Elderly Salcombe residents were promised a home for life inside this listed villa — but now the charity it was gifted to want to sell it

A petition has been launched to prevent the sale by Age UK of a Grade ll*-listed Regency villa originally gifted to the residents of the south Devon resort of Salcombe on the basis that it ‘be used, in perpetuity, as a residential home for elderly people’.

Woodcot, which has extensive grounds that are sometimes open to the public, is made up of 14 retirement flats that members of the local community can apply to live in for the remainder of their lives. The 18th-century building was donated to the Plymouth Guild of Social Services by Elizabeth Jennings, a local philanthropist, in 1976, before being passed on to Help the Aged (now Age UK).

The charity is blaming exorbitant running costs for the decision to sell, but petitioners, concerned at the possibility of multiple developments on the sweep of land and the breaking of a supposedly legal covenant, are requesting that it is transferred to another charity: 'Age UK didn't pay a penny for Woodcot. If they can't make a go of it, the moral thing to do is to pass it on to a new charity in the spirit in which they themselves got it, not sell it for profit.' The petition had garnered more than 2,500 signatures last week.

The town’s council — who describe Woodcot as having ‘the best views imaginable — told Country Life that they are worried that the sale might be off-putting to similarly generous donors and would like to better understand the charity’s financial constraints. They added that they are open to facilitating any kind of conversation that will stop elderly residents — some of whom were told they would never have to move — from being forced out.

Woodcot, which is estimated to be worth several millions of pounds, was built in 1797 by James Yates, a London merchant. It was later owned by James Froude, one of the best known historians of his time, who invited his friend, the poet Tennyson, to stay with him.