Category: South-west

location

Buckland Abbey, Devon

National Trust.
Buckland Abbey was bought by Sir Francis Drake after his triumphant return from his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580. He was able to purchase a house that had recently been converted from the abbey church by his rival Sir Richard Greville. The house contains many mementoes of Drake, while its fabric contains many relics of the thirteenth-century abbey church in the form of its crossing tower, blocked arches and traces of monastic windows, and inside, the tracery of the chancel arch. The house has Georgian alterations, and the only complete interior surviving from early times is the sixteenth-century great hall. This is warmly panelled in oak, with an elaborate ceiling, box frieze, and relics of Grenville’s retirement to Buckland. In the upper part of the house, rooms of no architectural interest contain displays.

The interior and the Drake relics are interesting. Outside is a great monastic barn, built about 1300, and one of the largest in Britain. To my mind this is a more satisfying piece of architecture than the mongrel church conversion. Also to be seen are a little herb garden, and a re-created Elizabethan garden, and the wider estate.
As the crow flies, Buckland is quite close to Cotehele (NT), but if you are planning to do both in one day, be cautioned that they are not so close via the local roads!

Grimspound, Devon

Stone hut circle
Stone hut circle
English Heritage & Dartmoor National Park
Grimspound is a late Bronze Age settlement on Dartmoor, Devon. It consists of a set of 24 hut circles surrounded by a low stone wall. It was probably first settled around 1300BC. Each of the roundhouses had a massive perimeter wall built of granite.
Today, the ring wall that enclosed the settlement can be clearly seen, and many of the hut circles are clearly identifiable. The surrounding country is desolate, with few signs of human habitation.
This is an inspiring place to visit, as one rarely has the opportunity to stand in the ruins of anything so old but still identifiable as housing. It can also be rather difficult to find, as there is little signage and there are few obvious landmarks on the nearby roads.

If you have the kind of sat-nav that lets you enter the OS ref or lat/long directly, that no doubt would be a great help. Otherwise, drive west along the B3212 from Moretonhampstead for about 8 miles, passing the Minature Pony Centre and ascending a hill. The road sweeps right, then left, and about 2 miles past the Minature Pony Centre there is a tarmac turning to the left, showing as a 40 deg. fork on the satellite view. (& possibly signed for Dunstone or Widdecombe). At about 1.2 miles look out for a dip and kink in the road with stopping place and an inconspicuous sign immediately preceding. Grimspound is about 400 yards above here to the left. (The surrounding wall shows faintly on the satellite view as a circle.)
If you see a track on the right joining from below, you are passing the place where you should stop…

Stone hut circle with author
Stone hut circle
Stone hut circle
Stone hut circle

Hartland Abbey & Garden, Devon

House with red ivy
Hartland Abbey
The house was originally an adaptation of abbey buildings, but there was a major reconstruction in the 1770’s. Evidence of the original Abbey building can still be seen in the basement. There are notable interiors in the Queen Anne and Regency styles. Since the Abbey has never been sold, it contains collections of pictures, furniture and porcelain going back hundreds of years. There are exhibitions of documents, and of Victorian and Edwardian photographs.
There are extensive gardens and grounds leading down to a rocky cove on the coast.
The house and contents were interesting and I remember exploring parts of the gardens.

Chambercombe Manor, Devon

White house
Chambercombe
This white-walled house has a history going back nearly a thousand years, according to its present custodians. At one time it was a grand manor owned by an earl of Suffolk, but later became a farmhouse. The house contains eight period rooms available to view, ranging from Elizabethan to Victorian.
The house and contents are of some interest, and there are several acres of gardens which can be explored. The website makes much of the paranormal in an effort to stir up more interest in the place.
White house and garden
garden side

Tapeley Park, Devon

Tapely Park stands in a superb position overlooking the estuary. It’s an attractive imposing but elegant ‘Queen Anne’ style Georgian villa of brick with stone pilasters, parapet and a pediment, sitting above the impressive terraced gardens.
The owner, Hector Christie, had a reputation as an eccentric young aristo, but in recent years he seems to have put all that behind him, and since featuring in Channel 4’s “Country House Rescue” has made efforts to run the house and estate as a proper business. As evidence, there are now two websites, one for weddings, the other for garden visitors.

My nephew lived at Tapeley for a while, and helped build the “Straw Bale” house which stands in the grounds. As the name suggests, this is a small environmentally friendly building constructed of straw bales.
Besides the formal Italianate gardens, there are kitchen gardens, nature gardens, and when I visited, various animals including pigs.
The interiors apparently are of note, featuring a grand staircase hall and also several good fireplaces and plaster ceilings. At the back and upstairs, and in the big kitchen, the rooms definitely had what one could kindly call a period, lived-in look.
Website (for garden visits): http://www.tapeleygardens.com/

Arlington Court, Devon

National Trust.
The house has a plain exterior of grey stone, enlivened only by a pillared single-story porch. Inside, it’s totally different, with a Victorian interior decorated with boldly pattered and colourful wallpaper, coloured classical columns, and mahogany furniture, and cluttered with display cabinets overflowing with all sorts of collectible objects. With many acquisitions the Trust has the headache of what to fill the house with once they have acquired it, but here a lot had to be cleared out so that visitors could get around the rooms.
Downstairs is the stairway hall, and a long gallery extending along the south front. Other rooms contain collections of objects including model ships, tea caddies and paperweights. Upstairs are more rooms and displays.

