On Tuesday 19th September 2023 at 2:30pm, our resident archaeologist, Abigail Gray, will lead a guided tour of Shilstone House and gardens. Guests will explore the history of the site through its surviving archaeology and rare architectural features before seeing the results of the restoration, including the recently completed panelled drawing room.
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 start at the Devon Rural Archive, and will last approximately one hour and thirty minutes.
Tickets are £16 and must be purchased in advance. Booking closes 12th September 2023.
Please note that payments are non-refundable.
Tickets available here. Alternatively you can call us on 01548 830832 or email office@dra.uk.net; you will need to supply a valid phone number and email address for our records. By purchasing a ticket you will be subscribing to the DRA Friends mailing list and will receive regular updates about our work and events, but you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Where we are
Devon Rural Archive, Shilstone, Modbury, Devon, PL21 0TW
Call us: 01548 830832
Email us: office@dra.uk.net
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