Ugbrooke House, a stately home in Chudleigh, is located in a valley between Exeter and Newton Abbot in Devonshire, England.
It dates back over 900 years, having featured in the Domesday Book. Before the Reformation the land belonged to the Church and the house was occupied by Precentors to the Bishop of Exeter. It has been the seat of the Clifford family for over four hundred years, and the owners have held the title Baron Clifford of Chudleigh since 1672. The house, now a Grade I listed building, was remodelled by Robert Adam, while the grounds were redesigned by Capability Brown in 1761. The grounds featured what were possibly the earliest plantings of the European White Elm Ulmus laevis in the UK. The gardens are now Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The house and gardens are open to the public for a limited number of days each summer.
Ugbrooke House in 1908.
European White Elm at Ugbrooke in 1908.
In 1882, The Hon. William Clifford, son of Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, bought a large amount of agricultural land in Marlborough, New Zealand, and built a mansion named after the family home. Ugbrooke, Blenheim, is New Zealand's largest privately owned, single-storey house. The mansion, covering 10,000 square feet (930 m2), changed ownership in 1897 when, after some financial hardship, Clifford sold the property to his cousin, Henry Vavasour. Ugbrooke subsequently became the home of the Vavasour family of Marlborough for three generations until 1992.