Lord Haldon Hotel: The Surviving Wing of Haldon House

The Lord Haldon Hotel stands as the last architectural remnant of one of Devon’s most magnificent Georgian country houses. What guests experience today as a charming country hotel is, in fact, the surviving north wing of the grand Haldon House, a palatial mansion that once dominated the eastern slopes of the Haldon Hills in the parish of Dunchideock, near Exeter.

The Chudleigh Era: Building a Georgian Masterpiece

The story of this remarkable building begins in approximately 1735, when Sir George Chudleigh, 4th Baronet, constructed Haldon House as his new family seat. According to architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, the mansion was supposedly influenced by Buckingham House in London, built around 1715. Sir George’s decision to build here marked a significant departure from tradition - his family had resided at nearby Ashton House, on the western side of Haldon Hill, since approximately 1320. By abandoning the ancient family seat to create this new Georgian marvel on the eastern slopes, Sir George demonstrated the fashionable architectural aspirations of the early 18th century.

The location Sir George chose was both strategic and scenic. Dunchideock itself has ancient roots - the name derives from the Common Brittonic language, first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as “Donsedoc,” meaning “wooded fort.” The area was already steeped in history, with nearby Cotley Castle representing an Iron Age hill fort that gave the parish its original name.

When Sir George died in 1738, he left behind four daughters who became co-heiresses to the estate. The second daughter, Frances, inherited Haldon and Ashton as her portion. She subsequently married Sir John Chichester, 5th Baronet, who already possessed the grand Youlston Park in North Devon and had little need for another country seat. The property passed through several hands before finding its most famous owner.

The Palk Dynasty: East India Company Wealth Transforms the Estate

Around 1770, Haldon House was purchased for £10,000 by Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet, a man whose extraordinary career had taken him from humble beginnings in Devon to the governorship of Madras Province in India. Born in December 1717 at Lower Headborough Farm in Ashburton, Robert Palk’s father Walter was a yeoman farmer who supplemented his income by carrying cloth from Ashburton mills over Haldon Hill to Exeter market - a route that would later bring the family back to this very landscape.

Sir Robert’s transformation of Haldon House reflected both his newfound wealth and his sophisticated tastes developed during his years in India. He immediately began extensive renovations and improvements, adding two protruding wings to the eastward-facing front and undertaking significant landscape works. According to contemporary observer Richard Polwhele, writing in 1793, Palk lowered the ground in front of the house so that rooms formerly in the basement became visible, effectively creating a four-story facade instead of three. He also covered the original brick construction with stucco to create the impression of stone, and installed two “geometrical staircases” along with a remarkable new hall floor made from red and yellow wood that he had “taken from the French at one of the sieges” during his service in the East Indies.

The grounds received equal attention. Thousands of trees were planted across the previously “wild and bare” Haldon Hills, and an existing decorative garden was relocated further from the house to allow for fifty acres of landscaped lawns “with suitable plantations.” This transformation created the parkland setting that characterizes the area today.

General Stringer Lawrence and the Lawrence Tower

One of the most significant aspects of Haldon House during the Palk era was its association with Major-General Stringer Lawrence, known as the “Father of the Indian Army.” Lawrence had become Sir Robert’s lifelong friend during their service together in India, and upon his retirement, he spent much of his time as a guest at Haldon House. When Lawrence died in 1775, he bequeathed the enormous sum of £50,000 to Sir Robert - a testament to their deep friendship.

In 1788, Sir Robert erected a lasting memorial to his friend: the triangular Lawrence Tower, now known as Haldon Belvedere. Standing 26 meters high on the ridge of the hills about a mile southwest of the house, this Gothic Revival tower became a prominent landmark visible for miles around. The tower contains a larger-than-life Coade stone statue of Stringer Lawrence dressed as a Roman general, along with three large memorial tablets detailing his distinguished military career. Both Sir Robert Palk and General Lawrence were eventually buried in the nearby church of St. Michael in Dunchideock, where their memorials can still be seen today.

The tower’s commanding position made it a destination for distinguished visitors. King George III himself visited Haldon House and was escorted by Sir Robert along a specially constructed carriage drive to view the Lawrence Tower, demonstrating the property’s significance in Georgian high society.

Decline and Demolition: The End of an Era

The later Palk generations preferred their properties in Torquay, whose development the family was instrumental in promoting. Sir Lawrence Palk, 4th Baronet, was created Baron Haldon in 1880, but by this time the family’s attention had shifted away from their ancestral seat on Haldon Hill.

The estate’s fortunes declined dramatically under Lawrence Hesketh Palk, 2nd Baron Haldon, a passionate gambler who had inherited massive mortgage debts estimated at £400,000. Declared bankrupt in January 1891, he was forced to sell the art and valuables from Haldon House the following month. The house itself was sold in 1892 to Thomas Bedford Bolitho, a Cornish banker and Member of Parliament.

In 1897, the property was purchased by James FitzGerald Bannatyne, a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Devon, who was also one of the nine original subscribers to the company that became Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company. Remarkably, Marconi conducted some of his early radio transmission experiments from the top of the Haldon Hills during this period. However, tragedy struck the Bannatyne family when their only son, Major James Fitzgerald Bannatyne, was killed in action during World War I in 1916.

Mrs. Bannatyne moved away in 1919 and put the estate up for sale. Finding no single buyer, the estate was broken up and sold piecemeal. By the time of its demolition in 1925, this once-magnificent mansion boasted six grand reception rooms, 38 bedrooms, a ballroom, theatre, and chapel seating 100 people. Yet despite its grandeur, no buyer could be found, and the house was demolished, with only the north wing - comprising the entrance front of the stable block with its distinctive paired pavilions linked by a triumphal arch - surviving the destruction.

Transformation into the Lord Haldon Hotel

The surviving north wing, with its elegant Georgian proportions and historic character, found new life as a country hotel. The conversion preserved the essential architectural elements that had made this building part of one of Devon’s most important country houses. The two cuboid lodges linked by a screen pierced by a triumphal arch, which Haldon House’s architectural historian notes were originally flanked by matching pavilions on the south side, now serve as the core of the hotel accommodation.

Today’s Lord Haldon Hotel thus represents far more than a simple 18th-century country house conversion. It is the tangible remnant of a grand Georgian estate that connected Devon society with the wider British Empire through the East India Company, witnessed the friendship between two of Britain’s most significant colonial figures, and hosted royalty in its heyday. The hotel’s location in Dunchideock, surrounded by Sir Robert Palk’s planted woodlands and within sight of the Lawrence Tower that still crowns Haldon Hill, provides guests with an authentic connection to one of the most fascinating chapters in Devon’s Georgian history.

The survival of this architectural fragment allows visitors to experience something of the grandeur that once characterised Haldon House, while the broader landscape - from the ancient parish church of St. Michael where the builders and owners lie buried, to the commanding presence of Lawrence Tower on the skyline - tells the complete story of this remarkable estate’s rise, golden age, and ultimate transformation into the charming country hotel that welcomes guests today.