A majestic 17th century home in Cornwall, just down the lane from a hopelessly idyllic riverside village
The gorgeous Ethy House isn't a home you'll find listed on the property portals — but Penny Churchill was given a glimpse of what's on offer.
The riverside village of Lerryn is an idyllic little spot. It sits a few miles inland from the harbour town of Lostwithiel at the head of the Fowey estuary. It's an idyllic spot amid the rolling valleys of this part of south Cornwall.
As you head down to the village on the country lanes from Lostwithiel, you'd more than likely head straight past a discreet set of gates leading onto a private lane off to one side. But it's here that you'll find a true gem of a house that has just come up for sale: the 17th century, Grade II*-listed Ethy House. You won't find the house on the property portals: it's being marketed through a few select channels (among them Country Life, so you're in privileged company reading this) by Andrew Chilcott of Truro-based Lillicrap Chilcott. Andrew quotes a guide price of £3 million for this beautiful home, set in 17½ acres of gardens, woods and parkland.
Historically owned by the Courtenay family, who were Earls of Devon, Ethy House was built on the site of an earlier manor at the turn of the 17th century and extended and updated in the mid 19th century. In 1870, The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales listed Ethy House as a ‘chief residence of the parish of Winnow, 2.25 miles south-south east of Lostwithiel’.
Approached down the aforementioned (and long) private drive, Ethy House stands on high ground, facing south-east over National Trust land and the lovely Lerryn Valley, a captivating landscape of undulating parkland, woods and farmland that slopes down to the River Lerryn.
Built in the symmetrical Georgian style of rendered brick under a slate roof with a shallow 19th-century service wing to the west, the house offers elegant, well-planned accommodation on two main floors, with four attic rooms on the second floor and an indoor swimming pool, games room and various domestic offices on the lower ground floor.
Much cherished by its current owners, who have lived there for 27 years, highlights include an impressive staircase hall, three fine reception rooms and a good-sized kitchen/breakfast room.
The first-floor principal suite has two bedrooms, two en-suite bathrooms and a sitting room, plus two further en-suite bedrooms and three further guest bedrooms in the rear wing.
Additional accommodation is provided in the two-bedroom Stables Cottage.
To the north of the main house, a range of unconverted period barns offers scope for further improvement — as do the property’s three lovely walled gardens.
Ethy House is for sale through Lillicrap Chilcott — request more details via the agent.
