To the MANOR BORNE Take a step back in time to the world of period drama and high tea, at the heritage-heavy Lewtrenchard Manor WORDS: Beverly Byrne
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rriving at Lewtrenchard Manor, the late winter sun is casting a fuchsia glow across the hotel’s romantic façade. Overlooking ornate gardens and the hills of Dartmoor beyond, Lewtrenchard’s enchanting architecture is the stuff of period dramas – think stiff bonnets and silk bustles, the clack of hooves and the swish of a chivalrous cloak and the scene is set. Stepping into the porch and through the heavy oak door, I find myself in a panelled room hung with period portraits and warmed by a roaring log fire. And what’s this? An impeccably attired young man is offering tea. Sinking into an opulent sofa bathed by the light of a stained glass window, I wonder if the centuries have evaporated or is it just that Lewtrenchard Manor is a perfect place to escape the 21st-century. Lewtrenchard Manor comes with lashings of historic pedigree. Dating from the 12th-century, the intriguing history of the house, with its tales of gambling debts and feuds, ghosts and highwaymen, is a script-writer’s dream. Having remained in the same family for centuries, the man responsible for the Manor’s current incarnation was the Reverend Sabine Baring Gould. A polymath antiquarian and folklorist famous for writing the hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers, he rebuilt and restored the house between 1876 and 1913, adding windows, exquisite panelling and ornate plaster ceilings culled from other properties. He was also a notable Dartmoor scholar, and as a friend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it is rumoured Lewtrenchard Manor may have been the blueprint for Baskerville Hall. Yet there is nothing forbidding or austere about Lewtrenchard. In fact, another more light-hearted tale is said to have inspired George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Having been captivated by a 16 year old Yorkshire mill girl, Baring Gould sent her away to be educated before marrying her and having an impressive 15 children. It is the echo of family harmony, rather than the sinister howl of the Baskerville hounds, which infuses Lewtrenchard with
a welcoming, intimate atmosphere. The hotel is still family-owned, and Duncan Murray and his parents are very much hands-on managers. Determined to maintain the balance between preserving Lewtrenchard’s ambience and history, and offering supreme comfort, they’ve also introduced contemporary essentials such as wi-fi and, with green issues in mind, a bio-mass boiler. My traditionally-furnished room, Prince Rupert (all rooms are named after hymns) features a vast mullioned window and panoramic views across six acres of gardens designed by Walter Sorel (with obvious influences from Gertrude Jekyll), plus a seriously large bathroom. Each room possesses its own unique character, décor and decoration. From burnished oak panelling and original ornamental plasterwork to opulent
The intriguing history of the house, with its tales of gambling debts and feuds, ghosts and highwaymen, is a script writer’s dream