Coleton Fishacre (Devon, England)

Coleton Fishacre was in my top 5 gardens on the tour. This Arts & Crafts style house and garden was the country home of Rupert D'Oyly Carte and his wife Lady Dorothy Carte.  He was the well-known theater owner (The Savoy) and producer (Gilbert & Sullivan).  They spotted the property from their yacht and thought it would be a great spot for a country home and garden. Ah, to have that much money...

They commissioned Oswald Milne, a former student of Edward Lutyens to design the house. Both Rupert and Lady Dorothy were interested in gardening but it was Lady Dorothy who mainly planted the garden, filling it with exotic and tender plants that survived with the influence of the Gulf stream. They employed six full-time gardeners!

I often wonder if people who have that much money are really able to enjoy a property like this and actually live in it?  Their tenure here wasn't that long (a dozen years or so), although Dorothy lived here full-time in the late 1920s, with Rupert driving down from London on weekends. They had two children, and the son was tragically killed in an automobile accident at the age of 20. In 1941, Rupert divorced Lady Dorothy on grounds of adultery. He would die six years later, and their daughter Bridget D'Oyly Carte, inherited the business and the house. She never married and was the end of the family line. Although she continued to run the theater and hotels, she sold Coleton Fishacre one year after her father's death in 1948. 

The new owners, car dealer Rowland Smith and his wife Freda would live at Coleton Fishacre for the next three decades. Freda sold the property to the National Trust following the death of Rowland in 1979.

As you enter, you encounter a huge parking lot and the back of the house, so the garden that spills down the bluff toward the ocean is hidden at first. The plantings closest to the house are terraced.

One of the first garden rooms is the Rill Garden -

As you descend the paths down to the ocean, the plantings are more exotic with echium, acacia, embothrium, etc. -

Farther away from the house, more naturalistic plantings -

Back in the day, the view to the ocean was visible from the house. Now, trees and large plants obscure the view. 

Next, I will share some photos of the art deco interior of the house.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy