John Garratt

The present Bishop’s Court, in Sowton Parish, was, in the middle ages, the centre of the manor of Bishop’s Clyst. Bishop’s Court Palace is a fine example of ‘gothic revival’ and is one of the best examples of its type in the country. The Palace is situated about 4 miles east of Exeter. From 1265, the Bishop’s Bronscombe and the Bishops used the Episcopal Palace of Clyst until 1546, when it became the property of John Russell, later to become Earl of Bedford.

John Garratt, whose family money came from tea and coffee and who was famous for laying the foundation stone to London Bridge, purchased the house in 1833 when it had 1,250 acres. John Garratt, was particularly interested in the revival of gothic architecture, especially of the ecclesiastical kind. This is where he came into contact with William White who was commissioned to undertake the work needed at that time. White’s work of the 1860’s is of exceptional quality and is remarkably intact. The design retains much of the original work whilst at the same time transforming it.

Bishop’s Court Palace is one of William White’s most important domestic buildings. His treatment of the early work was to transform it completely. The rugged, characteristic and studiously asymmetrical exterior is a remarkably well preserved example of a serious mid C19 architect’s conception of domestic gothic. The fittings were, and still are, carefully designed with exceptional attention to detail. Everything, including a complete set of internal shutters, remains intact in all 51 rooms.

The Palace houses many pieces of William White furniture, originally made for the Palace, which have been traced by the present owners and returned to their rightful home. Bishop’s Court Palace has been sympathetically modernised with only 5 families ever having occupied it. It now sits in 36 acres and is approached down a lime tree lined drive and overlooks parkland. It is Grade 1 listed and is protected by English Heritage. There is a fine reception hall with all the original stencilling. The reception rooms have individual character and are wonderful for entertaining. There is a chapel at the end of the hall, with many artefacts which are protected by English Heritage.

To the east of the house there is a courtyard of stone barns and stables which are recognised as the oldest ones in Great Britain. They are recognised as the oldest firmly dated barns in Devon & Cornwall and are unique in England source http://www.angelfire.com/on/bishopstock/history.html

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Helen Myers, 57, bought the 750-year-old ancestral home in the mid-1990s on the understanding that, like the previous owners, she looked after the large amount of heirlooms belonging to the Garratt family, who bought the Palace in 1883. But when Myers, who held one of Europe’s most popular blues music festivals in the Palace’s 1,250 acre grounds, sold the Palace in 2003 she took 12 family portraits, furniture and books and sold them to an art dealer despite knowing they were not hers.
Six of the oil paintings were later sold at auction for £20,000 and investigations are ongoing into all but one of their whereabouts, along with the rest of the artwork. Yesterday Myers admitted theft and fraud when she appeared before a judge at Exeter Crown Court. The Garratt family, who made their fortune from tea and coffee and laid the foundation stone for London Bridge when John Garratt was Lord Mayor of London, bought the £2 million Bishop’s Court Palace in Clyst St Mary, near Exeter, Devon, in 1833. Related Articles Earl of Cardigan fights to save family heirlooms 15 Jul 2011 'Warhol painting bought for £3' 02 Apr 2012 Battle to save Wellington legacy 27 Mar 2012 They sold it in the mid 1950s with the written proviso that the owners looked after the heirlooms and property, which consisted of a large number of paintings, furniture, architectural pieces and other valuables. John Garratt, 63, the last remaining member of the family, said: “There were a lot of possessions, including large portraits, and I had no room for them in my house. The obvious thing to do rather than sell them was lend them to whoever owned the property on the understanding, supported by a written agreement, that I could claim them back at any time. “The house was sold twice before Helen Myers arrived and we never had a problem.” When Myers, who was said in court to be bankrupt, bought the property and signed the agreement with the Garratts that she would look after their possessions, she ran the Palace as a music venue, using the house as the backdrop to the hugely popular Bishopstock Festival, a three-day blues festival attracting 6,000 spectators and stars such as Nina Simone and Johnny Winter. She sold up in 2003 and moved to Edinburgh, but a year later the disappearance of the paintings and other possessions came to light. For several years Mr Garratt tried unsuccessfully to track Myers down, and in the end called in Devon and Cornwall Police. The court heard that Myers sold six of the paintings to an art dealer who was unable to sell them for a year, but eventually got £17,900 for them, while the rest were placed in stock with a £500 price on them. Despite Mr Garratt’s ascertainment that the portraits are worth much more, Sean Brunton, prosecuting, said the value of the works was put at £20,000. He added: “The value in a painting is what someone wants to pay for it." He told the court when Myers bought the property “a large number of items were left in the house, family heirlooms belonging to the Garratt family whose ancestral home it was from the early 19th century until it was sold in the 1970s and 1990s when it was sold again to this defendant”. He said that when Myers sold the house in 2003 she explained to the purchasers that a large number of items were not being sold with the house and she took them to Scotland. The court heard only one of the dozen paintings has been traced and Mr Brunton said the others have been sold to people who bought them in good faith, saying: "Effectively they have gone." He said other items including furniture, books and pictures had also gone. Myers was originally charged with theft, stealing various items of furniture, books and paintings in the region of £100,000 and £250,000 belonging to Mr Grant between November and December 2003. She was also charged with fraud that in July 2007 in Bolney, Sussex she dishonestly made a false representation to an art dealer and sold him paintings and an oak table which did not belong to her. Yesterday Myers admitted both charges and was bailed prior to sentence. The judge was told that civil proceedings will follow as the Garratt family seek compensation for the lost heirlooms. Mr Brunton said it was 'fair to say' there were a 'large number of grey areas' concerning the arrangement for the heirlooms left from the 1950s through to 2004 at the house. He said: "Each person who bought the house had an element of misunderstanding what the deal involved." But he said Myers was aware that she was “never entitled to sell them”. Mr Garratt, the chief executive of an oil and gas company, said: “The problem was that when Myers ran off we couldn’t find her. I did at one stage receive a letter from her, at an address that was impossible to identify, saying the paintings were safe. But we could never track her down. “I am extremely keen to get the paintings back and have used a lot of time and energy trying to chase them down for years.”

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• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 622