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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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Overbecks, National Trust, House
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Greenway © Nick Guttridge
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©NTPL/Andrew Butler
Compton Castle
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Bradley Manor
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Berry Pomeroy Castle
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© Nick Shepherd
Dartmouth Castle
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Totnes Castle
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dartington hall
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Sharpham House
Taking a Step into History
One of the nicest ways to spend a summer’s day in South Devon is by visiting one of our plethora 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, or a manicured garden.
There is something so thrilling about walking in the same footsteps as a house’s historical occupants, or standing where a castle’s troops have lived, worked and fought. Who were they? Where did they sleep? What did they eat? How did they spend their days? We are so lucky to have so many such buildings in this area, allowing us to step into history and feel our past. How many people have passed that way before? What dramas have those walls seen over the years, through the centuries?
The National Trust and English Heritage are our country’s care takers, and they are very busy in South Devon keeping a diverse selection of our finest properties alive.
Overbecks near Salcombe, Greenway on the Dart, Coleton Fishacre near Kingswear, Compton Castle near Marldon, and Bradley Manor in Newton Abbot come under the National Trust umbrella - one organisation, five very different days out.
Greenway offers a 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! Bat walks and fairy days are amongst this summer’s special events.
Overbecks, the Edwardian house of Otto Overbeck, houses his amazing inventions and collections including an enormous working musical box. Visitors this summer can enjoy mad inventor days, garden workshops and a WWI weekend. The exotic gardens have spectacular panoramic views, bananas, palms and towering purple echiums.
At Coleton Fishacre visitors are transported back to the Jazz Age at the holiday home of the D’Oyly Carte family. A warm, sheltered spot, the garden 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. In the months ahead special events include a wild night out and a nightjar walk.
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 in July an edible garden event will give top tips to allotment fans. 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. Details of all of these properties and their special events can be found on the National Trust website at www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Berry Pomeroy Castle is a haunting (and many say haunted!) romantic ruin in a steep wooded valley. 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 today’s audio tour.
Dartmouth Castle is a fascinating complex of defences, and has guarded the narrow entrance to the River Dart for more than six hundred years. Its imposing gun tower 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, and the current house was built in 1862 in the Victorian Gothic style. More information is at www.lukesland.co.uk
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. For details, see www.dartington.org/dartington-hall
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. For details of tours, talks and wine tasting go to www.sharphamtrust.org
First Published June 2011 By The Dart
