PROPERTY
The Grade I listed building, was, according to tradition, built in 1697 by the Hallett family, ship owners from Lyme Regis, who had grown rich from trade with Barbados. The house still bears small reminders of their occupation: 18th century signatures cut on the window panes of the common parlour and the north-east bedroom. Wider interests are suggested by a document discovered behind panelling, whose tally of eminent national and local names has turned out to be a list of Commissioners of the Peace for c 1724-25. The Hallett family occupied it until 1889, when they were forced by bankruptcy to sell the estate to Samuel Sanders Stephens. The Stephens family sold up in 1960, when the estate was broken up, and in 1963 the house was vacant and left to its own devices. Neglect inevitably resulted in decay, and by the 1970s serious dry rot had affected most of the building. In 1988 Stedcombe House was sold to the current owner and a meticulous and sympathetic restoration began in mid-1988. His scholarly attention and devotion to its sympathetic architecture has resurrected this magnificent example of a William and Mary house. As for the outside, there’s plenty more accommodation here with the outbuildings and the lodge. The stableyard, (which you can travel to via an underground tunnel from the big house, very Agatha Christie) contains a number of red brick and stone outbuildings forming an attractive courtyard which have the potential to provide ancillary accommodation, stabling, workshops, garaging and storage, while the Lodge comprises of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, sitting room, utility room and a cloakroom. Just under a mile away is the pretty village of Axmouth, which offers a medieval harbour suitable for launching and mooring a boat, plus church, pubs, and yacht club. If you’re someone lucky enough to afford this thing of beauty, we suggest you hop to it. n
HOUSE NUMBERS Guide price Bedrooms
£4,500,000 9 (main house), 3 (lodge)
Outside stable block, numerous outbuildings, 3 walled gardens, pastureland, woodland
Acres
20
For more: Savills Exeter, Sterling Court, 17 Dix’s Field, Exeter; www.savills.co.uk Knight Frank Exeter, 19 Southernhay East Exeter, EX1 1QD; www.knightfrank.co.uk
www.mediaclash.co.uk I EXETER LIVING I 47
