"The field with the best view'
Country Life UK|March 20, 2024
From an impeccably renovated terrace of farmworkers’ cottages to a grand old hall, Cornwall's character and beauty are unparalleled
"The field with the best view'

BOUNDED to the east by the River Tamar, which marks the boundary between Devon and Cornwall, sparsely populated North Tamerton-previously located in Devon, but now part of Cornwallis the only parish in the county that includes land east of the Tamar. Medieval North Tamerton, 'the town of the Tamar', which overlooks the confluence of the great river and its tributary, the Deer, is the only village in this landscape of hamlets and farmsteads. Here, in the mid to late 1500s, Leonard Lovis (or Loveys), Elizabeth I's treasurer for Cornwall and Devon, built his grand family seat, Ogbeare Hall.

The 1973 autumn edition of Old Cornwall, published by the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, sets the scene: 'Ogbeare Hall may be approached from the road at nearby Hornacott Chapel. This way winds through woodland, and the first glimpse of the Hall, set a bit below the ridge of the hill, makes it appear somewhat incongruous, as if a Victorian villa from a prosperous suburb had been placed in this somewhat remote Cornish district. The house was indeed rebuilt in Victorian times and subsequently modernised, but it still has at its heart The Great Hall, with its granite fireplace, stone mullioned windows and fine wooden roof, which remind one of Cotehele [near Saltash] or Trecarrol [Trecarrell, at nearby Launceston]. Outside, built into the walls or lying beside them, are stones from the earlier Hall in which lived Leonard Lovis.'

Kelly's Directory of 1889 records that Ogbeare Hall had 'recently been restored and enlarged', presumably by Maj Joseph Holt, who was one of the principal local landowners and lived in the house at that time. According to its 1961 listing entry, Ogbeare Hall, then used as an old people's home, was listed Grade II* and described as being 'encased on the north, south and west sides in a late19th-century Gothic-style gabled house of two storeys with stone mullion windows and a three-storeyed tower with a pyramidal roof.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM COUNTRY LIFE UKView all
Save our family farms
Country Life UK

Save our family farms

IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
A very good dog
Country Life UK

A very good dog

THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
The great astral sneeze
Country Life UK

The great astral sneeze

Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
'What a good boy am I'
Country Life UK

'What a good boy am I'

We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Forever a chorister
Country Life UK

Forever a chorister

The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death

time-read
4 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Best of British
Country Life UK

Best of British

In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Old habits die hard
Country Life UK

Old habits die hard

Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves

time-read
4 mins  |
November 27, 2024
It takes the biscuit
Country Life UK

It takes the biscuit

Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024
It's always darkest before the dawn
Country Life UK

It's always darkest before the dawn

After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat

time-read
4 mins  |
November 27, 2024
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
Country Life UK

Tarrying in the mulberry shade

On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 27, 2024