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© Nick Shepherd
Dartmouth Castle
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Overbecks Garden, National Trust, Salcombe
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Overbecks, National Trust, House
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©NTPL/John Hammond
Overbecks, National Trust, Salcombe
View over the Salcombe estuary from the garden at Overbeck's, Sharpitor, Devon where the scientist Otto Overbeck lived from 1928 until 1937.
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Coleton Fishacre Gardens
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© National Trust
Coleton Fishacre
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© Mark Passmore
Greenway House
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Greenway © Nick Guttridge
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Coleton Fishacre Gardens
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Overbecks - main house
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©NTPL/John Hammond
Overbecks - view over Salcombe Estuary
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© Nick Shepherd
Dartmouth Castle
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Berry Pomeroy Castle
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Totnes Castle
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Bradley Manor
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Sharpham House
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©NTPL/Andrew Butler
Compton Castle
There is something magical about strolling between the manicured hedges of a stately home garden or gazing at the horizon through the battlements of an ancient castle. How many people have passed that way before? What dramas have those walls seen over the years, through the centuries?
South Devon boasts an abundance of castles and stately homes, open to the public to allow us to indulge our thirst for history and our love of a beautiful building.
The country’s care takers, the National Trust and English Heritage, keep many in their careful embrace. But each has its own unique character meaning no visits are the same.
Under the National Trust umbrella are Overbecks near Salcombe, Greenway on the Dart, Coleton Fishacre near Kingswear, Compton Castle near Marldon, and Bradley Manor in Newton Abbot. One organisation, five very different days out.
Overbecks, the Edwardian house of Otto Overbeck, houses his amazing inventions and collections including an enormous working musical box. The gardens with their spectacular panoramic views are exotic, with bananas, palms and towering purple echiums. Families who enjoy exploring can tackle trails or go on a ghost hunt! Keen gardeners will be inspired by the many rare plants.
Greenway offers an intimate glimpse into the private holiday home of the author Agatha Christie and her family. The relaxed and atmospheric house is set in the 1950s, and contains many of the family's collections, which range from fine china to books and archaeology. Discarded hats, games and dressing up costumes bring alive the feeling of a family on holiday. The woodland garden with its restored vinery, wild edges and walled sections drops down to the Dart, and the best way to reach Greenway, tucked as it is down tiny country lanes, is by boat from Dartmouth, Torquay or Brixham, or on the passenger ferry from Dittisham. Ring the bell when you want to cross!
At Coleton Fishacre visitors are transported back to the Jazz Age at the holiday home of the D'Oyly Carte family. In the 30 acre garden, it is easy to imagine the parties of the past amongst the weaving pathways and sheltered glades. The warm, sheltered spot is perfect for tender plants from the Mediterranean, South Africa and New Zealand. The elegant house, built in the Arts and Crafts style, is a place of 1920s' elegance and Art Deco style. Music playing in the rooms echoes the family's Gilbert and Sullivan connections, and visitors can play the Blüthner piano in the Saloon. Children will love the family activity packs, and there are often musical events in the grounds.
In total contrast, Compton Castle is a medieval fortress with high curtain walls, towers and a portcullis, set in rolling hills and orchards. This rare survivor mixes romance and history. For nearly 600 years it was home to the colourful Gilbert family, including Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother to Sir Walter Raleigh. Gardeners will love the rose, knot and herb gardens, and children will enjoy the squirrel trail.
Bradley Manor is a superb example of medieval domestic architecture. The original building is 13th century but most dates from around 1420, when Richard Yarde began altering and enlarging the house he had inherited from his grandmother. Visitors can find out how, when its style of architecture fell out of fashion, Bradley Manor became a farmhouse and poultry was kept in the chapel. In 1909 it was rescued by a descendant of the Yarde family. He restored the building and in 1938 it was given to the National Trust by his daughter.
English Heritage takes care of castles at Berry Pomeroy, Dartmouth and Totnes. In a steep wooded valley, Berry Pomeroy Castle is a haunting (and many say haunted!) romantic ruin. Within the 15th Century defences of the Pomeroy family castle looms the dramatic ruined shell of its successor, the great Elizabethan mansion of the Seymours. The family began its project in 1560 with the intention of creating a match for Longleat or Audley End. But it was never completed, and by 1700, abandoned and deserted, it became the focus of blood-curdling ghost stories, recounted in the audio tour. Woodland walks provide fine views of the ruins from below.
Dartmouth Castle has guarded the narrow entrance to the River Dart for more than six hundred years. A fascinating complex of defences, it was begun in 1388 by John Hawley, privateering mayor of Dartmouth. The imposing gun tower, added a century later, was probably the first fortification in Britain built to mount ship-sinking heavy cannon. Visitors who climb to the top find breathtaking views across the estuary and see how it could be blocked in wartime by a heavy chain. The castle saw action in the Civil War, and continued in service right up until World War II with successive up-dating through the years. In the Victorian Old Battery are heavy guns, guardrooms and a maze of passages.
Totnes Castle was one of the earliest Norman strongholds in England. Built on a large artificial earthen mound, it was originally surrounded by wooden fortifications which enclosed a high wooden tower. Visitors can learn about Judhael, the Breton knight and trusted servant to William the Conqueror who built the castle. In the early stages of the Norman Conquest he held 103 manors in South Devon, and Totnes Castle was his greatest stronghold. The stone shell keep was originally constructed in the 13th century and from its battlements visitors can enjoy views across town and countryside to Dartmoor in the distance.
Berry Head is home to a feast of wartime history from Napoleonic Wars to World War II. On the limestone peninsula 65m above the sea between Brixham and Kingswear are two well preserved Napoleonic War-era Forts and important Second-World War heritage. Cannons, fortifications and history are abundant in what is also an important wildlife site, with large numbers of nesting seabirds. It is looked after by the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust.
On the southern tip of Dartmoor, Lukesland near Ivybridge boasts a beautiful house with intriguing gardens created in the old tin workings from the Middle Ages. Where the original Tudor house once stood is now a formal garden. The current house was built in 1862 in the Victorian Gothic style, and since 1930 it has belonged to the Howell family who have transformed the 24 acre gardens, changing them from dark Victorian laurel groves to bright displays of flowering shrubs surrounding streams and pools.
Dartington Hall near Totnes is a medieval hall restored in the 1920s by Leonard and Dorothy Whitney Elmhirst, who bought it as the base for their famous social living experiments. Today it is home to complementary activities in the arts, education and enterprise. Many classes and lectures are held in the hall, amid magnificent landscaped and woodland gardens in an estate of a thousand acres.
Sharpham House south of Totnes was designed in 1770 by Sir Robert Taylor. The thousand-year-old farm of five hundred acres is owned by the Sharpham Trust and produces world class wine and cheese in harmony with the environment. Tours and talks include the riverside Trek and Taste and popular Wine Tasting Tours.
First published in By The Dart Magazine in June 2010