Cotehele House

Photography NTPL/Andreas Von Einseidel Enchanted and remote, perched high above the wooden banks of the Tamar, Cotehele was owned by the Edgcumbe family for nearly six centuries. One of the least-altered medieval houses in the country, it contains original furniture, armour and a remarkable set of tapestries.

There is much more to Cotehele than just the house, however. The large estate is criss-crossed with miles of riverside and woodlands walks linking together the many, varied elements. The steeply terraced garden with pools, dovecote and the Prospect Tower, a working watermill and adjoining estate workshops, industrial ruins in the Danescombe Valley, and the Quay with a tea room, art and craft gallery and museum, and the restored Tamar sailing barge Shamrock moored alongside.

Mount Edgcumbe House, Cornwall

 Mount Edgcumbe House, a Tudor mansion, is the former home of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. The house and its surrounding 865 acre Country Park is on the Rame Peninsula, looking across Plymouth sound to the city of Plymouth on the other side. In 1971 Mount Edgcumbe House and grounds was sold to Cornwall County & Plymouth City Councils. It has been open to the general public on a regular basis since 1988.

Sir Piers Edgcumbe, acquired the estate through marriage in the 16th century. Sir Piers home was located ten miles away at Cotehele. Sir Piers built a deer park at Mount Edgcumbe in 1539. His son Richard Edgcumbe commissioned Roger Palmer, a local mason, to build a new house in 1547, overlooking Plymouth Sound and the River Tamar. This was the first time in England a mansion had been built to take advantage of the wonderful situation and views rather than as a defensive house built around a courtyard.

It was apparently so admired that the Admiral of the Spanish Armada wanted Mount Edgcumbe for his own residence after he defeated the British fleet.

The Banqueting Hall adjoining the House was however damaged in the Civil War. In the Civil War Maker Church tower was fortified by the Royalist garrison of Mount Edgcumbe and was captured by the Plymouth Parliamentary forces in May 1644.

The Edgcumbe family continued with Cotehele as their main residence until moving to Mount Edgcumbe during the 17th century. Once in residence, the Edgcumbe's remodeled the interior decor of house and carried out some external rebuilding.

The current octagonal corner towers were added by Richard, 1st Lord Edgcumbe, in 1749. Richard's son, an admiral in the fleet, became 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1789, and he commenced the work landscaping the gardens. The Grade I listed gardens have remained largely unchanged ever since.

German bombing during the 1941, Blitz on Plymouth, destroyed much of the house. Many American soldiers left from Barn Pool, a beach below the House to take part in the Normandy Invasion of France in World War II.

It was an abandoned ruin until 1958, the 6th Earl commissioned Adrian Gilbert Scott to rebuild the house using modern methods of construction. The house was sold to the councils in 1971, with a lease for the family to live there, that lease appears to have been given up in 1987.

The red sandstone walls with granite dressings, were revealed when the rendering was removed. The exterior of the house is mainly 19th century but the entrance on the north front has its original mid-16th century doorway surrounded by late-17th century Doric pilasters and a pediment.

The interior is decorated in neo-Georgian style. The wartime fire destroyed most Edgcumbe family's paintings and furniture, which is slowly having to be replaced. The impress Hall was rebuilt by Scott with a magnificent staircase at the east end and a gallery on the first-floor. The Drawing Room, overlooking the garden, has a portrait of the 2nd Lord Edgcumbe by Reynolds, Van de Velde seascapes, and two 16th century Flemish tapestries with hunting scenes brought from Cotehele. On the first floor, as well as bedrooms, is a tiny chapel commemorating the 6th Earl's only son who was killed in at Dunkirk.

Only the granite gatehouse survives from their house, which was laid out on the four sides of a central square. John Robartes was in fact the leader of the Parliamentarian faction in Cornwall, but was able to ingratiate himself with Charles II on the restoration, and became Earl of Radnor.

