Description
An exclusive tour of Shilstone House and Garden with Resident Archaeologist Abi Gray on Thursday 15th June 2023 at 2:30pm for members of Ipplepen Local History Group.
Shilstone House has a remarkable and extensive history, which the DRA is studying as part of our ongoing archaeological project into the history, significance and development of Devon’s manor houses, and their landscapes.
A combination of excavation and geophysics has revealed evidence of occupation from later prehistory to the present day. The earliest known dwelling on the site was an Iron Age farmstead within an ovoid enclosure, in use from approximately the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. A high-status stone hall house was in place by the 14th century and extended in both the 16th and 17th centuries. This house, however, was demolished in the early 19th century and replaced by a courtyard mansion that was heavily truncated only a few decades later. In the last twenty years the owners, Lucy and Sebastian Fenwick, have sympathetically restored the house.
The grounds are equally impressive and include formal gardens of lawns, terraces and a medieval walled garden, as well as the only known, and nationally important 17th century Italianate water theatre and associated water gardens,
The tour will begin at the Devon Rural Archive (open from 10am) and will last approximately one hour and thirty minutes.
Tickets are £16, and must be purchased in advance. Please note that payments are non-refundable.
If you have any problems making this purchase please call us on 01548 830832.
Refreshments can be purchased on the day from The Shilstone Cafe.