A Robert Adam house rescued from a future as a nunnery by a £5 bet
In July 2015, Thomas, the 14th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, and his second wife Clarissa, handed over the running of Ugbrooke Park in Devon to Alexander, his eldest son. Before leaving, they held a party for the team of over 50 people who had, over the past 20 years, worked with them to bring the house back to life. Each person was given a book containing their own photograph, among pictures of Ugbrooke's inhabitants past and present, and a sincere message of thanks from both of them for the 'love and care of so many talented people whose combined hard work and dedication has restored both house and garden'.
Tom came to Ugbrooke as a boy in the Fifties. His parents, who had been living in Australia, decided to take over the house when his great uncle who - being without an heir and having been through two wars - was on the verge of granting a 99-year lease to a convent. His father's offer of £5 more than the convent's offering was accepted and the family set sail for Britain. They found the house in dire straits. In essence it was a derelict grain store - following a series of wet summers, the ground floor was full of drying grain.
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These were the years of austerity, with Tom's parents working to secure the house and 3,000-acre estate. Clarissa had known the house as a child - she grew up locally - but by the time she returned 30 years later, after marrying Tom, Ugbrooke was in need of care and reorganisation. She was undeniably the perfect person to take on the Herculean task, having worked as an interior designer for the late Christopher Rowley, whose firm had restored some notable Robert Adam houses. Faced with Ugbrooke, she didn't blanch. 'To me, it wasn't daunting,' she says. 'Quite the opposite - it was a privilege.'
Listed in the Domesday Book, Ugbrooke has been home to the Cliffords since 1604. It was the 4th Lord Clifford who, in 1760, engaged Capability Brown and Robert Adam to remodel both park and house. Adam's design - an early example of his 'toy fort' style - was a square building with a central courtyard and library wing encompassing the chapel. The house still retains the original Adam rooms, but in the nineteenth century the 8th Lord, somewhat misguidedly, removed some of the Georgian windows, replacing them with heavy Victorian architraves and faux-brick rendering. Happily, the library wing remained untouched. The park, thanks to Tom's endeavours, now reflects Brown's original designs, overlooking lakes, sweeping belts of trees and views of Dartmoor.
When Clarissa arrived 20 years ago, furniture and paintings were dotted around in inappropriate places, the attic was full of unclaimed pieces, there was damp and little had been done to make the house a home. 'Tom was understandably apprehensive about letting an interior designer loose in the place,' says Clarissa. 'But I assured him we could revolutionise the house without spending a bean by repositioning the pictures and furniture and making order of it. The joy ofUgbrooke is that, with beautifully proportioned Adam rooms, the bones are already there.'
A few 'beans' have obviously been spent since then, but money was always a restraint and work was done in stages, with Clarissa insisting on a plan that ensured the rooms would flow harmoniously. They began by sorting through corridors and rooms, discovering treasures; they reunited a set of satinwood chairs and a set of giltwood chairs, now restored and in the library. They found the missing half of a pair of Gainsborough chairs in the attic, whitewashed and with its legs cut down. It now joins its partner in the Duchess of Norfolk's bedroom, so named after her exquisite eighteenth-century bed hangings were found in a makeshift cupboard.
Exploring the vast attics, they found a mixture of pieces - some excellent, such as original Adam drawings, and others 'interesting junk'. The 'junk' was sold at auction in what Clarissa calls an 'antique blitz', with the proceeds going towards the restoration ofthe finer pieces. Clarissa originally decided that the many family portraits should be hung chronologically, with the early ones at the entrance and so on. For her first anniversary at Ugbrooke, however, she asked Tom whether they might re-hang some of the pictures in the drawing room. Now a stunning Lely portrait of the 1st Lord Clifford, which had previously hung over a doorway into the drawing room, is in pride of place with all the other Restoration portraits.
Her favourite portrait, an eighteenth-century painting of Lady Carew, the daughter of the 1st Lord Clifford, is now over the chimneypiece in the morning room. It had been hanging over a wood-burning stove in the hall and was covered in soot. A clean not only revealed her splendour but also that Lady Carew was, like Clarissa, devoted to her whippets. Today both their portraits with their dogs hang near each other, along with other eighteenth-century portraits. A magnificent view of Ugbrooke by Hendrik Frans de Cort, formerly squeezed into a corner of the dining room, now hangs together with Francis Towne's eighteenth-century drawings of the park, depicting the landscape created by Capability Brown.
A large table in the hall was banished, leaving clear the limestone floor, which perfectly reflects the domed ceiling. A simple staircase - due to original financial restraints - sits in the space, its walls hung with the more lugubrious Victorian ancestors, along with a painting showing the investiture of Cardinal Weld, father of the wife of the 7th Lord Clifford, who went into the church as a widower. In the room he used when he visited Ugbrooke - the Cardinal's Room - are his portrait and travelling trunk.