Little change was made to the house over the next two centuries, apart from the demolition of the east range in the 1780s by the first Earl's great-great-grandson, George Hunt. This gave the present U shaped plan for the house. However it gradually lapsed into a state of disrepair. and was unoccupied and almost devoid of furniture for long periods of time.

In the mid-19th century, the 1st Baron Robartes of Lanhydrock and Truro decided to make this his home and commissioned George Gilbert Scott to modernise and remodel Lanhydrock. This Victorian architect attempted to reinstate Lanhydrock as a comfortable country house.

Only 20 years after the restoration work was completed, the south and west wings were destroyed by a great fire in 1881, but luckily the north wing with the Long Gallery survived.

The house was then re-built as the present Victorian house, by Baron Robartes son Thomas. This gave the neo-Jacobean façade, with a traditional Victorian arrangement of rooms internally. A local architect, Richard Coad, a former pupil of Scott did this work. .It was given to the National Trust in 1953, along with 400 acres of grounds.

The most impressive room in the house is the gallery, which is the north wing (it survived the fire of 1881), and the carved plasterwork ceiling is of outstanding. Among the large collection of books is one of the four volumes of the Lanhydrock Atlas, a survey of Charles Bodville Robartes' (the 2nd Earl of Radnor) estates in Cornwall at the end of the 17th century, showing 40,000 acres on 258 manuscript maps

St Michaels Mount is a granite rock near Penzance, Cornwall with a church and castle at its summit. St Michaels Mount is an island for most of the day. However there are between two and five hours in each day when you can walk across the causeway to the island. Ferry boats run regular services to the island when the tide cuts off the causeway. The island has a small harbour on its northern shore, with picturesque houses, shops and restaurants. The nearby town is Marazion and it is situated in Mounts Bay.

At the top of the island is an embattled castle, which originally was a Benedictine Priory, built in the 12 century and a daughter house to Mont St Michel in France. The Mount is dedicated to St Michael, the Archangel, who according to Cornish legend, appeared to a group of fishermen on the western side of the Mount

St Michaels Mount is believed to have been a trading post from the Iron Age, and certainly was visited by the Greeks and Romans. Edward the Confessor founded a chapel on the Mount in 1044 in a grant to the Benedictine Abbey of Mont Saint Michael in Brittany. Edward had spent his youth in Normandy and intrigued by the similarity between St. Michaels Mount and Mont Saint Michael.

The first priory on St Michaels Mount was established in 1135 by Bernard of Le Bec.

Then while King Richard I was on a Crusade in the Holy Land, the Mount was seized and held as a fortress by a group of his brother's Prince John, supporters led by Henry Pomeroy. Apparently the bones of a giant man were discovered when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century, after an earthquake destroyed the original priory.

The year before Agincourt the French monks were dispossessed in "the dissolution of the alien houses by Henry V" and by 1424 all links between the two priories had been broken.

In Henry's VI's reign St Michael's Mount was made over to the Bridgettine nuns at Isleworth.

John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, seized it with 400 men and held it during a siege of twenty-three weeks against 6,000 of Edward IV's troops in 1473. The following year, after a long siege, he was forced to surrender to the King.

Perkin Warbeck occupied the Mount in 1497. His wife, Katharine Gordon, was left at St. Michael's Mount, when Warbeck embarked on his ill fated attempt to seize the English crown. When he was defeated, the king offered Katherine Gordon "the consideration due to her rank, her beauty, and her misfortunes. He sent her to keep company with his queen, and gave her an allowance to maintain herself with, which she continued to enjoy long after the king's death."

By the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s the number of monks or nuns at St Michael's had dwindled to a handful.

Humphry Arundell, governor of St Michael's Mount, led the rebellion of 1549. The Act of Uniformity had been passed, and it abolished the diversity of religious practices that had existed up to then and dictated one form of worship "The Book of Common Prayer, with services only allow to be in English (not Cornish). Humphry Arundell was captured and, with other rebel leaders, hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.

