Follaton House

Follaton House is now the premises of South Hams District Council.This is an important historical site, which has been in existence since the eleventh century, and for 130 years from the eighteenth century in the hands of the Cary family of Devon. George Stanley Repton, architect son of the Landscape Gardener, Humphry Repton, was responsible for altering and enlarging the house in 1826. The property has been through many different guises from being a Voluntary Aid Hospital in the first World War to becoming a holiday venue for almost forty years from the 1920s. Its springs were an important source of an additional water supply for the town of Totnes from the nineteenth century. The whole estate was bought by the Totnes Town Council in 1925 to ensure control and continuance of the supply at a reasonable cost.  The house, farm and lodge that were surplus to their requirements were sold to the Co-operative Holidays Association and to Totnes citizens, the Council retaining the water rights. The property was acquired by Totnes Rural District Council in 1965 and they hold it still. Currently the outer parkland, known now as Follaton Arboretum, which has been used by the local community for many years is in the process of becoming a public park for the people of Totnes.

For more details see the Follaton House report.