Gogwell House, Devon, Tiverton

Gogwell has a truly magical setting, it is nestled in the Mid-Devon hills surrounded by acres of farmland with enormous South facing views that stretch for miles. It is a gorgeously comfortable house which sleeps between 2 and 14 people. Dogs welcome.

Downstairs

Gogwell is blessed with the most magical of settings. It sits on the top of Newte’s Hill facing South, overlooking rolling Devon hills. We recently opened the house up to take advantage of the huge views and natural light. There are windows on all sides.

The lovely kitchen opens into the dining room, onto the veranda, the garden and on – making it a great place to spend time.

It is also warm and comfortable; there are lots of oak floors and we kept the Aga, there is an open fire in each sitting room and we put in a new wood burning stove in the dining room.

The kitchen is very well equipped with lots of oven space, (an Aga, two extra ovens and hobs), two dishwashers, an American fridge, lots of pots and pans, potato peelers to oyster shuckers, gadgets and mixers and lots of pretty plates and crockery.

There are also two downstairs loos.

Upstairs

Gogwell has six double bedrooms – usually configured as four double rooms with super king beds and two twins – but can be reorganised. Since people spend about a third of their Gogwell time upstairs, we have selected the cosiest of beds and high thread count linens.

There are four bathrooms, two are en-suites, there’s a Jack & Jill, and a bathroom shared by the remaining two rooms, there are showers in all, and baths in two.

Gogwell is perfectly comfortable and rather lovely for any size party. When there are extras, it will stretch with a couple of beds in the Owl House and in the dressing room that is through the master bedroom. We also have a cot.

We have recently renovated a single storey barn – perfect for anyone who wants to get away from the main party, but it is also designed for people who can’t manage the stairs. There is a bedroom with French doors onto the back lawn, an en-suite bathroom and a large oak floored sitting room, with a wood burner.

Outside

Gogwell sits on top of a hill at the end of its own half-a-mile drive. It is very private, very beautiful and blessed with stupendous South facing views right out to the Sidmouth Gap.

The house opens onto the veranda, which is South facing, it overlooks the croquet lawn and onto the view, and is covered in grape vine.

This is really a very important part of the house, it’s a great place for breakfasts, lunches, BBQs, for cocktails and reading, and is a soulful relaxing place – everyone’s favourite ‘room’. The veranda opens onto the croquet lawn.

The rest of the acre or so garden is fenced and a mixture of orchards, hide and seek spots, lovely trees, the swing, hammocks and of course, the pool.

The old stables have been turned into a games room which has a ping pong table, darts, badminton, rounders, swing ball, cricket bats and more.

The Pool

The heated pool is utterly gorgeous, it’s up and running between April and October. It’s 15m long, perfect for lengths but also it has two shallow ends and is great for home rules water polo. Many children have learnt to swim here, and many a gin and tonic has been drunk (in plastic glasses) on the floating bean bags.