George Devey was a British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, the second son of Frederick and Ann Devey. Devey was educated in London, after leaving school he initially studied art, with an ambition to become a professional artist. He later trained as an architect.

Career

During his professional career Devey had a London office in Great Marlborough Street

Great Marlborough Street

Great Marlborough Street runs west to east through the western part of Soho in London. At its western end it joins Regent Street. Streets intersecting, or meeting with, Great Marlborough Street are, from west to east, Kingly Street, Argyll Street, Carnaby Street, and Poland Street...

, where he specialised in domestic architecture, lodges, cottages and country mansions. He had worked extensively for the Duke of Sutherland at Cliveden

Cliveden

Cliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....

 in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

 where he designed lodges and cottages in the vernacular style of the Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

 Weald

Weald

The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...

. He often used tiles and timbers on external walls, in a way evocative or earlier periods, but always in a slightly differing way to the original. This style he adapted and personalised until it had his own distinctive stamp. Devey's style was later developed by other architects such as R. N. Shaw

Richard Norman Shaw

Richard Norman Shaw RA , was an influential Scottish architect from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings.-Life:...

 and Charles Voysey

Charles Voysey (architect)

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was an English architect and furniture and textile designer. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a simple Arts and Crafts style, but he is renowned as the architect of a number of notable country houses...

, who both studied under him. Both Shaw and Voysey were to be founder members of the Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 a generation later.

Despite having been in practice since the 1850s, business was slow until he was discovered by the Rothschild family

Rothschild family

The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...

. This family would provide Devey with numerous commissions and ensure a steady stream of work.

Devey first appears in Rothschild account books as the architect for a new school at Hulcott

Hulcott

Hulcott is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is north of Aylesbury, off the road that runs between Bierton and Rowsham.The village toponym is derived from the Old English for "hovel-like cottage"...

, and the rebuilding of the parsonage there. In 1863 he came to attention of Sir Anthony de Rothschild when he designed Buckland

Buckland, Buckinghamshire

Buckland is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. The village near the boundary with Hertfordshire, close to Aston Clinton.-History:...

 School for the vicar Edward Bonus on a site donated by the Rothschilds. He succeeded Joseph Paxton

Joseph Paxton

Sir Joseph Paxton was an English gardener and architect, best known for designing The Crystal Palace.-Early life:...

's son-in-law George H. Stokes as Baron Mayer de Rothschild

Mayer Amschel de Rothschild

Mayer Amschel de Rothschild of the English branch of the Rothschild family was the fourth and youngest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild . He was named Mayer Amschel Rothschild, for his grandfather, the patriarch of the Rothschild family.-Life:Known to his family as "Muffy", he was born in New Court,...

's architect for the estate village at Mentmore

Mentmore

Mentmore is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about three miles east of Wingrave, three miles south east of Wing.The village toponym is derived from the Old English for "Menta's moor"...

; he designed the stables and riding school there between 1869 and 1870. After the Baron's death in 1877, Devey continued in the employ of his daughter Hannah de Rothschild building cottages at Wingrave

Wingrave

Wingrave is a village in Buckinghamshire, England located about four miles north east of Aylesbury and three miles south west of Wing.The civil parish is called Wingrave with Rowsham within Aylesbury Vale district and incorporates the hamlet of Rowsham.Wingrave is twinned with La Bouëxière in...

 and Mentmore. His finest works on the Mentmore Estate are: Rosebery

Rosebery

-People:*Earl of Rosebery - several people including:**Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and**Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery his wife-Places:In Australia:...

 Arms at Cheddington

Cheddington

Cheddington is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire. The parish has an area of . The village is about 5 miles north-east of Aylesbury and three miles north of Tring in Hertfordshire...

, The School House at Cheddington, and The Thatched Lodge to Mentmore Towers

Mentmore Towers

Mentmore Towers is a 19th century English country house in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. The house was designed by Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, in the revival Elizabethan and Jacobean style of the late 16th century called Jacobethan, for the banker and...

. Standing at the end of a long avenue approach to Mentmore Towers, the Thatched Lodge has the dubious honour of having been featured on countless chocolate boxes and jig-saw puzzles.

Devey was replaced by John Aspell, the Mentmore Clerk of Works who had worked under Devey. Aspell continued building at Mentmore, but in a prettified version of Devey's style.

Devey was largely responsible for Ascott House

Ascott House

Ascott House, sometimes referred to as simply Ascott, is situated in the hamlet of Ascott near Wing in Buckinghamshire, England. It is set in a estate....

 the neo-Tudor extravaganza developed from a small half timbered farmhouse. He began work there in 1874 for Leopold de Rothschild

Leopold de Rothschild

Leopold de Rothschild CVO was a British banker, thoroughbred race horse breeder, and a member of the prominent Rothschild family.-Education and career:...

