Simonsbath

Simonsbath House in the valley of the River Barle

Simonsbath House was built in 1654 [7] by the merchant, lawyer and philosopher James Boevey (1622–1696), the warden of the Royal forest of Exmoor, and for 150 years his was the only house in the forest, which consists largely of moorland. The Grade II listed building is now the Simonsbath House Hotel[8] and outdoor activity centre.[9]

Sale particulars published in 1818. Somerset Archives.

On 4 July 1815 an Act of Parliament was passed to enable the Inclosure of Exmoor ("55 George III, Cap. 138"), the summary heading of which was: "An Act for vesting in His Majesty certain parts of the Forest of Exmoor otherwise Exmore in the counties of Somerset and Devon and for enclosing the said Forest".[10] After the Forest had been split into allotments and these had been conveyed to the persons who formerly possessed rights over the Forest, 12/22nds of the whole remained the property of the King,[11] which equated to 10,262 1/4 acres, and was formally allotted to him as his personal property in the same way as the other shares went to the traditional graziers and owner of the tithes (Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet (1787–1871), of Holnicote, who received 1/8th of the total[12]), etc. In 1818 the following sales particulars were published by HM Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues:[13]

"Particulars of a freehold farm belonging to His Majesty and of the allotments (tithe free) made to His Majesty on the Inclosure of Exmoor Forest in the counties of Somerset and Devon to be sold by public tender on 23d day of July 1818, viz. the farm called Simon's Bath Farm situated within the said forest (which farm is enclosed & separated from the unenclosed land) containing by estimation 108 a(cres) 2 r(ods) 0 p(erches) & these several allotments of waste land situated in the center of the said forest contiguous & adjoining to each other and to the farm above mentioned & numbered on the map 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 and containing in the whole 10,262 a(cres) 1 r(od) 6 p(erches). In one lot".

Simonsbath House

View from Simonsbath House downstream along the River Barle

Simonsbath Parish Church, St Luke's, viewed from the south, with tomb monument of Frederick Winn Knight (d.1897) and his wife Dame Florence (d.1900) and their son Frederick Sebright Knight who pre-deceased both his parents in 1879

The highest bidder was John Knight of Lea Castle, Wolverley, Worcestershire, whose bid was £50,122. He thus acquired 10,262 1/4 acres, and soon thereafter set about buying up the allotments made to the former graziers and owner of the tithes. This brought his holding to about 20,000 acres. Knight was descended from a wealthy family of Ironmasters. Knight set about converting the Royal Forest, covering land now within the Exmoor National Park, into a huge industrial mining complex with canals and railways together with an agricultural estate. He had previously bought and reclaimed uncultivated land in Worcestershire and used similar techniques including burning rough grass, applying lime to change the pH, and ploughing to increase the productivity of the land. He also introduced the Cheviot sheep to the area which are now common throughout Exmoor.[14]

Knight and his son Col. Sir Frederick Winn Knight (1812–1897), KCB, MP, who assumed management in 1841,[15] built most of the large farms in the central section of the moor and laid down 22 miles (35 km) of metalled access roads to Simonsbath. He built a 29 miles (47 km) stone wall around his estate, parts of which still survive.[16] However, progress was slow, and Richard Nicholls Worth stated in 1879 in his "Tourist's Guide to North Devon and the Exmoor district":[17]

"The mansion was never finished; cultivation has not spread far from the farmstead centres; the walls bother the sportsman more than the deer; and the bogs are as deep, the inner recesses of the moors as wild and solitary, and the coarse grass, and the bracken, and the heathers supreme in their occupancy mile after mile, as if no effort had ever been made to redeem its mingled wildness and sterility."

Emmetts Grange, near Simonsbath, is a largely unaltered example of one of the 'Knight' farmsteads built in the 1840s with the intention of reclaiming large tracts of Exmoor Forest as agricultural land. The farmhouse is the southernmost range of buildings around a large rectangular open courtyard; single storey agricultural buildings enclose the E, N and W sides of the courtyard

The small hamlet developed in the 19th century, when more houses were built along with St Luke's Church (1856), providing a centre for the population. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[18] At around the same time as the construction of the church, a mine was developed alongside the River Barle. The mine was originally called Wheal Maria, then changed to Wheal Eliza. It was a copper mine from 1845–54 and then an iron mine until 1857, although the first mining activity on the site may be from 1552.[19] A restored Victorian water-powered sawmill in the village, which was damaged in the floods of 1992, has now been purchased by the National Park and returned to working order, making the footpath signs, gates, stiles, and bridges for various sites in the National Park.[20][21]

Cairn commemorating Sir John William Fortescue (d.1933), fifth son of 3rd Earl Fortescue, librarian at Windsor Castle 1905–26 and best known for his sixteen-volume History of the British Army. After his death his ashes were scattered locally and a cairn built in his memory, placed midway between Simonsbath and Emmett's Grange.[22]

Stag wind-vane atop Diana Lodge (now Simonsbath House) the former hunting-box of the Earls Fortescue. The metal stag received a rifle bullet through the chest from Stan Curtis, the Fortescue bailiff, during a target-practice session with the young Fortescue boys on the opposite side of the valley.[23]

