The Devon house and estate that inspired The Forsyte Saga has come up for sale

Down on Dartmoor, four miles from Mortetonhampstead, there's a fine old manor house with a wonderful claim to literary fame. Wingstone Manor was for many years home to John Galsworthy, the writer who created The Forsyte Saga — an iconic series of novels that was inspired by this wild, dramatic setting. That house — with its setting little changed by the passage of over a century — is up for sale.

Galsworthy and his wife, Ada, lived between 1906 and 1924 at Wingstone Manor, the house at the heart of its own 363-acre Wingstone Manor Farm. The village it's in, Manaton, is four miles from Moretonhampstead, five miles from Bovey Tracey and 22 miles from Exeter. Chris Johnson of Strutt & Parker’s Exeter office is handling the sale, and he quotes a guide price of £4.5m.

That price buys you a gloriously scenic estate, its land a mix of pasture, ancient woodland and moorland, lovingly maintained by its dedicated owner, who has long been a dynamic member of the local Dartmoor Commoners’ Association.

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Having acquired Wingstone Manor Farm with 110 acres of pasture some years ago, she later acquired the adjoining 250 acres of moorland with a further detached five-bedroom farmhouse (subject to an agricultural occupation restriction), thereby returning the farm to its original layout.

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At the estate’s heart is the main Grade II-listed, five-bedroom farmhouse with 16th-century origins, which comes with a three-bedroom holiday cottage, traditional and modern farm buildings and spectacular views over Dartmoor, onto which it enjoys direct access.

Wingstone Manor Farm is for sale at £4.5m — see more pictures and details.