. This house, conceived as a small hunting box, expanded, the intention was to make the house seem as though it had grown and developed over centuries. Devey designed numerous half timbered extensions. He was still working on the house at his death in 1886, when his partner James Williams took over the project. Ascott House is probably Devey's greatest monument, although further half timbered extensions were still being added to this house as late as the 1930s. Devey was also responsible for the large cottages, on the Green, near the entrance of Ascott House, (now the Ascott Estate Office); these are very similar to those he designed at St. Albans's Court, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 in the late 1880s.

A further Rothschild house by Devey was Aston Clinton

Aston Clinton House

Aston Clinton House was a large mansion to the south-east of the village of Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, England....

, there he worked with George Stokes. The Italianate house with its huge porte-cochere is now demolished, a casualty of the huge country house demolitions of the 1950s

Destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain

The destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain was a phenomenon brought about by a change in social conditions during which a large number of country houses of varying architectural merit were demolished...

. However, the Lodge and stables by Devey still stand, as does his West Lodge at Aston Clinton.

Although the records were destroyed in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Devey is also believed to have worked on the 'improvements' at Tring Park

Tring Park

Tring Park is a large country house near Tring, Hertfordshire.The Manor of Tring is first mentioned in the Domesday Book where it is referred to as "Treunge" and was owned by Eustace III, Count of Boulogne, a countryman of William the Conqueror...

 between 1874 and 1878. However, as this involved turning a house designed by Sir Christopher Wren into a dix-huitieme French chateau

Château

A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...

 complete with mansard roof. Devey later built a house very similar to the transformed Tring

Tring

Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a...

 in Lennox

Lennox

Lennox may refer to:* Lennox , often referred to as "The Lennox", an historic mormaerdom, earldom and then dukedom, in Stirling, Scotland* Lennox International, a global manufacturer of furnaces and central air conditioners....

 Gardens, London, for a Mrs. Hunloke.

George Devey was a man capable of working on more than one project at a time. In 1876, Miss Alice de Rothschild

Alice Charlotte von Rothschild

Alice Charlotte von Rothschild was a socialite and member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of Austria. Born in Frankfurt, she was the eighth and youngest child of Anselm von Rothschild and Charlotte Rothschild...

 commissioned him to build her a house at Eythrope

Eythrope

Eythrope is a hamlet and country house in the parish of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located to the south east of the main village of Waddesdon, and is the present home of a branch of the Rothschild family....

 in the Vale of Aylesbury. After the plans were drawn up, his patroness decided water at night was bad for her health Since the house was in a bend of the River Thame, rather than abandon the site, she decided Devey must design a house without bedrooms, and she would decamp every evening to her brother's home, Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...

. The result was the Eythrope Water Pavilion

Pavilion (structure)

In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...

, one of the smaller of the Rothschild houses of Buckinghamshire, its design is an unostentatious complement to the great faux-chateau four miles away of Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...

. Today (with a bedroom wing added in the 1920s) it is the only Rothschild mansion still in private hands in the Vale of Aylesbury. The Rothschilds also commissioned him to undertake work at their newly acquired property The King's Head

King's Head Inn, Aylesbury

The King's Head Inn is notable as being one of the oldest public houses with a coaching yard in the south of England. It is located in the Market Square, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire....

 in Aylesbury itself. His work mainly consisted of creating what was considered a typical Tudor experience in the 14th Century coaching inn, but actually followed Victorian conventions of the time. Much of his work here was not corrected until after the property was gifted to the National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

, when a more authentic Tudor appearance was restored, though elements of his design can still be seen. He designed Longwood House in Hampshire for George Carnegie, 9th Earl of Northesk

George Carnegie, 9th Earl of Northesk

Lieutenant-Colonel George John Carnegie, 9th Earl of Northesk was born the son of William Carnegie, 8th Earl of Northesk and Georgiana Maria Elliot on 1 December 1843. He died on 9 September 1891 at age 47....

George Devey was also interested in garden design and played an important role in not only the houses he designed, but also in garden buildings and folleys. At Ascott this included the thatched half timbered summer house, or skating hut overlooking the circular lily pool. He has also been credited with the design of the neo-Grecian temple

Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...

 terminating the avenue of mirror herbacious borders, but this is in a very different style to that he normally employed.

Circa 1875, Richard Henry Ainsworth employed Devey to extend and modernise Smithills Hall

Smithills Hall

Smithills Hall is a Grade I listed manor house, and a Scheduled Monument in the township of Halliwell, now in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. it stands on the slopes of the moors above Bolton at a height of 500 feet, two miles north west of the town centre. It occupies a defensive site near...

, his home near Bolton

Bolton

Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

.

Of Devey's personal life little is known. He never married; on the 1881 Census he is recorded living with an elderly aunt, cousin and elder brother at 12 Pelham Crescent, Hastings

Hastings

Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....

 — a far world from the wondrous places he created for his patrons. He died there in November 1886. While never a household name, in the world of architecture he does have considerable standing. There is no doubt that his style was the forerunner of the arts and crafts

Arts and crafts

Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...

school of design. It could be said he died before his time, but the world of rich patrons allowed the development of his visions, and architecture benefited as a result.