Historic Home sights in Southwest England
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Greenway
The enchanting summer home of crime writer Agatha Christie sits beside the River Dart near Dartmouth. Part-guided tours allow you to wander between rooms where the furnishings and knick-knacks are much as she left them. You can check out her hats in the lobby, books in her library and clothes in her wardrobe, and listen to her speak (via replica radio) in the drawing room.
Woods speckled with splashes of magnolias, daffodils and hydrangeas frame the water, while the planting creates intimate, secret spaces – the boathouse and views over the river are delightful. In Christie's book Dead Man's Folly, Greenway doubles as Nasse House, with the boathouse making an appearance…
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Coleton Fishacre
For an enchanting glimpse of Jazz Age glamour, drop by this former home of the D'Oyly Carte family of theatre impresarios. Built in the 1920s, its gorgeous art deco embellishments include original Lalique tulip uplighters, comic bathroom tiles and a stunning saloon – complete with tinkling piano. The croquet terrace leads to deeply shelved subtropical gardens and suddenly revealed vistas of the sea. Hike the 4 miles along the cliffs from Kingswear, or drive.
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Merchant's House
This 17th-century building is packed with curiosities; from manacles, truncheons and a ducking stool, to a replica 19th-century school room and a Victorian pharmacy where you can try old-fashioned pill rolling.
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Forde Abbey
This former Cistercian monastery was built in the 12th century, updated in the 17th century, and has been a private home since 1649. The building boasts magnificent plasterwork ceilings and fine tapestries but it's the gardens that are the main attraction: 12 hectares of lawns, ponds, shrubberies and flower beds packed with bamboo, rhododendron and asters - topped off by a 160ft fountain.
It's 10 miles north of Lyme Regis; public transport is a nonstarter.
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Longleat
Today Longleat is half safari park and half ancestral mansion, but in 1946 it was the first stately home in England to open its doors to the public. It was prompted by finance: heavy taxes and mounting post-WWII bills meant the house had to earn its keep. The estate was transformed into Britain's first safari park in 1966, turning Capability Brown's landscaped grounds into an amazing drive-through zoo, populated by a menagerie of animals more at home in the African wilderness than the fields of Wiltshire. Longleat also has a throng of attractions, including a narrow-gauge railway, a Dr Who exhibit, a Postman Pat village, pets' corner and a butterfly garden.
Under all these…
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Clouds Hill
This tiny cottage was home to TE Lawrence (1888–1935), the British scholar, military strategist and writer made legendary for his role in helping unite Arab tribes against Turkish forces in WWI. The house's four rooms provide a compelling insight into a complex man; they're also much as he left them – he died at the age of 46 after a motorbike accident on a nearby road.
Highlights include the deeply evocative photos taken by Lawrence during his desert campaign, and his sketches of French crusader castles. There's also a surprisingly comfortable cork-lined bathroom, an aluminium foil-lined bunk room and a heavily beamed music room, which features the desk where Lawrence…
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