Halsdon House

Halsdon House was the seat of the Furse family among them the poet William Cory, brother of then owner C. W. Furse who later became Archdeacon of Westminster.  It remained in the Furse family until the early 1980s. It has an early Victorian front but the house behind is late seventeenth century. Sale particulars of 1903 mentioned the woodland walks through beautiful hanging woods along the Torridge valley, the pleasure grounds, gardens and timbered-park-like lands surrounding the house; old turf lawns, shrubberies, walls with rose arches and parterres, the whole being finely timbered with grand specimen conifers, fine growths of rhododendrons and flowering shrubs etc. including many rare specimens. In addition to the walks and rides there is mention of a pheasantry.

House, barn and coach house 15m. north, ’The Colt’s Stable’ 30m.south west, stables 35m. north east, dovecot 100m. north all listed Grade II

Cherry & Pevsner: The Buildings of England – Devon, 1989: 338
T Gray: The Garden History of Devon, 1995: 118-19