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Brookhil,l KIngswear
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Dartmouth's Notable Houses - Brookhill
Dartmouth's Notable Houses - Brookhill
In January 1943, at a dark point in the war, a group of men arrived in Dart Harbour determined to do all they could to fight the powers of Nazism: the Free French.
These men, given the (nearly) Royal seal of approval by General De Gaulle himself, commandeered a number of properties to use whilst they planned daring raids across the channel at German-occupied France.
One of these would forever be associated with their time in Devon – Brookhill in Kingswear.
This beautiful house, which sits high above the sea, taking in views of the mouth of the Harbour, was built by two members of one of the most powerful families, the Holdsworths, South Devon has ever known.
The Holdsworths began their inexorable rise to prominence in 1650, when Arthur moved from Modbury to Dartmouth. Either through design or luck, he planted the seeds of his family’s later dominance when he married. He took the hand of Joan Newman. The Newmans were one of the most prominent families in the town, thanks to their use of the Triangular Newfoundland trade and subsequent property and vineyards in the Mediterranean. In the following 200 years, Holdsworths would marry into a number of powerful town families, cementing their influence and wealth.
From 1715-1830 a Holdsworth was Mayor for 49 years. If you include close relatives of the family, then the figure rises to 79 years out of 115.
These days, town mayors have very little actual political power, but in the 18th and early 19th Centuries it was a massively influential position: Mayors and the council chose the candidates who were put forward to be MP (and so few people had the vote prior to the Reformation Act of 1832 that most people putting an ‘X’ in a box were related to, or had strong connections to the candidate or their sponsor). They handed out lucrative maintenance and building contracts for most of the major civil work in the borough and they even chose the vicars at the local churches.
When Brookhill was first built in 1820 (then called Brook Cliff, so called because it was on a cliff next to a brook) the Holdsworth’s power was very much on the wane. In the house lived two of the last powerful Holdsworth generation: brothers Arthur Howe and Rev. Robert.
Arthur was MP for Dartmouth for more than two decades, was made Mayor on a number of occasions and was also Governor of Dartmouth Castle – a salaried position he gained by agreeing to support the Government on tricky votes in the House of Commons. He used the stunning house to entertain important political friends including Royalty on a number of occasions.
Robert was vicar for Townstal, (a position he had been given when his brother had been Mayor).
Brook Cliff, in 48 acres of stunning grounds, was not constructed to the highest standard and part of it collapsed into the sea sometime after 1825, killing two servants. The brothers rebuilt, further up the hill, renaming it Brookhill.
Brookhill was designed in the popular ‘Regency’ style of the times, channeled through their idea of an Italian villa, with ornate balconies and a lightness of touch that is very pleasing to the eye.
In 1845 Arthur Howe built himself a house closer to Kingswear and moved out. Robert, in protest at the loss of his family’s power in Dartmouth, resigned from the Townstal parish and took up the Parish in Brixham.
But he didn’t want to move from Brookhill to his new parish (and let’s be honest, if you had a palatial mansion in 48 acres of grounds with views across the mouth of the river Dart, you wouldn’t either.) It appears that the Parish changed the parish boundaries to include Brookhill in Brixham, which certainly underlines the power the family still held, despite the political tide turning against them both locally and nationally. There is no actual documentary confirmation of this, but the tithe maps for the Brixham parish after Robert became vicar do look a little strange: there’s the recognizable shape of Brixham up to Berry Head, and then, below it, is another map entirely, of the southerly stretch of Kingswear, containing the Brookhill estate – to allow Robert to stay in his presidential abode seems the only explanation for the change.
After Robert died in 1861, just a year after Arthur, the property was first rented out, and then sold to a succession of owners, many of whom added to the house’s estate.
In 1942 Brookhill took on its most important role yet: it became home to the 23rd Flotilla of “The Forces Navales Francaises Libres” – or the Free French. Brookhill served as the headquarters and the home of the crews (although the officers were elsewhere). The group was an elite and privileged one, featuring none other than Philippe de Gaulle, son of the General who singlehandedly brought about the Free French movement following the creation of the Vichy Government, after it signed pacts with the Nazis following the German invasion in 1940. The group also included a brave young man by the name of Francois Mitterrand, who would revisit the harbour when President of France in 1984.
The flotilla conducted raids on the French coast in Motor Torpedo Launches, picked up intelligence and downed fighter pilots and dropped off supplies for the French Resistance. Many a man sailed out of the harbour late at night, never to return. The group won numerous medals for bravery during their time in the village.
De Gaulle himself visited the flotilla and Kingswear was awarded a special Silver medal by the French nation in 1967 in recognition of the hospitality shown to its people during the war.
Brookhill is now apartments, offering some of the most beautiful views in England – and those who live there must marvel at the lives lived by their predecessors.
First published By The Dart December 2014
