Churston Court is the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with ...

of the former manor of

Churston Ferrers Churston Ferrers is an area and former civil parish, in the borough of Torbay, Devon, England, situated between the south coast towns of Paignton and Brixham. Today it is administered by local government as the Churston-with-Galmpton ward of th ...

(anciently ''Cercetone'' (

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, 1086), ''Churecheton'' (

Book of Fees The ''Book of Fees'' is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the medieval (Latin: 'Book of Fiefs'), being a listing of feudal landholdings or fief (Middle English ), compiled in about 1302, but f ...

, 13th c.), ''Churchstow'', ''Churchton'', ''Churchston'', etc.), near

Brixham Brixham is a coastal town and civil parish, the smallest and southernmost of the three main population centres (the others being Paignton and Torquay) on the coast of Torbay in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. Commercial fis ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is a ...

and is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Description

Today, the building serves as a hotel known as the Churston Court Inn. It is located immediately to the west of the parish church of Churston Ferrers, also next to the former home farm, and about 1/2 mile south of the coastline at Elberry Cove, which intervening ground now forms part of Churston Golf Course. It retains its original staircases, stone windows, oak panelling and flagstone floors. The hotel has 19 en-suite rooms with four-poster beds and is said to be haunted by the ghost of a monk who appears in the old kitchen. There is a smugglers tunnel linking the inn to Elberry Cove, which lies about half a mile away. There is also rumoured to be a link tunnel running over 10 miles to

Berry Pomeroy Berry Pomeroy is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England, east of the town of Totnes. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Ipplepen, Marldon, Torbay (unitary authority), Stoke Gabr ...

from the inn. These tunnels were driven more than 400 years ago, so the quality and stability of the passages are no longer known. It is not known if the mine workings under Warborough Road, Churston contain any linking passages to the old smugglers' tunnel due to the Warborough adits being untraceable or backfilled under the overgrown thicket. In a recent planning application regarding works at number 2 Warborough Road, it is documented that one of the deep shafts is capped underneath the property's garden.

History

Until 1967 the house was a seat of the Yarde family, later of their descendants the Yard-Buller family (in 1858 created

Baron Churston Baron Churston, of Churston Ferrers and Lupton in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1858 for the former Conservative Member of Parliament, Sir John Yarde, 3rd Baronet. He had earlier repr ...

) also seated at Lupton House, 1 mile due south in the same parish, a larger house. In 1850, when it was described as "lately...modernised (with)...tasteful grounds", John Yarde-Buller, 3rd Baronet (1799-1871) (after 1858

), whose paternal grandmother was Susanna Yarde (1740-1810), heiress of Churston, was using it as a residence for his eldest son,White's Directory, 1850 himself residing at the grander Lupton House.

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

was a regular visitor when the property was owned by Lord Churston. She donated a stained glass window to the parish church and is believed to have been inspired to write her 1923 murder mystery novel ''

The Murder on the Links ''The Murder on the Links'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company, Dodd, Mead & Co in March 1923, and in the UK by The Bodley Head in May of the same year. It is the second novel ...

'', about a murder on a golf course in Northern France, whilst a guest at Churston Court. Lord Churston sold the property in 1967, having sold the major part of the Lupton and Churston estates in 1960. Churston Court was purchased by a local hotelier, the owner of the Grand Hotel in nearby Torquay. Lord Churston moved to Guernsey, thus severing his ties with Churston Ferrers. Since its sale, various alterations have been made to the structure of the building, most notably an extension to the side and rear.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site
Buildings and structures completed in the 12th century Grade II* listed buildings in Devon Hotels in Devon

Description

History

Further reading

References

External links