Penheale Manor, Launceston, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.   

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The manor of Penheale passed by marriage to the Boterell family in the reign of Henry VI. It was sold in 1572 to George Grenville, whose family had already leased the property. George Grenville's son, also George, sold Penheale to a relation by marriage, Sir John Specott, in the early 17th century. Sir John built new stables which were completed in 1620, while his second son, Paul, who inherited in about 1630, made alterations to the house and built the gatehouse about 1636 (date stone). The estate continued in the Specott family until the early 20th century, but in the late 18th century the house was divided into three separate dwellings, and in the early 19th century fell into a near-derelict state (Country Life (CL) 1925). Despite this decline, in 1820 Gilbert commented on the 'noble terrace, with a bowling green, and a fine fish pond' in the gardens, while in the mid 19th century it was noted that, 'the adjoining gardens and fish ponds are in good keeping with the mansion; and the main entrance is through an avenue of fine lime trees, whose growth is only excelled by the magnificent chestnuts and oaks of the surrounding groves' (Lake 1867).

In 1920 the estate was sold to Captain Norman Colville, who moved to Cornwall from Scotland for his health (Pett 1998). In the same year Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) was commissioned to make additions to the house, and to design a new formal garden (Brown 1982). Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) provided planting plans which were used as the basis of planting schemes developed during the mid 20th century by Mrs Colville and the gardener, Mr J A R Moffat (Pett 1998). Captain Colville's commission to Lutyens is said to have been inspired by a visit to Castle Drogo, Devon. In the 1920s Captain Colville himself designed a formal rose garden and a terraced parterre enclosed within yew hedges, which occupied the site of an earlier kitchen garden (CL 1925).

Today (2000) the site remains in private ownership.