After being bought from Elizabeth I by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, whose son it was sold to Sir Francis Basset. During the Civil War, Sir Arthur Basset, brother of Sir Francis, held the Mount against the parliamentary forces in 1646. King Charles II is believed to have stayed at the Mount before taking a boat for the Scilly Isles and to safety. Parliamentary troops arrived and the Mount was surrendered in April 1646.

Major Ceeley was appointed Governor in 1659, by Richard Cromwell during his brief period as Lord Protector. At the Restoration in 1660, John St Aubyn became the proprietor, and the Mount has continued in that family ever since. John St Aubyn, was father of the 1st Baronet (created in 1671). After the war the castle lost its military role and then became the family home of the Colonel John St. Aubyn.

However the new owners used it only as a summer house for the next two hundred years, though they use an early version of Gothic revival on the Lady Chapel some seven years before Horace Walpole embarked on Strawberry Hill Gothic.

At the end of the 19th century, the 1st Baron Saint Levan commissioned a cousin of his, Piers St Aubyn, a London architect, to make the Mount into a family home. Piers St Aubyn left the original church building on the top of the rock and added a large mansion to the southeast side. He seems to have made a point of ensuring that the addition did not alter the existing dramatic skyline of the mount.

The Chevy Chase Room, which was formerly the monks refectory, and is decorated with a 17th century frieze round the walls.

The 18th cent Blue Drawing rooms have Strawberry Hill Gothic plasterwork and Chippendale furniture. The rooms in the castle feature paintings and portraits by artists like Gainsborough, Hudson, Kneller, and John Opie. And there are collections of paintings and armour.

The Map Room has original maps, family silver and 18th cent cloths.

The St Aubyn family owned St Michael's Mount until 1954 when the property was given to the National Trust by the 3rd Lord St Levan, and the castle and its grounds were opened to the public. The third baron, handed St. Michael’s Mount, together with a large endowment, to the National Trust in 1954. The family continue to lease accommodation within the castle from the National Trust. The 4th Lord St Levan left the island in 2003, to enable his nephew James St. Aubyn, plus wife Mary and four children, to take over the family lease.

National Trust in Cornwall

Tintagel is a not very pretty tourist village, but the old Tintagel Castle is a few hundred yards outside the village, and has been protected from the ravages of commerce. Tintagel Castle is well worth a visit.

The legend of King Arthur being connected to Tintagel Castle really blossomed after Alfred Lord Tennyson visited it in the 1842 and wrote Morte d'Arthur and The Idylls of the King. Dickens, Thackery and Swinburne all added literary weight to Arthurian Tintagel. In 1823, a Robert Hawker stayed in Tintagel on his honeymoon and later wrote "Quest for the Sangraal".

Old Post Office, Tintagel, is one of the most characterful buildings in Cornwall, and a house of great antiquity, this small 14th century manor house is full of charm and interest. Tumble roofed and weathered by centuries, it has been restored in the form of the village post office, that it was for 50 years.

The Old Post Office, Tintagel, was acquired by the National Trust in 1903, and is believed to be only the 5th acquisition that the National Trust made.

Originally built as a small manor house in the 14th century, the building is a rare example of such an early domestic dwelling in Cornwall. The building is typical of many late medieval manor houses, it has a central single-storey hall open to the roof, with smaller service rooms and a kitchen (now the parlour) to its side, and with bedrooms above.

A great day out visit Tintagel as part of you tour.

Welcome to Boscastle

Boscastle, village lies within the parish of Forrabury and Minster on the North Cornish Coast 14 miles south from Bude and 5 miles from Tintagel, a conservation area amongst some of the most beautiful countryside within the British Isles, and is one of the few remaining unspoilt harbour villages in Cornwall. Designated an Area of Outstanding beauty, the National Trust own and care for the beautiful medieval harbour and surrounding coastline.

An excellent base for touring the area, all of Cornwall or North Devon, including moorlands, sheltered wooden valleys and coastal footpaths offering magnificent views, are all on our doorstep.
The small harbour now hosts a number of little fishing boats but was once a hive of activity with trade taking place between Wales, Bristol and the south of England. Here too a lovely valley heads inland, a path follows a fast flowing burbling stream which leads to several hidden churches allowing you to discover the little known connection between North Cornwall and Thomas Hardy.

