Stowe, having stood for a little over half a century, was pulled down in 1739. In Polwhele's "History of Cornwall" it is stated that a man of Stratton lived long enough to see its site a cornfield before the building existed, and after the building was destroyed a cornfield again. The materials were sold piecemeal by auction. The carved cedar wood in the chapel, executed by Michael Chuke,[164] was bought by Lord Cobham and applied to the same purpose at his mansion of Stowe in Buckinghamshire. The staircase is at Prideaux Place, Padstow, while the Corporation of South Molton, who were then building a new Town Hall, Council Chamber, etc., purchased the following:--
Lady's fine Bed-chamber and planching 35 0 0 9 shash windows at 10/6 and 2 at 11/6 5 17 6 no. 27 y^e winscott w^{ th}out y^e chimney and door casings 11 13 0 6 squares of Planching 1 16 0 A Tunn and 1/2 of Sheet & Pipe at 13/ 19 10 0 7 p^{ rs.} of winscott window shutters at 8/ 2 16 0 172 rustic quoins at 1 8 12 0 4 Corinthian Capitalls & Pillasters 2 2 0 Y^e caseing and ornaments of 3 windows 1 11 6 3 Architraves w^{ th} Pedem^{ ts.} for doors & 27 y^{ ds.} of winscott in the Lobby 2 2 0 A carved Cornish and Triumph of K. Charles II. 7 7 0 2 right panel doors 1 1 0
These articles, with many others, were taken to Bude, shipped to Barnstaple, and thence carted to South Molton. The outlay for the whole only amounted to £178! The "carved Cornish and Triumph of Charles II." is still to be seen over the fireplace in the old dining-room in the Town Hall at South Molton.
No doubt the isolated position of Stowe, and the long distance from London was one cause of its being destroyed. Lord Carteret was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire in 1716, and the previous year he had been doing all he could in support of the new Hanoverian establishment. While the Jacobite rebellion was at its height in the north, Carteret was writing from Stowe to Robethon, the French Secretary of George I.--
"I am now two hundred long miles from you, situated on a cliff overlooking the sea, and every tide have fresh prospects in viewing ships coming home. _In this corner of the earth_ have I received your letter, and without that I should have heard nothing since I came. Sept. 25, 1715."--Brit. Mus. Sloane MSS. 4107, fol. 171, etc.