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.
You can't help but wonder if the old stove was in place when Galsworthy lived here.
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.
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.
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.
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