A superb Georgian home that is ‘one of Falmouth’s most impressive houses’, and the mystery of why it remains unlisted

Penny Churchill

With a walled garden, an arboretum, a water garden and a vegetable garden, its no surprise that White House and its environs provided inspiration for Spring's creative genius.

the white house falmouth
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Falmouth-based estate agent Jonathan Cunliffe is handling the sale – at a guide price of £1.595 million – of one of Falmouth’s least-known but most impressive houses.

Elegant, Georgian White House on Fenwick Road was home to the Welsh author and journalist Howard Spring from Midsummer Day 1947 until his death in 1965. Spring used Falmouth and its environs as the setting for several of his books, including Fame is the Spur, Hard Facts and The Houses in Between.

He and his wife, Marion, were passionate gardeners and, in her book Howard, she refers to ‘our rare and lovely trees – mimosa, tulip tree, embothriums, metasequoia’, many of which still grace White House’s wonderful walled garden, along with the arboretum, water garden and vegetable garden, which gave them ‘never-ending and supremely interesting work’.

White House, which, oddly enough, is unlisted – ‘probably because the listing inspector, in true Cornish fashion, couldn’t see the house behind its high garden wall and was disinclined to explore further’, suggests Mr Cunliffe – was built in 1780 for a spinster sister of the influential Fox family of Glendurgan Garden fame (now owned by the National Trust).

Bought in 2002 by businessman Kim Conchie and his wife, Sarah, who wished to bring up their young family – then aged nine, six and three – in his native Cornwall, White House has been a wonderful family experience and it will be ‘a real wrench’ to leave, Mr Conchie admits.

In a thriving historic town where terraced houses are the norm, White House’s especially private location a mere 400 yards from the beach, its generous six/seven bedroom accommodation and delightful walled gardens – 1.25 acres in all – make it a proposition that any serious buyer with the sea in his blood will find awfully hard to resist.

White House is on sale with Jonathan Cunliffe at a guide price of £1.595 million, click here for more information and pictures.