Radford, Plymstock
Radford in the parish of Plymstock in Devon is a historic manor and the oldest recorded seat of the prominent Harris family.
The earliest member of this family recorded by the Devon historian Pole (died 1635) is John I Harris, resident there during the reign of King Henry VI (1422–1461).
He was elected four times as a Member of Parliament for Liskeard in Cornwall, between 1628 and 1644 and supported the Royalist side in the English Civil War.
[18] In 1777 Christopher Harris built a new residence for himself near Radford, in the village of Hooe, also the parish of Plymstock, named Bellevue, according to Pevsner "a very elegant small [sic] mansion".
[22] The eldest son was Thomas Hillersdon Bulteel II (1798-1878) of Bellevue, banker, who married Caroline Louisa Harris, heiress of Radford.
Radford was later inherited by a branch of the Bulteel family of Flete in the parish of Holbeton, Devon, which changed its name to Harris-Bulteel.
The occupant of Radford in the 1881 and 1891 censuses was Thomas Bulteel (born 1838), a banker and a partner in the Naval Bank, formerly of 2 Wingfield Villas, Stoke Damerell, where he had resided in 1861 and 1871 with his family and six servants.
His eldest son was Percy Francis Bulteel (1865-1907), who married Julia Pine-Coffin, of that prominent family long seated at Portledge in the parish of Alwington, North Devon.
Percy retired from partnership in "Harris, Bulteel & Co" (the Naval Bank) in 1898, when the bank had an undisclosed financial deficiency of £9,295[32] leaving just two partners remaining: his father Thomas Bulteel and a new partner to replace him, Mackworth Praed Parker[33] (1865-1926) of Moor Cross, Ivybridge, a grandson of Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, of Harburn.
From the date of Percy Bulteel's retirement the bank began to be operated recklessly which 16 years later led to its collapse and the destruction of the family's wealth (see below).
In 1914 he was the owner of Radford and a partner in the "Harris, Bulteel & Co" (alias Naval Bank)[34] (together with Mackworth Praed Parker)[35] when it became insolvent,[36] having attempted to defraud its customers.
[38] On 3 November 1915 the Llais Llafur Labour Voice newspaper of Wales reported as follows:[39] Frederick Thomas Bulteel was imprisoned for six months.
[41] "Frederick Thomas Bulteel" was killed in action on 7 November 1918 during World War I, serving as a Lance Corporal in the 47th Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Section, Royal Engineers,[42] and was buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.
[46] He let the mansion house to tenants who included Col. Parker and Mrs Jarrett-Bell (widow of the Director of HM Royal Dockyard, Devonport).
His last tenants were a married couple formerly employed by him to keep the estate lodge, who later conducted guided tours around the house "enlivened with tales of treasure and tunnels and who probably are most responsible for the legends".
[47] Having exhausted all possibilities of saving the structure, in 1937 a team of seven men was employed to demolish the house, which was accomplished in six days, leaving only the gardens, lodges, farms and cottages intact.
[47] Much of the parkland was sold for housing development, although as the press then reported: "development…will be controlled, and the estate of fine treelands, reaching down to Radford Lake, with the old abbeys, will be preserved intact".
In 1956 Gordon Mitchell conveyed the lodges, lake and much of the northern side of the deerpark to Plympton Council for recreational use by the public, which remains largely intact today.