Outside there are shady lawns, a small formal garden, a church, and a bit further off the colonaded stable block with its noted collection of carriages. As with cars today, in the horse era carriages came in an endless variety of designs, sizes and prices, and the Arlington collection, one of the finest in the country, contains many types. It’s a most interesting collection.
Still further from the house are a lake and woodlands. Arlington is the centre of a thriving agricultural estate.

Knightshayes, Devon

Knightshayes front National Trust.
The house was built in 1869-1874. Designed in a Gothic style of gables and mullioned windows by noted Victorian medievalist William Burges, it was intended to conceal interiors of exceptional richness. The client however shied away from Burges’ riotous designs, and few were carried out. Instead, Heathcoat-Amory hired John Diblee Crace, but even his designs were thought too bold and colourful, and were largely covered up in later years. The National Trust has sought to restore the nineteenth-century work wherever possible. The vast gardens, based on a nineteenth-century design but greatly enlarged by the 3rd baronet and his wife, are much admired.
The hall, with medieval-style Gothic arches, gallery, timber vault, painted furniture and curious carvings, is the only room to be completed more or less as Burges intended. Recently a bedroom has been reworked using Burges’ original design drawings and given a patterned ceiling, bird wallpaper, and furnished with exotic original Victorian furniture made to his designs. Elsewhere are boldly painted, compartmental ceilings and elaborate chimneypieces. The overall impression is of bold designs and bright colours.
Outside, the gardens are the sort where you can happily wander about for ages trying to see everything. The stable block looks notably Burges, as do the corner towers on the walled kitchen gardens. Beyond the kitchen garden, and accessed from it, you will find the childrens’ play area and the Douglas Fir Walk.
The main gardens are accessed via the house and contain formal sections, and a lot of woodland gardens with winding paths.
Well worth a visit especially if you are into Victorian Gothic. There is enough here for an all-day visit.
Revisited May 2015.

Douglas Fir Walk - trees
Douglas Fir Walk
Hall interior
Hall
Ornate display cabinet
Display cabinet
Stable block with tower
Stable block
Knightshayes South front
South front

Clovelly village, Devon

Clovelly is a historic village on the north coast of Devon, and is entirely owned by a private estate, whose intention is to maintain its 19th century appearance. Quaint cottages line a steep cobbled main street leading 400ft down a cleft in the cliff face to a small harbour. Traditionally, donkeys and sledges bring goods up and down the steep street.

Naturally this is just the sort of place that tourists like to visit, and access for visitors is controlled. We had to pay an admission fee in the building at the top of the hill, and also pay to park. In any case, the village street is totally unsuitable for anything other than the occasional Land-Rover. Once admitted, there are a number of things to do, including patronising local businesses such as the New Inn Hotel. Signs lead to a couple of cottages fitted out as museums, otherwise please note that the houses are lived in and you should NOT expect to get inside! There is a view point with seats half way doen the street – you’ll need it!
Above the town, there are footpaths for walkers along the cliff tops, and also the Clovelly Court gardens.

Bradley, Newton Abbott, Devon

View of house exterior and lawn
Bradley Manor
National Trust.
A white manor house sits in green meadows surrounded by woodland. The L-shaped house, with many gables and tall chimneys, retains most of its medieval features. The dining room (former kitchen) has a fireplace opening formed of four tons of Dartmoor granite. The hall is the only spacious room. On the walls of an upstairs room is preserved a late medieval pattern of stencilled black fleur-de-lys. Also upstairs in a panelled room is some fine seventeenth-century plasterwork in high relief, looking well preserved. There is a collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and Arts & Crafts furniture. Much of the furniture is 18th century and listed on room cards. The chapel, which has an array of carved wooden bosses on the ceiling, should not be missed.

The interior was interesting. Outside, one can walk round with the guidebook and look at when each part was altered. Extensive woodlands surround the house. I finished my visit by exploring these, and found a back exit which eventually leads into a housing estate.

The house is half a mile from Newton Abbott town centre, on the Totnes road. The opening dates and times are somewhat restricted. The signs on the main road are inconspicuous. Note that there are no toilet facilities or tea room on site.
Good news: you can park at the site from 1.30 for the opening at 2:00 pm. It’s possible to get there by train, but I found that, unless you figure out the bus routes, it’s rather a tedious walk from the station and you need to know what foot route to take. Leave the house grounds on foot the same way you came in, if you don’t want to get lost in a housing estate.

Paignton-Kingswear steam railway, Devon

Unlike most heritage steam railways, this line is promoted as part of an integrated tourist transport system, and not as a destination in itself. The line runs from Paignton to Kingswear, running briefly along the sea coast before cutting acros the peninsula and running some way alongside the Dart estuary before terminating at Kingswear. It connects with First Great Western trains at Paignton, with a ferry at Kingswear, and is also offered as part of a train-boat-bus circular tour starting at Paignton, and other permutations of train and boat.
On their website they claim that “This is one of the finest heritage steam railway journeys anywhere in Europe.” It’s not bad, but having travelled on both, and not being seduced by the romance of steam travel, I can point out that the First Great Western line served by diesel railcars from Exeter to Paignton is longer, has a more spectacular coastal route, and is (with a cheap day return) cheaper.
I’d recommend using the steam railway as part of a touristy day out. There are old places to look at in Dartmouth, including a small castle, and a river trip up to Totnes is one of the best river trips around.