Sydenham House, Devon

[2] According to the Domesday Book of 1086, immediately before the Norman Conquest of 1066 the manor of SIDREHA~[5] was held by the Saxon magnate Brictric,[6] a great landholder in Devon and more widely in England.

[10] In the 13th century Book of Fees Maurice de Sideham is listed as holding lands in Parva Sideham ("Little Sydenham") (which adjective was used to distinguish it from Sydenham Damerel, also in Lifton Hundred) from Reginald de Vautortes, feudal baron of Totnes,[10] and is recorded by Pole (d.1635) as holding North Sidenham, this manor, in 1242.

Part of the house dates from the fourteenth century, and is said to have originally formed a quadrangle or "H", but in the reign of Elizabeth it was built into the shape of an "E", and is a very perfect example of Tudor domestic architecture.

[14] A story is repeated in many histories of Devon, including Lysons (1822),[15] that during the Civil War this Sydenham was captured in 1644 by Colonel Holborne.

However, within the last forty years a sword and other weapons, also seventeenth century horseshoes, have been found may be taken as a proof that fighting of some sort did take place at the Wise seat.

Access to the front-entrance, commonly called the Green Court, is through an iron gateway, and above the central door are sculpted the Wise arms.

Over the large granite open fireplace in the great hall is engraved the date "1656", when the house underwent repair after damage, caused, it is said, in the Civil War.