to re-build the dockyard with his partners John Line and Thomas Parlby. He married Mary Parlby (d.1784), the sister of his business partner and daughter of John Parlby of Chatham, Kent. He obtained with his partners in about 1760 the contract to rebuild Plymouth docks, for which he used granite from Haytor, and moved to Devon. In 1763 he obtained a grant of arms from the College of Arms, and in 1765 purchased the manor of Teignrace and Stover Lodge, which in 1780 he re-built in grander form on a nearby site. He died in 1782 and is commemorated by a monument in Teignrace Church, rebuilt in 1786 by his sons. Both Line and Parlby settled in Devon close to Templer, and both likewise each acquired a great country house and estate. John Line purchased Lindridge House, Bishopsteignton, which on his death he bequeathed to Templer's younger son and his own godson Henry Line Templer (d.1818), from whose heirs it was purchased by his elder brother Rev. John Templer (d.1832), and where Lady Anne Pole ended her days nursing her brother, as her mural monument in Shute Church states.
Thomas Parlby Thomas Parlby (1727–1802) was described in his obituary in the Gentleman's Magaziner as "Master Mason of HM Docks".Gents Magazine obits. 1802/692