Downes

Downes is a Palladian Mansion dating originally from 1692. As the former home of General Sir Redvers Buller, the house contains a large number of items relating to his military campaigns. The property is now predominantly a family home with…

Escot

House: an idyllic setting for weddings, conferences and product launches. Gardens and Park: 25 acres of gardens set within 220 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown parkland. Conservation activities within the park include water meadows restoration, studies on water voles and bats, resident beavers and even seahorses. The gardens are open to the public and feature a 4,000 beech-tree maze, wild boar, otters and birds of prey workshops and displays. Estate: 1200 privately owned acres of glorious East Devon -…

Exeter Cathedral

Haldon Belvedere (Lawrence Castle)

18th century Grade II* listed triangular tower with circular, corner turrets. Built in memory of Major General Stringer Lawrence, father of the Indian Army. Restored in 1995 to illustrate the magnificence of its fine plasterwork, gothic windows, mahogany…

Hemyock Castle

Former medieval moated…

Marwood Hill

20 acre garden with 3…

Morwellham Quay

Oldway Mansion

Oldway Mansion, one of the grandest houses in the Torbay, was built in 1874 for Isaac Singer, the American millionaire sewing machine manufacturer. It was one of Isaac’s sons, Paris Singer, who took over residency in the mansion and who gave it its present form. A regular visitor to Oldway was Paris’s mistress, Isadora Duncan. Modelled on the Palace of Versailles, Oldway Mansion is where visitors can see The Gallery, a miniature reproduction of the ‘Hall of Mirrors’ and the Ballroom. The formal…

Church Of Our Lady & St Ignatius

The Church, dedicated to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and St Ignatius, was built on the site of an exisitng chapel-barn in 1872 by Charles Weld of Chideock Manor. It is one of the gems of English Catholicism and is designed in the Italian Romanesque style. It is a pilgrimage centre of the Chideock martyrs who are depicted in portraits over the nave. 19th century wall paintings by the Weld family can be seen in the original barn-chapel (now priest’s sacristry) by arrangement. The church is also a shrine to Our Lady and has been a centre of Catholicism since penal times.…

Clavell Tower

Since the summer of 1830, Clavell Tower has stood sentinel on a wild and open stretch of the Dorset coast. It was built by a seventy-year-old clergyman, The Reverend John Richards Clavell, who unexpectedly inherited the Smedmore Estate, on which it stands, in 1817. Why he built the tower is not clear; it has served as both folly and seamark since. With its twelve columns and pierced parapets all of local stone, a journalist reporting its completion called it ‘as elegant a building as any the county of Dorset can boast of ’. The young Thomas Hardy used the tower as a…