Castle Hill, Filleigh

Castle Hill in the parish of Filleigh in North Devon, is an early Palladian country house situated 3 miles north-west of South Molton and 8 miles south-east of Barnstaple. It was built in 1730 by Hugh Fortescue, 14th Baron Clinton (1696–1751), who was later created in 1751 1st Baron Fortescue and 1st Earl of Clinton, the son of Hugh Fortescue (died 1719), lord of the manor of Filleigh, Weare Giffard, etc., whose family is earliest recorded as residing in the 12th century at the manor of Whympston in the parish of Modbury in South Devon. The Fortescue family became major land owners, influential in British and West Country history. Castle Hill is a rare example in Devon of an 18th-century country mansion "on the grand scale" and forms a highly impressive, unmissable and even dominating sight from the public highway which was, until 1988 when the A361 North Devon Link Road was opened, the main road west to Barnstaple and which appears purposely to meander past to afford the traveller maximum viewing opportunities. The house was substantially reconstructed following a disastrous fire in 1934. It was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1967. The park and gardens are Grade I listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Today the property is leased by Eleanor, Countess of Arran (born 1949), the grand-daughter of Hugh Fortescue, 5th Earl Fortescue (1888–1958). The only historic residence of the Fortescue family now remaining as a seat of the Earls Fortescue is Ebrington Manor in Gloucestershire, a very modest building in comparison to Castle Hill.

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