02/20/2025
Shilstone is a lovingly restored Georgian house in the heart of the Devon countryside, overlooking an important historical landscape, which includes the only known and nationally important C17 water theatre in the UK.
In 1997 Lucy and Sebastian Fenwick stumbled across a grade II listed farmstead in the heart of the South Hams then known as Shilston Barton. Intrigued by the remains of a designed landscape and clear signs of an important early house, they purchased the site and embarked on a lengthy project with the Devon Rural Archive to discover more about the landscape and earlier dwellings. The landscape soon began to give up its secrets revealing extensive building work from the medieval period to the present day, much of which had been covered but not lost. Two sets of double terraces, medieval fishponds, sunken lanes and a ha-ha as well as an early walled garden and a courtyard of fine barns separated from the main house by a crenelated curtain wall all hinted to the importance of Shilstone.
On a general visit to Shilstone, the gardens are open free of charge, and there is a woodland walk which has lovely bluebells in the spring. The valley is also open for walks, to explore the water garden with leets, rills and cascades, and a series of stone-lined ponds, all headed by a Jacobean grotto. The cafe with inside and outside seating is open from 10.30 until 4, and on occasion in the evening, as is the Devon Rural Archive, the public are free to roam and explore at their own leisure. Every Sunday there is a traditional Sunday Roast offered at Shilstone – in the Walled Garden marquee in the summer, and in the Great Barn in the winter.
They also offer House & Garden tours, as well as Historic Landscape Tours.
