Many of Devon’s finest country houses are owned by a handful of large hereditary landowners and will never be sold. However, it’s a feature of the country-house scene that, once a grand house is sold away from its surrounding estate, it tends to come back on the market at regular intervals.
Such a property is Warnicombe House, three miles from Tiverton, a handsome, Grade II-listed Georgian family house, which has been launched to the market via Country Life, at a guide price of £3.375m through the Exeter office of Knight Frank.
Warnicombe House stands in 5¼ acres of landscaped and walled gardens, orchards and woodland, with wonderful views over the surrounding countryside. The house, which is in excellent order throughout, offers more than 6,500sq ft of light and cheerful living space on three floors.
There are four main reception rooms, a large country kitchen, eight bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Traditional outbuildings house a workshop, gym and stores, alongside a courtyard garden with a garden store and dog shower.
The country idyll is completed by a heated outdoor swimming pool and a stone terrace for lazy outdoor dining.
The location is also noteworthy. Mid Devon’s largest market town, Tiverton, the name of which means ‘a town on two fords’, is situated at the confluence of the rivers Exe and Lowman, within the scenic landscape of the Devon Redlands, 16 miles due north of Exeter. Tiverton was an important centre of the wool trade in the 16th century and many of the town’s finest buildings were built by wealthy clothiers, among them Blundell’s grammar school, founded under the will of Peter Blundell in 1604 and now a highly rated independent school with strong links to colleges in Oxford and Cambridge.
Good houses within easy reach of Blundell’s are notoriously hard to find and the location of Warnicombe House just over 1½ miles from the school gates, will be a huge draw for parents of children taking up places there in 2023.
This was also part of its attraction for the current vendors, who bought the house, previously owned by the Carew family, in May 2013 and, having educated their three children at Blundell’s, are now moving to Dulverton on the Devon/Somerset border.
Warnicombe House is for sale at £3.375m through Knight Frank — see more details and pictures.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
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