Down in mid-Devon, Oliver Custance Baker of Strutt & Parker quotes a guide price of ‘excess £2.15m’ for Upcott Barton. Near the village of Poughill, five miles from Crediton and 12 miles from the cathedral city of Exeter, it is set in 25 acres of private and sheltered gardens and surrounded by open farmland.
According to its Historic England listing, Upcott Barton is not only ‘a very important house because of the extent and quality of the surviving 16th and 17th century work’, but also notorious in the history of Devon as the site of the 1455 murder of the lawyer Nicholas Radford, one of the most celebrated lawyers of the time. It has been dubbed 'one of the most notorious crimes of the century.'
The killing was carried out by a mob directed by Radford's overlord, Thomas de Courtenay, the 5th Earl of Devon, at the onset of the Wars of the Roses. The Earl's family was defeated in the Wars of the Roses and their estates forfeited to the Crown.
It was the Prowse family who eventually succeeded the Radfords at Upcott Barton, followed in the 16th century by a younger branch of the Courtenays, before passing in the late 17th century through the female line to John Moore of Moore, near Tavistock. The manor later went to the Basset family of Umberleigh, north Devon, who, in about 1790, sold Upcott to the Fursdons, who retained it until the 1930s.
Although now in need of updating, Upcott Barton encapsulates the magic of a bygone era in this wonderfully unspoilt part of mid Devon. A long private drive leads to an archway that marks the entrance to a courtyard of traditional buildings, beyond which lies the manor house surrounded by walled and terraced gardens.
The picturesque main house offers more than 5,000sq ft of atmospheric living space on three floors, including two main reception rooms, a study, library and kitchen/breakfast room on the ground floor; four bedrooms on the first floor; and four further bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. The principal rooms are spacious, with decorative ceilings that reflect the medieval era, and large panelled windows that help flood the interior with natural light.
Adjoining the west wing of the manor is the courtyard of single and two-storey traditional buildings, currently used as garaging, storage and workshops, but suitable for a variety of uses, subject to planning.
Worthy of note is the Upcott Barton Roundhouse, built to an Iron Age design and completed in 2015, which has been used for short-term holiday lets and provides a useful income. Although currently offered with 25 acres, more land is available at Upcott Barton by separate negotiation.
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