About The Estate
The Georgian/Regency Manor House was built at the end of the 18th century. To the rear of the manor house are the former stables and barns, four of which have been converted into luxury guest accommodation. The cottages are available on an exclusive-hire basis and can sleep up to 18 guests. The 30 acres estate includes formal gardens, meadows, a forest, lake and stream
Guests also have access to all of the facilities on the estate, including an outdoor heated swimming pool, hot tub, hydro pool wellness spa (adults only), sauna and tennis court. In addition, guests can explore the extensive landscaped gardens, private lake (where wild swimming is possible at the right time of year) and forest.
The cottages are all self-contained and yet close to each other and surrounding a paved courtyard, there is a private dining room for 20 people and outdoor dining terrace. Li’s Kitchen on site provides authentic cuisine from East Asia and banquets can be booked on a bespoke basis.
History
We continue to research the history of The Manor at Bratton Clovelly. We know the Manor House was completed in about 1805. It is built on the site of a medieval farm house and school room, parts of which are still visible inside the house. It was built for William Wimpey, Lord of the Manor of Bratton, who owned a number of estates across Devon and Cornwall. The house is relatively compact and modest as manor houses go, but the architect was clearly competent, designing the south façade for solar gain and the west façade directly in line with the village church (or if you swing 5° north, the back of the pub).
The estate originally included most of the farms and houses around Bratton Clovelly, including Bratton Mill, but at the end of the First World War, the Estate was divided and offered at auction in Okehampton in separate lots. The house was sold for £1,400, while cottages in the village went for a few hundred pounds. The post office was sold for £100 to the grandfather of the previous owner, who sadly passed away in 2019.
We bought the house with 30 acres in 2013. Prior to this, Mark Bury had been running an 850-acre organic farming business from here. He kept five horses in the stables – the family members were all keen riders. He also had a pheasant farm and hosted shoots, along with fishing in the lake, which he kept well-stocked. He began the restoration and conversion of the outbuildings, which we continued. Mark now lives nearby with his wife Emily, at Eversfield Lodge, Ellacott Barton, and still has other farmland. Eversfield Organic supplies first-class meat and other products.
The owner prior to Mark was Captain James Hewitt. He started to develop an Equestrian Centre and built the Sand School and the stone horse jump at the front of the house. He converted the Manor’s second-floor attic into three bedrooms and a bathroom. He planned to convert the outbuildings to holiday cottages and obtained planning permission, but didn’t start the works. He excavated the lake and stocked it with fish.
The owner prior to Captain Hewitt was Bruce Markham-David. He was a Judge at Exeter Crown Court, but he also farmed pigs and kept a herd of deer. He built the tennis court and was a skilled player. Bruce and his wife, Joan, live nearby at Coryton. They often visit The Manor at Bratton Clovelly for dinners and parties and Bruce, now in his 80s, occasionally plays tennis here.
At the time we bought the estate, we were living and working in China. We previously lived in Hampshire, in a beautiful, listed, but very dark, farmhouse, and our children were born in the local hospital. Before we moved to China, we decided to move ‘west of Bristol’ and we spent our summer holidays searching for a big, bright house in countryside with outbuildings and land we could do something interesting with. We cast our net far and wide and found The Manor at Bratton Clovelly.
Sustainability
With a background in renewable energy research and consulting, we are pleased to live in a location using renewable energy, not least of which are three beautiful solar roofs. We’ve done a lot of work on the house to keep the rain out and the heat in. When we moved in, there was a 90kW oil-fired boiler, open fires, and a triple-oven Aga, also oil-fired. These could not heat the house. Wind blew through the old doors and windows, rain came in through the roof and windows, and when we had heavy rainfall, the cellars filled with puddles. We fixed all that and our current challenge is to improve the energy efficiency of the house and estate. We have insulated much of the Manor and most of the windows are double-glazed. A 50kW biomass boiler system, located in the Stable Block, heats the Manor House, Coach House, Apartment and Studio (mini District Heating). This uses wood pellets (in automatic mode) but also burns logs from the forest. Logs will be the main fuel once restoration work is completed. We have three log burners in the house, and one in each of the Coach House, Studio and Cottage.
The house originally had an orangery on the west façade. This was destroyed in a storm many years ago, leaving a terrace. We have built a new orangery, with glass solar photovoltaic (PV) panels forming the roof. This is rated at 3.8 kWp. It generates electricity for the house and is connected to the utility grid. The PV cells are monocrystalline Silicon and spaced apart so 30% of the area is clear glass. This provides daylight indoors and is much healthier for the plants than if it were completely glazed. The PV indirectly charges our smart electric car.
When we bought the Estate, the cottage was derelict. We completed restoration in December 2019 with a double-height solar atrium with gallery. The new slate roof has glass PV panels. Our first guests stayed here in July 2020.
What was a store/garage/tack room/shoot room is currently being converted to be an office/library and meeting/dining room. Glass PV panels cover most of the south-facing roof. These comprise a thin film of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) coated on glass and are 20% translucent. The office is currently in the Stable Block, while the library is stored in the wooden shed above the pool. The Studio is now a two-bedroom cottage.
The Cottage and Office will be heated by a ground-source heat pump. They are currently connected to the biomass boiler. We have completed a new building to incorporate a sauna, shower, and WC for the swimming pool area. The pool is heated by an air source heat pump. It will be connected to the biomass boiler.
We have deepened the lake and provide access to this and the forest (Birch Wood). When we arrived, it was impossible to get to either. We have created pathways and built bridges over the streams. There is a fire pit and picnic area at the forest crossroads.
We are also busy restoring the Georgian Ponds, which were completely silted up when we arrived. They have been dredged and a new pond near the original entrance to the house is now the silt-trap. We will have a new pond garden here.
Our next challenge, which we have not yet started, is the Walled Garden. This at one time provided all the fruit and vegetables for the Manor House. We will be restoring this as a garden, with greenhouses on the outer south-facing wall.