Pynes Past
Pynes has a fascinating and distinguished history. The original manor belonged to the Pyne family as early as the reign of Henry I and afterwards passed to the Larders, Copplestons and Staffords. The heiress of a Stafford carried it in marriage to Sir Henry Northcote, one of whose ancestors was created a baronet in 1641. The Northcotes were associated both with Gladstone and Disraeli and were later created Earls of Iddesleigh by Queen Victoria, who became a friend of the family and stayed at Pynes. Lord Iddesleigh owned Pynes until 1998 when he then sold it to Mr and Mrs Constance-Baker.
It is thought that Pynes was the inspiration for Jane Austen’s Barton Park in ‘Sense and Sensibility’. In Anne-Marie Edwards’ book ‘In the Steps of Jane Austens’ she comments “Although no written evidence to support my belief…., I think this is the part of the Exe Valley which Jane calls “Barton” in ‘Sense and Sensibility’. Jane always wrote about places she knew and she must have had a specific large estate in mind. I feel sure her ‘Barton Park’ is Pynes, still, as in the novel, a “large and handsome house”.”
THE HOUSE
Pevsner describes Pynes as a “grand mansion build by Hugh Stafford 1674 – 1734, probably around 1700. It forms an excellent example of a double-pile William and Mary house that became popular after the Restoration, but relatively rare in Devon.”
In 1789 Revd John Swete visited Pynes and wrote “this place within the last ten years has undergone very great changes and by the modern style of improvement has been shown off to wonderful advantage. Its situation is of most picturesque kind and the views which it commands of lawn sloping to the River Exe, fine windings of that river and woods and high hills on the opposite side, all harmonize. The spot however from whence it is best seen is on the southern bank.”
The house is Listed Grade II as being of Significant Architectural Importance and Historic Interest. The house has had extensions and alterations in about 1851 by Ambrose Poynter.