Powderham Castle is the home of the Earl and Countess of Devon and is surrounded by a deer park and on the banks of the Exe estuary. It was built by Sir Phil Courtney in 1391 and various additions have been made over the centuries. It has been the home of the same family ever since. The origin of the name Powderham is thought to be Poulderham - a hamlet on a tidal marsh.
Plants growing on walls - I do like the daisy type flower (not sure of the name) which I saw a lot of in Devon.
We went on a tour of the house which lasted about an hour and a quarter and was very informative and entertaining. Sorry no photos as they are not allowed in the house (in some ways it was a relief not to be clicking away for once as I was able to look round the rooms and take far more in). Rooms visited included the Dining Hall, not one library but TWO (my type of house :) ) and also an anteroom stuffed with yet more books, the Music Room, a staircase and hall with rococo style plasterwork containing many birds, animals, flowers, fruits and foliage, a State Bedroom, Marble Hall, Drawing Room, Terrace Entrance and Victorian kitchen. There were some stunning paintings and tales of hidden doors and ghosts.
The Rose Garden
It was lovely to see wild flower areas in the more formal rose garden.
Views of the Deer Park
A few of the herd of 600 Fallow Deer
*D
The Chapel was consecrated in 1861 but the building that houses it is much older - it was once the Grange of the Medieval Castle and dates back to around 1450. The Bench Ends are 16th century and came from the old church at South Huish and were given to the 11th Earl in 1874.
The Walled Garden contains a Pet's Corner
The hedgerow flowers were full of Skipper butterflies
plus a worn Peacock and my first Meadow Brown of the year.
Sadly, we didn't have time to visit the American Woodland Garden and Belvedere Tower.
We did, however, stop off at Dawlish Warren - I was hoping one of the days to visit the Nature Reserve there but we couldn't find the entrance!
9 comments:
Gosh you have been busy, catching up on all your Holliday posts. Some really lovely places you have visited.
The boats are nice filled with flowers, there is so much to see down south. Did think of you when we went on the Holy Island and had a look in the church, got a few photos to share but evening prayer was about to start.
While we were away we took more notice of the buildings and had chance to have a good look round, first holl without the boys!
Have enjoyed reading through and great to have all the information a lot of hard work has gone into sharing you Holliday's
Amanda xx
Another great post a lovely castle to visit. yes I agreed, it is sometimes a relief to not take photographs but the ones you took inthe gardens are beautiful. great that they also have a petting area for children.
Amanda Peters - Thanks so much Amanda. To be honest going round the bend trying to find the time to do the holiday posts - too much going on with D being on holiday last week and trips out, football and tennis to watch, the 2 family birthdays! Hope you had a wonderful holiday - will check out your first post shortly. Would love to go to Northumberland - on the list of wish holiday destinations so look forward to seeing your photos. Glad you managed to get in the church on Holy Island albeit briefly!
We've never had a holiday without D and E! Now they are adults it does make it harder to find things to do that everyone will enjoy to some extent so it becomes a compromise for everyone really. There were churches and nature reserves I wanted to visit but didn't and D wanted to go to Dartmoor and we ran out of time. But even if I went on my own with B I wouldn't be able to visit any more churches as he is not at all keen.
Thanks again :)
Margaret Adamson - thanks so much :) It is a strange thing with photography - I often wonder if I would enjoy outings and take in more without a camera but there again the pictures do provide a record and bring back memories. When I was without my lens recently when it was being repaired I felt quite lost!!
Both small and large skippers by the looks of things!
I had my Graduation Ball there, we got given a free drink as we entered through the gatehouse. The place was massive, and by night, not too much to be seen. The Conservative students always had their ball there too, but I'd rather have died than go to one of those lol.
Simon Douglas Thompson
Thanks Simon - yes agree re: skipper id - for some weird reason I can always identify skipper species easily from other people's photos but not my own!
Nice place to have a Graduation Ball. It is big and I would feel the same about Conservative Ball!
Looks a wonderful place to visit. I've enjoyed all your photos and I love the donkey and the bench ends in the chapel:)
Rosie - Thanks so much :) When I discovered how old the bench ends were I wished I had taken photos of them all! There were another couple in the church at the same time though and I didn't like to take too many photos or use the flash.
Yes, I was also interested in those bench ends, wondering if they are a particularly West Country phenomenon? My all time favourite is the mermaid in Zennor - here.
Caroline Gill - thanks Caroline. I did get photos of a couple of others but they were a bit blurred. So wish now, after discovering they were so old, I had taken pictures of them all. Very interesting about the mermaid at Zennor - thanks so much for the link. When I get chance will have a look at some of my books on churches and see if there is any mention of West Country carvings and let you know if there is in a comment on your blog.
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