Flash flooding a 'freak event'          Boscastle Floods 16th August 2004
WATCH AND LISTEN The BBC's Fergus Walsh "The village of Boscastle was hit by a freak, highly localised weather event" Village 'unlikely' to flood again First service at restored church Flood villagers' £2m plea Decrease in overnight bookings Flash floods such as those seen in north Cornwall are caused by a unique set of circumstances, weather experts say. While sustained rainfall is obviously key, it is the drainage and topography of the surrounding area which ultimately causes large scale flooding. Unfortunately, Boscastle, where 6cm (2ins) of rain fell in two hours on Monday causing a three-metre high wall of water to rush through the village, met the criteria. Phil Avery, of the BBC Weather Centre, said while the rainfall in this case was heavy it was certainly not exceptional. Drainage and the topography of area are key to flash floods Slaughter Bridge near Camelford in Cornwall had the same rainfall in a two-hour period as Boscastle on Monday - as have other areas of the country in recent months. Mr Avery said: "If this had happened say in East Anglia where the land if flat you not have seen the flash floods. "What happened here is that the torrential rain was in an area where the conditions were such that the water was channeled through the village. "The topography of the area, the high ground, valleys and the fact there are only two rivers for the water to run into meant that we saw such devastation. "But the recent wet weather also played a role. The ground in the area was water logged, which meant the rain just sat on the surface." Met Office meteorologist Wayne Elliott agreed. "The crucial things in this case were the high ground and the area only having two rivers. Coupled with the already high water table, the conditions were just right," he said. It really was a freak event. There is not much people can do to protect themselves Meteorologist Wayne Elliott The high ground acted as a trigger for the weather - forcing the air to rise and cool, creating rain, Mr Elliott added. And coastal winds converging on the area gave it extra "oomph". But despite a spate of flooding across the country in recent years, Mr Elliott said flooding was not becoming more common. "You cannot put it down to global warming. It really was a freak event. There is not much people can do to protect themselves. "We were forecasting heavy rain in our 4am bulletins but the key is when and where this is going to happen. If it had been 20 miles up the road, the situation would have been different."

Antony House is a superb example of the early 18th century house in Cornwall. Home of the great Cornish family of Carew, Antony contains a wealth of paintings, tapestries, furniture and embroideries. Overlooking the Lynher River, the grounds landscaped by Repton include a formal garden with a national collection of day lilies, fine summer borders, water sculptures and a knot garden.

The Carew family had owned the estate since 1492, and Antony House was built between 1711-1721 for Sir William Carew. The house is faced in silvery-grey Pentewan stone, flanked by colonnaded wings of mellow brick. The house managed to escape the "modernisations" that ruined so many large houses in the Victorian period. Apart from the addition of a 19th century porch the house has been unaltered since. It its superbly sited on a peninsula with the River Tamar to the east and the River Lynher to the north.

Antony House was given to the National Trust in 1961 by Sir John Carew Pole. The gardens are in the care of Carew Pole Garden Trust.

Antony House a wonderful collection of paintings. The portrait collection includes canvases by Reynolds. A portrait of Richard Carew, a historian and author of the 'Survey of Cornwall' who inherited the estate in 1564, and a portrait of Charles I at his trial.

The rooms are panelled in Dutch oak and some contain the original 18th century furniture. They also contain fine china pieces, tapestries, and embroideries.

Gardens

Antony's superb 25 acre landscaped garden are currently managed by the Carew Pole Garden Trust. The garden is partly the work of Humphry Repton (who who removed the formal parterres to the north of the house in the late 18th century), and partly of Mr Pole Carew who redesigned the garden in 1800 ( adding the topiary and yew hedges). The landscaped gardens now include a formal courtyard, terraces, ornamental Japanese pond, fine summer borders, sculptures and knot garden. In addition the gardens are the home for the national collection of Hemerocallis (day lily of which there are 610 cultivars). Lawns sweep down to the River Tamar. The garden also contains a collection of stone carvings from the North West Frontier of India and a temple bell from Burma brought back by General Sir Reginald Pole-Carew.