In the dining room, they restored the eighteenth-century gilding as much as possible and, in doing so, found a rather harsh aqua colour on the walls. Clarissa reinterpreted it using a discreet Pierre Frey damask. The library, the last room that Adam finished and possibly the best room in the house, was beset by damp and painted a rather unfortunate blue. Convinced this was wrong, Clarissa, together with Patrick Baty of Papers and Paints, devised a shade of green. With the paint of centuries scraped back, it transpired that this was exactly the colour Adam had originally chosen. The house now has 12 main bedrooms, some charming turret rooms and - thanks to all-round handymen Barry Underhill and Tony Creasey, described by Clarissa as 'the supermen of Ugbrooke' - each bedroom now has an en suite bathroom.
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Ugbrooke is a centre for entertainment of family and friends and is regularly visited by decorative arts groups from America. Indeed, one of the nicest compliments Clarissa received was when she was told by a group of rather charmingly patrician Americans, who had stayed both at Blenheim and Chatsworth, that she might not have the grandest house or the greatest furniture, but she certainly has the best bathrooms.
'My stepson and his fiancée Caitlin have now taken over as it is important for each generation to bring their own enthusiasms and ideas to a place like Ugbrooke,' explains Clarissa. 'It has been wonderful living here, but it is time to step aside and enjoy life in the old stables'.
1/14The limestone floor of the staircase hall continues into the entrance hall, where duelling pistols and court swords are decoratively hung on the walls.
2/14The pared-back Adam staircase is hung with family portraits, including one that depicts the investiture of Cardinal Weld.
4/14Clarissa's favourite portrait, an eighteenth-century painting by John Michael Wright of Lady Carew, the daughter of the 1st Lord Clifford, is now over the chimneypiece in the morning room. It had been hanging over a wood-burning stove in the hall and was covered in soot. A clean not only revealed her splendour but also that Lady Carew was, like Clarissa, devoted to her whippets. Today both their portraits with their dogs hang near each other, along with other eighteenth-century portraits. A magnificent view of Ugbrooke by Hendrik Frans de Cort, formerly squeezed into a corner of the dining room, now hangs together with Francis Towne's eighteenth-century drawings of the park, depicting the landscape created by Capability Brown.
5/14The ornate pier glass over the chimneypiece dates from 1750, while the walls are covered in a silk from de Gournay.
6/14The trimming on the curtains that match the green damask sofas is from Turnell & Gigon.
Simon Brown7/14In the drawing room, the frames of the eighteenth-century sofas still have their original green paintwork. Clarissa chose to replicate this shade on the fabric covering the sofas, commissioning Gainsborough Silk Weaving Co to recreate it on an archive damask design.
Simon Brown8/14In the dining room, much of the eighteenth-century gilding on the cornicing and frieze was conserved and restored. They restored the eighteenth-century gilding as much as possible and, in doing so, found a rather harsh aqua colour on the walls. Clarissa reinterpreted it using a discreet Pierre Frey damask. The velvet on the walls makes a striking backdrop for Ugbrooke's seventeenth-century Dutch paintings and the vases on the mantelpiece are first-edition Royal Worcester porcelain.
Simon Brown9/14The Adam design of the library remains untouched. The giltwood chairs to the left of the doorway have been restored and re-covered in 'Daniella Stripe' by Patrick Gallagher Tessuti from Turnell & Gigon.
Simon Brown10/14Three colours - yellow and blue and white - are consistently used throughout this room's design. A small sofa with a bullion fringe sits at the end of the bed in the main bedroom, while the four poster bed similarly has a fringed pelmet.
Simon Brown11/14This guest bedroom has a four poster bed with beautifully intricate details on its pelmet. The neutral colour of the walls is reflected by the bed dressings.
Simon Brown12/14This bedroom was used by the Cardinal Weld (father of the wife of the 7th Lord Clifford) when he visited Ugbrooke, thus remains his portrait and travelling trunk. The walls of the Cardinal's Room are covered in 'Meredith' in red, by Nina Campbell for Osborne & Little, which is also used on the canopy and headboard.
Simon Brown13/14The chapel, which is situated in the library wing, was consecrated in 1671 and now serves as the local Catholic parish church, where Mass is celebrated every Sunday.
Simon Brown14/14A view of the western front of the house. The grounds were designed in the eighteenth century by Capability Brown, with lawns overlooking shimmering lakes, sweeping belts of trees and beyond them views across to Dartmoor National Park.
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