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Top Attractions in Mid Devon

Hillersdon House

Hillersdon House is a Victorian manor house overlooking Cullompton in Devon, England. It was designed by the notable theatre architect Samuel Beazley. Building work took place from 1848–1852, and it is a Grade II* listed building. It is built of red brick with Portland stone dressing and a hipped slate roof. It is a two-storey building arranged around a central hall. The estate was purchased in the late 1840s by W.C. Grant and the current house was built to replace an earlier manor house which was in a dilapidated state. The history of Hillersdon goes back to Domesday, but the present house was built, in 1848, for Arctic explorer William Grant by the architect, writer and bon viveur Samuel Beazley. Although best known as a theatre architect, Beazley built a few notable country houses, including Studley Castle in Warwickshire, and East Dene at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, childhood home of the poet Swinburne. Built in the late-Georgian style of mellow brick with Portland stone dressings under a slate roof, Hillersdon House is a theatrical tour de force internally, with the rooms on both floors arranged around a grand, two-storey, galleried reception hall. In the best 18th-century tradition, an enfilade of three exquisitely proportioned main reception rooms has inter-connecting double doors that allow the entire suite to be used as a single space for entertaining. Billy Grant’s hospitality was legendary, and one of his regular visitors was the often-outrageous Edwardian society beauty and writer Elinor Glyn, who recalled ‘floating on the lake at Hillersdon’. The 12 main bedrooms, four bathrooms, nursery and former servants’ wing are all accessed from the dramatic, galleried first-floor landing, with the main domestic offices laid out on the north-east side of the house. Untouched by modern makeover, idyllic Hillersdon House sits in 175 acres of parkland, lakes, pasture and woodland, looking out across a beautiful private valley towards the Blackdown Hills. In the 1890s Hillersdon became known for its wild parties. One incident occurred after the Exeter Ball, when four young gentlemen plunged into one of the lakes, and were subsequently washed off in baths of Champagne. Elinor Glyn, a noted society beauty was part of the house party on this occasion.

Cranmore Castle

Cranmore Castle is an Iron Age earthwork situated on a hillside above the Devon town of Tiverton in south-west England. Its National Grid reference is SS958118. It is an English Heritage scheduled monument, and has been given a National Monument number of 34256. The earthwork is widely described in guidebooks and histories as an Iron Age hill fort though more recent archaeological evaluations and histories, such as Mike Sampsons recently published work, point out that it seems inefficient as a fortification, since it is overlooked from the south by the higher slope of Exeter Hill/Newtes Hill. The earthwork is also unusual in that the area it encloses slopes from 120 metres to 170 metres above sea level. This arrangement does however offer clear lines of sight to Cadbury Castle, Castle Close below Stoodleigh up the Exe Valley, Huntsham castle, Hembury fort and other significant hills and earthworks, suggesting that all were contemporary. It also manages to overlook the confluence of the rivers Lowman and Exe and the forded crossings on those rivers, which a higher position would not allow. The hillside that Cranmore Castle stands above is called Skrink Hills or Shrink Hills in various early histories of the area. and it is from there that Thomas Fairfaxs artillery laid siege to Tiverton Castle. The promontory of land that links Cranmore to the edge of Newtes Hill is traversed by the old Exeter Road, which travels past the earthwork on its way from Tiverton to Exeter. The hill and road have latterly been known as Exeter Hill, and this road almost certainly follows the path of a prehistoric trackway. Current theories about the nature of the earthwork suggest that it might have been a winter enclosure for livestock or a market site, though the earthworks are very substantial for such applications and could even point to a tribal oppidum. Certainly the area would be large enough. The Ordnance Survey Map of Southern Britain in the Iron Age shows Cranmore as the largest enclosure in Devon at over 15 acres . During the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549 Cranmore Castle became the site of a fierce battle fought between the two sides over whether a child should be baptised according to the new religion or the old. The battle took place near a small chapel that stood at one corner of the site, near the road. The chapel was demolished in the 17th century, and in 1687 bones and musket shot thought to be from the battle were discovered. The etymology of the name Cranmore Castle is unclear. Cranmore is not a local name and does not fit with any local placenames. No record of Cranmore seems to exist in any early records. It is possible that the name is derived from the battle described above. The archbishop at the time of the Prayer Book Rebellion was Thomas Cranmer so it is possible it derives from a variation of Cranmer Castle in reference to the battle fought there.

Blackborough House

Blackborough House is a grade II listed country house in the parish of Blackborough, Devon, about 7 miles north-west of Honiton. It was built in 1838 by James T. Knowles for George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont, of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset. It was never completed, as was also the case for his other nearby palatial Devon residence Silverton Park, demolished in 1901. Originally designed as an Italianate palace, there were no funds to complete it, so it was constructed as two smaller, linked buildings for the Earl and his brother. The house was variously used as a school, a religious institution for wayfarers, and as a training centre for conscientious objectors for relief work during World War II and briefly as a Youth Hostel . In 2011 the house is semi-derelict and has long been surrounded by a car scrap yard owned by Ralph Sanders, an amateur racing driver, who operates a car spare-parts business and is said to have old racing cars parked inside the house.

Little Fulford

Little Fulford was an historic estate in the parishes of Shobrooke and Crediton, Devon. It should not be confused with Great Fulford, in Dunsford, about 9 miles to the south-west, with which before 1700 it briefly shared common ownership. The Elizabethan mansion house originally called Fulford House was first built by Sir William Peryam , a judge and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. It acquired the diminutive epithet "Little" in about 1700 to distinguish it from Fulford House, Dunsford and was at some time after 1797 renamed Shobrooke House, to remove all remaining confusion between the two places. Peryam's mansion was demolished in 1815 and a new house erected on a different site away from the River Creedy. This new building was subsequently remodelled in 1850 in an Italianate style. It was destroyed by fire in 1945 and demolished, with only the stable block remaining today. The landscaped park survives, open on the south side to the public by permissive access, and crossed in parts by public rights of way, with ancient large trees and two sets of ornate entrance gates with a long decorative stone multiple-arched bridge over a large ornamental lake. The large pleasure garden survives, usually closed to the public, with walled kitchen garden and stone walls and balustrades of terraces. The park and gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The estate was the home successively of the families of Peryam, Tuckfield, Hippisley and lastly the Shelley baronets, in whose possession it remains today.

Black Down and Sampford Commons

Black Down and Sampford Commons is a 155.2-hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Devon and Somerset, notified in 1952. The Little Breach reserve, which forms part of the SSSI is an area of heathy grassland on Greensand, with some blackthorn and birch, noted for its butterflies and moths. Blackdown and Sampford Commons have the finest and most extensive surviving examples of the heathland, carr woodland and marshy grassland habitats that have developed on the acidic soils overlying the Greensand and Keuper Marls of the Blackdown Hills. The heathland supports a typical invertebrate fauna, including a wide variety of butterfly species, and with spiders notably abundant. The site is regionally important for birds which favour heathland habitats.
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