There is also a natural woodland of 50 acres bordering the estuary of the River Lynher. The woodland garden (owned privately by the Carew Pole Garden Trust) has an display of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and magnolias, and surrounding woods provide delightful walks. There are many magnificent trees including a black walnut and cork oak. Also a 18th-century dovecote and 1789 Bath Pond House.

T

Saltram House

Saltram is located just three miles from the city of Plymouth, yet it's location in 500 acres of parkland on the banks of the River Plym gives it a decided countryside air. There was a Tudor mansion on this spot, but the present exquisite mansion is almost entirely a product of the Georgian period.

The house was begun in 1743 by Sir John and Lady Catherine Parker. Their son, also named John, brought in Robert Adam in 1768, and Adam is responsible for the staterooms and the salon. Saltram represnts one of the finest surving works by the influential Adam, and some of his architectural drawings can be seen at the house.

There is extensive ornate plasterwork throughout the house, and a startling amount of original hand-painted Chinese wallpaper has survived.

The house maintains excellent collections of furniture, fine art, and china, as well as a number of portraits by Angelica Kauffman and Joshua Reynolds, a friend of the Parker family which owned the house. Less ostentatious but equally as impressive is the Great Kitchen, with its original 18th century tools and furnishings.

GARDENS
There are formal 18th century gardens surrounding the house, including follies, an orangery, and lovely old trees and flowering shrubs, as well as extensive landscaped parkland. There are enjoyable wooded walks along the river.

In the grounds is the Chapel Art Gallery, a restored 19th century chapel that now hosts regular art exhibitions during the summer months.

Saltram was Norland Park in the film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

The house is built upon a spur of land that rises 900 feet above the River Teign, with superb views of Dartmoor. Despite the forbidding aspect of the exterior, the interior of the house is designed for comfort, with exquisitely furnished rooms and a fine collection of Spanish furniture.

Castle Drogo is an ode to ambition, but a fascinating place to visit for all that. The gardens surrounding the house are some of the finest in Devon, to a design by Gertrude Jekyl. There are also enjoyable walks along the Teign gorge. See Castle Drogo in our gardens guide.

Knightshayes Court

HOUSE
Knightshayes is one of the rare surviving examples of work by influential Victorian architect William Burges, who was also responsible for Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch. Burgess was an interesting character who first trained as an engineer before turning to architecture. He was heavily influenced by French Gothic style, and his work is very much in the mode of Gothic Revival.

John Heathcoat-Amory, MP for Tiverton, hired Burgess to create a new house at Knightshayes in 1859. However, the owner lost patience when Burgess had still not completed the house by 1874, and JD Crace was hired to finish the job. It is Crace who was responsible for much of the painted ceiling and stencilling.

Where the exterior is reserved Gothic, the interiors at Knightshayes are richly comfortable, a perfect example of what a Victorian country house "ought to be". There are extensive collections of the family china and silver, as well as fine art and family portraits. Many of the rooms have richly carved panelling, and the corbels supporting the ceiling supportss are carved to represent comical figures.

GARDEN
Knightshayes Garden is one of the most enjoyable in Devon. A landscape of woodland and carefully arranged plantings of flowering shrubs create a place of ever-changing vistas. There are a variety of amusing animal topiary and clipped hedges, spring bulbs, rare shrubs, a lily pool and excellent seasonal colours throughout. There are enjoyable walks through the mature woodlands surrounding the house.

Powderham Castle

Powderham was begun by Sir Philip Courtenay in 1390, and it has been the seat of the Earls of Devon ever since. It took Sir Philip almost 30 years to complete this fortress on the banks of the Exe, but the castle that greets the eye of visitors today is largely the result of Victorian renovation by Charles Fowler, architect of Covent Garden, London.

