Farway, Colyton, Devon EX24

Netherton Hall is the major part of a tastefully updated country house, set within a charming village, with spectacular views out over the surrounding countryside.

Tucked away in the village and backing onto gently rolling countryside, Netherton Hall today is a large, Grade II-listed, country house. In the late 1990’s, the house was substantially renovated and divided, creating the South and East wings as separate residences. Netherton Hall remains the central and major portion of the house with a south, west and north orientation towards the grounds and surrounding countryside. The division was undertaken ensuring optimum privacy and this has been enhanced as the grounds have matured.

Inside:

Netherton Hall contains three elegant, impressive reception rooms plus a superb, combined kitchen/dining room. The interior is beautifully presented and full of elegant architectural features including a minstrels’ gallery supported on classical columns and an intricately carved screen in the drawing room, some fine fireplaces, flagstone and timber floors, window seats, wood panelling and stone mullion windows looking out across the grounds to the surrounding countryside beyond.

The kitchen, with its handmade, painted timber units and panelling is simply blissful. Upstairs there are five large double bedrooms on the first floor and one on the mezzanine level. The principal bedroom is south and east-facing and has its own separate dressing room and enormous shower room.

Outside:

The grounds of Netherton Hall extend out to the south, west and north of the house and amount to over four acres. The house is set back about 60 yards from a passing lane that sees little traffic and has its own gated entrance with a gravelled drive leading to a double garage. The formal areas of the garden are divided into a series of beautiful, mature garden “rooms”.

These encompass a paved courtyard with a central fountain immediately in front of the house’s open front porch, a large, level lawn fringed by mature trees, espalier fruit, flower beds, hedging and dry stone walling, a gorgeous parterre garden with four hexagonal beds bounded by box and a further area containing a heated swimming pool and hard tennis court.

Beyond the tennis court is an area of broadleaf woodland and an outbuilding with a covered veranda incorporating two stables, a general storage area and an exterior log store. There is also a field and orchard, with a field gate to provide access to the paddock.

Early mentions of the land at Netherton indicate that they belonged to the Prior of Canonsleigh. At the dissolution of the monasteries they came into the hands of Sir Bernard Drake of Ash. By 1607, Sir Edmund Prideaux owned the property and completed construction of the first house known as Netherton Hall in the Jacobean style. Notably, his son Edmund was a Member of Parliament and Attorney General for Oliver Cromwell. The estate remained in the family for generations and was extensively renovated in the early Victorian period.

In 1919, the well-known playwright Harley Glanville-Barker bought it and subsequently entertained many illustrious, literary visitors at the Hall, including Sir George Bernard Shaw, T.E. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy. In 1939 the house was purchased by Henry Hopkinson, a member of Winston Churchill’s inner circle during and after WWII. He was later elected Member of Parliament for Taunton and rose to peerage as Baron Colyton of Farway. Lord and Lady Colyton, lived in Netherton Hall until 1974.

Netherton Hall is situated in the beautiful, peaceful and unspoiled village of Farway. The River Coly winds through the Farway valley, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The small village has a parish church and primary school.
The nearby market town of Honiton has a good selection of shops and local businesses, a golf course and a railway station with regular service to Exeter and London Waterloo. Tiverton station, 30 minutes away, has a faster service via Bristol and Bath to London Paddington. Exeter City Centre is about twenty miles away via the A30, with Exeter International airport just a 22 minute drive away. The M5 is closeby.

The local area offers a wide selection of schools both from the independent and state sectors including Exeter School, The Maynard School and Exeter Cathedral School, which are all Exeter. Colyton Grammar School is in nearby Colyton, along with Blundells in Tiverton. The nearby coastline is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with popular seaside towns and villages including Sidmouth, Lyme Regis, Beer and Branscombe.