Woodbury House stands discreetly behind its garden wall in the centre of the village, a handsome late‑Georgian presence whose calm proportions and mellow brickwork have watched over Woodbury since 1781. Built for Philip Lempriere, Attorney General of Jersey between 1758 and 1769, it is one of the parish’s most architecturally refined houses — a reminder that even in rural Devon, the eighteenth century produced homes of quiet ambition and metropolitan polish.
The house is constructed in warm brick laid in Flemish bond, its gabled slate roof capped with heavy coping stones that give the building a sense of solidity and permanence. The front elevation is a model of Georgian symmetry: a three‑window range beneath a parapet, with elegant tripartite sash windows — 4:12:4 panes — flanking a central doorway. Only the first‑floor centre window breaks the pattern, with a single 12‑pane sash that adds a subtle variation to the façade. The doorway itself is a delight: a moulded architrave, a canopy resting on console brackets, and a quarter‑glazed fielded panel door lit by a traceried rectangular fanlight. Above, three full dormers punctuate the roofline, each with two lights, giving the house a slightly grander silhouette than one expects from the street.
At the right‑hand end, a rainwater head bears the initials “P.L. 1781”, a small but satisfying survival that anchors the house firmly to its original owner. Behind the main block stretch two lower rear wings, both two storeys high. The right‑hand wing retains a fine 4:6:4 tripartite sash and a 12‑pane sash beside it, while the left has later casements — evidence of the house’s long life and gradual adaptation. The internal stacks, one set axially to the left and two to the right, hint at the generous fireplaces that once warmed the principal rooms.
The interior follows the classic double‑depth Georgian plan. A central stair hall divides two principal reception rooms, each with large sash windows that fill the rooms with light. Behind them lie smaller secondary rooms — a snug, a breakfast room and the kitchen — forming a sequence of spaces that speak to the domestic rhythms of an eighteenth‑century household. A back staircase leads to a first‑floor bathroom, a later addition but one that fits naturally into the house’s layered history.
Upstairs, the first floor contains two double bedrooms and a linked room that could, with the usual permissions, form an ensuite. The second floor, tucked beneath the dormers, offers two further bedrooms — charming spaces shaped by the roofline and full of character. Though the house now requires renovation, its underlying structure and proportions remain remarkably intact, offering a rare opportunity to restore a Georgian home that has changed little in over two centuries.
Woodbury House is more than an architectural curiosity. It is part of the village’s social history, appearing in Ursula W. Brighouse’s Woodbury: A View from the Beacon (1918) as one of the notable houses of the parish. Its first owner, Lempriere, brought with him the outlook of a man accustomed to the legal and political life of Jersey, and the house he commissioned reflects that blend of refinement and practicality. Over the generations it has sheltered families, witnessed the slow evolution of the village around it, and now stands ready for a new chapter.
Seen from the garden path, with its brickwork glowing in the afternoon light and its sash windows catching the sky, Woodbury House remains one of the village’s quiet treasures — a building that has endured with grace, waiting patiently for the next custodians to bring it back to full life.