But if the exterior is a Victorian recreation of an idealised medieval castle, the interior is pure Georgian country house, with a profusion of elegant rooms topped by carefully moulded plasterwork ceilings. An extraordinary centrepiece is provided by the staircase hall, which rises the height of the building. The walls are encrusted with plasterwork birds, animals, and a variety of artistic motifs celebrating themes of peace and love.

Amidst all this Georgian splendour there are still traces of the original medieval house to be found; in the room beside the great hall is an overmantle carved with the date 1533, but older still are the 14th century arches leading to the kitchens and buttery.

One of the most enjoyable rooms open to visitors is the Music Room, created in 1794 by James Wyatt as a venue for the 3rd Viscount's coming of age ball. Throughout the house are the requisite collection of family portraits, including some dating back to trhe early 16th century.

Across the rose terrace at the rear of the house is the chapel, which boasts a wonderful 15th century timber roof.

GARDENS
The woodland garden in particular is worthy of note; plantings of daffodils, primroses and Devon violets make for a profusion of colour in the spring. Fallow deer graze in the Deer Park, and in summer visitors can ride the special tractor trailer cart to view them up close. Especially for the children is the new Secret Garden, full of animals of the soft and cuddly sort, including guinea pigs, rabbits, and pygmy goats.

The house sits in a lovely location beside the River Exe, and wonderful views of the Exe Estuary can be had by climbing the Belvedere Tower.

From time to time there are concerts and jousting.

Killerton House and Gardens

HOUSE
The Killerton estate is first mentioned in 1242. It is believed that the name originated with a family named Kildrington. In the Elizabethan period the estate was sold to the Acland family, who owned the adjoining property at Columb John. In the late 18th century Sir Thomas Acland, the 7th Baronet, decided to move the family seat to Killerton.

The architect of the new house was John Johnson, who was instructed by Sir Thomas to build a temporary residence until a more elaborate home could be built on he hill above the site. As it turned out, Sir Thomas's son died shortly after, in 1778, and he abandoned plans for a second mansion. The house was remodeled and expanded several times over the subsequent centuries, but it is essentially the same building that Johnson planned.

Pride of place in the interior is the Killerton costume collection. The first floor of the house is given over to the collection, which displays a fresh set of 7000 items each year.

The estate is immense, stretching to over 6400 acres, including working farms and 240 cottages. Of these, almost 30 are of medieval origin, including Marker's Cottage. The cottage boasts an excellent medieval painted screen with an unusual mix of secular and religious themes.

GARDENS
An 18 acre hillside garden within 4000 acres of woods, originally created at the time the house was built by Scotsman John Veitch. Veitch was an interesting character; the story goes that he walked from Edinburgh to London to look for work. He found employment as a nurseryman, and Sir Thomas Acland asked him to create a garden at Killerton, improving on the natural landscape.

Veitch and his son James created a network of woodland paths and planted varieties of foreign trees and shrubs, including Wellingtonia. Because of its mild climate Killerton was used as something of a trial ground for plants brought back from all corners of the globe, and many plants which are now found throughout the British Isles were first planted at Killerton.

Later the influential Victorian garden writer William Robinson had a hand in the design of the Killerton gardens. Killerton is famous for trees and shrubs. There are a series of terraced beds, with dwarf shrubs and copious rhododendrons. Circular walks through the woods provide for an enjoyable outing.

Above the house is a "clump" or hillfort dating to the Iron Age. The hill, also known as Dolbury, is reputed in folklore to be protected by the Killerton Dragon, which every night flies between Killerton and Cadbury Hill to keep safe a hidden treasure.

The estate at Killerton, as well as that at Holnicote, was given to the National Trust by Sir Richard Acland, whose left-leaning political beliefs precluded his ownership of such a vast tract of land.

Berry Pomeroy Castle

Berry Pomeroy's dramatic location on the side of a steep hillside is well suited to its reputation as one of the most haunted castles in England. Owned by the Duke of Somerset, the castle is a product of the 13th century, though it was partly rebuilt in the 16th century although this remodelling was never completed, so today the castle is a peculiar mix of styles.