The reversion of the Simonsbath estate, (referred to also as the "Exmoor estate" by the Fortescues) comprising about 20,000 acres of Exmoor, was purchased from Sir Frederick Knight, following the early death of his only son Frederick Sebright Winn Knight, JP, Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset, in 1879, aged only 28, by Viscount Ebrington, the future Hugh Fortescue, 4th Earl Fortescue (1854–1932), whose family's principal seat was Castle Hill, Filleigh, ten miles SW of Simonsbath. It is thought he was mainly motivated in his purchase by his great fondness for stag-hunting; he served as Master, and later Chairman, of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. A painting of him out hunting by Lionel Edwards is owned by his granddaughter Lady Margaret Fortescue. He established, with other landowners, the Badgworthy Land Company, to which were conveyed some freehold land around Badgworthy Water and also the hunting rights in perpetuity over much of the land on Exmoor and of that surrounding it. This was designed to ensure that future owners of piecemeal plots, unfavourably disposed to hunting, would not be able to restrict access to the historic wide expanses of hunting land used by the Devon & Somerset Staghounds and local foxhound packs. When Castle Hill burned down in 1934, the 5th Earl Fortescue resided with his wife and two young daughters at Simonsbath House, previously only used by the family as a hunting box, then named Diana Lodge after the Roman goddess of the hunt, moving back to the rebuilt Castle Hill in May 1936. Lady Margaret Fortescue expressed very fond memories of her childhood at Simonsbath, where she lived between the ages of 11 to 13, having been brought up at Ebrington Manor in Gloucestershire until the family's move to Castle Hill in 1932 on the death of her grandfather the 4th Earl. She recalled in 2001 that Diana Lodge then had panelled rooms downstairs, still in existence, with primitive bedrooms upstairs, linoleum on the floor and one bathroom between the whole family. It was always cold and was heated by smoky peat fires. There was a large team of domestic staff to serve the family, including butler, footman, valet, lady's maid, housemaids, cook, kitchen maids, a scullery maid and odd-job man, some of whom lived in the village.[24] Much of her time was spent hunting on Exmoor with the rest of her family and her young cousins, the children of her uncle Hon. Denzil Fortescue, later the 6th Earl, who had rented nearby Emmett's Grange.

In 1927 the eastern part of the estate, comprising 1,745 acres, was sold to the industrialist Sir Robert Waley Cohen (d.1952), who had leased Honeymead since 1924, including the farmsteads of Honeymead, Pickedstones and Winstitchen. The remainder of the estate continued to be held by the Fortescues until after the death of the 5th Earl in 1958, when the latter's eldest daughter and co-heiress, Lady Margaret Fortescue (b. 1923), sold much of the Simonsbath estate, together with much of the two Fortescue estates centred on Challacombe and West Buckland, to pay large death duties.[25][26] The properties sold were as follows, per the sales particulars headed "The Challacombe Estate and part of the Exmoor Estate, North Devon" dated 18 September 1959:[27]

• EXMOOR
  • Driver Farm, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Driver Cottages, Driver Farm, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Pinkery Farm, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Hoar Oak Herding, Lynton and Lynmouth
  • Exmoor Forest Hotel, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Emmetts Grange Farm, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Wintershead Farm, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Wintershead Cottages, Wintershead Farm, Exmoor
  • 1 Wintershead Cottages, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Horsen Farm, Simonsbath, Exmoor
  • Wintershead Cottages, Horsen Farm, Exmoor
  • 2 Wintershead Cottages, Simonsbath, Exmoor
• KENTISBURY
  • Breadwick Farm, Kentisbury
  • Northbrook Cottage, Breadwick Farm, Kentisbury
  • Bridwick Cottage, Breadwick Farm, Kentisbury
  • Wistlandpound Farm, Kentisbury
• CHALLACOMBE
  • Westland Farm, Challacombe
  • Little Rowley, Westland Farm, Challacombe
  • Whitefield Barton, Challacombe
  • Twitchen Farm, Challacombe
  • South Swincombe Farm, Challacombe
  • Home Place Farm, Challacombe
  • Shoulsbarrow Farm, Challacombe
  • Buscombe Farm, Challacombe
  • Rooksfoot Cottage, Shoulsbarrow Farm, Challacombe
  • Barton Town Farm, Challacombe
  • Challacombe Mill Farm, Challacombe
  • Twineford Farm, Challacombe
  • Withecombe Farm, Challacombe
  • North Swincombe Farm, Challacombe
  • North Barton Farm, Challacombe
  • West Barton Gate Smallholding, Challacombe
  • East Barton Gate Smallholding, Challacombe
  • Ring Of Bells Inn, Challacombe
  • Bickfont Smallholding, Challacombe
  • School House, Challacombe
  • Village Hall, Challacombe
  • 2 Church Cottages, Challacombe

It was a decision she said in 2001 that she then regretted, but had been advised at the time not to burden the remaining estate with the large borrowing required to meet the tax bill. She did, however, retain what she termed "the heart of the Exmoor estate" and started to farm this land in-hand using her own employees, not renewing tenancies on farms when they expired. She established five large flocks of sheep and two large cattle herds, the latter based at Cornham and Simonsbath Barton. Simonsbath sawmill was closed down as it was unprofitable. In 1989 Lady Margaret handed over the family estates to her daughter the Countess of Arran, who, later on, sold the remainder of the Simonsbath estate, namely the Barton and Cornham, to John Ewart, a keen follower of the Staghounds, whilst Exmoor National Park purchased much of the moorland. Some of the houses, however, were retained where occupied by retired Fortescue employees.

In June 2006 Ewart offered Simonsbath Barton estate for sale via estate agents Savills and Strutt & Parker. This estate was built originally as the home-farm for Simonsbath House, and is situated nearby. The land offered comprised 2,080 acres freehold and a further 3,788 acres rented under a grazing licence from Exmoor National Park expiring in 2031. Also included was a five-bedroom house, another of four bedrooms, and a range of buildings and cottages. The land was then generating £378,333 per annum in government farming grants and subsidies, whilst further profit was accruing from the farming operations which comprised a 640-head home-bred suckler calf herd and a flock of 2,500 Scotch Blackface ewes. The asking price was £4 1/2 million.[28]