We bought Knightstone Manor in the year 2000. Since we sold our yacht Adèle in 2007 we live most of our time at Knightstone. It is situated outside Ottery St. Mary in Devon in southwest England.

Knightstone was built by Thomas de Bittlesgate in 1380 and today it is one of the best preserved medieval houses in Great Britain.

As a typical medieval Hall House, it has a central Great Hall and other living and serving areas surrounding it. Two wings together with the main house create a central courtyard. At one end is the former chapel, converted in the 16th century to more living areas. The chapel was consecrated by the bishop of Exeter in 1381.

The original land was sold to Thomas de Bittlesgate by Richard de Knightstone, son of John. Obviously the name Knightstone Manor, comes from Richard. It belonged to the Bittlesgate family for 100 years, but in 1494 the last Bittlesgate died without issue and the property was inherited by Lady Cicely, Baroness Harington and Bonville.

Lady Cicely was married to Thomas Grey, the Marques of Dorset. He was Edward IV's son in an illegitimate relationship with Elisabeth Woodville. Until the 1560ies Knightstone Manor belonged to the Grey family.

The church in Ottery St. Mary was built in 1350 (thirty years before Knightstone Manor) as a smaller version of the cathedral in Exeter. In Ottery St. Mary the bishop of Exeter organized a college for priests and the buildings around the church were all owned by the church and used for educational purposes. In the late 15th century a new magnificent aisle was added to the church by Lady Cicely. The aisle is still today called the Dorset aisle, from her title as the Marchioness of Dorset.

The Knightstone estate was passed on to the son of Thomas Grey and Lady Cicely, Henry Grey, Marques of Dorset in 1530. He married Frances, daughter of Charles Brandon, the duke of Suffolk in his marriage with the widowed Queen of France, Mary Tudor, the youngest surviving daughter of Henry VII (who had visited Knightstone in 1497). They got a daughter, Lady Jane Grey, who became Queen of England for nine days.

Henry VIII (son of Henry VII and consequently Mary’s brother) passed away in 1547, and Edward the VI, "The Boy King", inherited the throne as the only son. He ruled from the age of 9 until he passed away only 15 years old. The successor to the throne should have been Mary, eldest daugter of Henry VIII, but Mary was fiercely Catholic, daughter of the Catholic Catherine of Aragon and she later married Philip of Spain. At that time England had severed its ties with the Catholic Church and many feared (rightly) that Mary would try to stop Protestantism in England and turn back the clock.

The Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk (Henry Grey, who had now also become duke of Suffolk) conspired to put the Duke of Suffolk’s daughter Jane Grey on the throne instead of Mary. Jane Grey had a claim to the throne, as Henry VIII in his will had declared that if Edward would pass away without heirs, Jane Grey was third to the succession after his daughters Mary and Elizabeth. The Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk got Edward VI to write a will, while he was ill in bed, where he declared that his cousin Lady Jane Grey should inherit the kingdom instead of Mary.

Jane Grey was a strong believer in the new Protestant religion. More importantly, only15 years old, she could easily be controlled by her father and the Duke of Northumberland. Jane was installed as the new Queen of England in 1553. The people as well as the nobility, although most of them were Protestant as well, were afraid that by circumventing the correct order of inheritance to the throne, they would invite anarchy in the country. A rebellion took place and a huge army marched to London. Jane was forced to abdicate after only 9 days on the throne, and Mary was installed as the rightful queen.

Jane was put in the Tower of London, and would probably have remained there, but a year later another rebellion took place where the antagonists tried to reinstate Lady Jane Grey on the throne.

Queen Mary realized that as long as Jane Grey remained alive, she would provide a rallying point for further rebellions, and so Jane was beheaded in 1554. Soon thereafter her father was also beheaded and the Grey family saga tragically ended.

Queen Mary ruled until 1558, when she passed away without heirs, and Elizabeth I, her half-sister from Henry VIII marriage to Anne Boleyn, succeeded her.

When the Duke of Suffolk was beheaded in 1554, his estate passed to the crown. Knightstone Manor was later the same year sold to William Sherman from Ottery St. Mary. He had built his wealth as a wool merchant, and when he bought Knightstone Manor, he undertook substantial restorations of the manor. He put in the new windows in the Great Hall and he was probably the one who replaced the medieval screen in the hall with a permanent dividing wall between the entrance hall and the Great Hall. He also built the new fireplace in the Great Hall, adorned by the initials "GS" and "ES" after himself ("GS" stands for “Gvilielmus”) and his wife Elizabeth, and the year 1567. The medieval massive entrance door and the magnificent ceiling in the Great Hall were kept.

The son of William and Elisabeth, John Sherman, married Margaret Drake of Ash, of Sir Francis Drake family (who defeated the Spanish Armada 1588). The porch still bears a stone, dated 1607, commemorating their marriage. John and his eldest son Richard both died on the same day in 1617. A brass plate in Ottery St. Mary church still tells about John:

Did good to many, hurt to none.
Friended the rich, reliev’d the poor
Was kind to all – who can do more?
That loved Hospitality
Yet loathed Prodigality…
Each dweller and each tenant roar’d
For such a neighbour, such a Lord…
His steps his church-path so could wear,
Six years beyond the common age
He walked here in Pilgrimage.
And then one month, one very day,
Took both the Sire and Son away.

(by William Browne, author of Brittania’s Pastorals, who lived for many years at Ottery)

John Sherman’s second son, Gideon, succeeded to Knightstone in 1618, and he married a Coplestone (a local noble family). Knightstone then passed on to the Coplestones (in 1627) and remained in their ownership for two hundred years.

It is the Coplestone arms above the entrance door, but with the date (1607) and initials representing John Sherman’s marriage to Margaret Drake. The reason for this is unclear, but could possibly refer to Margaret still living in the house, when the estate was passed to the Coplestones.

The Communion vessel at Ottery St. Mary Church bears the arms of Coplestone quartering Drake of Ash and is inscribed:

The gift of Elizabeth, relict of Richard Coplestone Esq. of Knightstone in this parish, 1714.

In the church (at the south chapel) we can also find floor slabs with brasses of three members of the Sherman family, resembling medieval knights.

During Gideon Sherman’s time (1618–1627) a vaulted ceiling was built in the Great Hall, covering the original medieval beams. The ceiling later fell in, in the late 19th century, again exposing the original beams. At the same time (around 1620) the porch was added. The Coplestones also replaced the original staircase to the Minstrel’s Gallery with the new main staircase, and later built the more elegant staircase in the Solar Wing.

From the Coplestone family Knightstone was passed  to Stephen Hawtrey (connected to Eton college) and in 1803 it was sold to the Reverend Dr.Joseph  Drury, headmaster of Harrow, in whose family it remained until 1886. In 1886 it was conveyed to Matthew Ellis, who was succeeded by his son in 1913.

In 1941 Colonel Reginald Cooper acquired Knightstone Manor. Col. Cooper restored the former glory and medieval character of the gardens. His work both with the interior and the gardens is well documented among others in several articles in Country Life (1950 editions).

Interior Constructions

The medieval building from 1380 has remained more or less the same during the centuries. Nothing has really been added, but two gatehouses were removed around 1700. The masonry of the wings and part of the Great Hall is medieval in origin, but the western wall of the Great Hall (with the two large Tudor windows) was replaced in the 1560ies. The beams in the former Chapel, the Great Hall, the present master bedroom, and in the Solar are all original.

The plaster frieze in the Great Hall is Jacobean. The corbels at the foot of the ceiling beams in the hall are Romanesque in

character, made of wood and from the 14th century (when Knightstone Manor was built). They were later incorporated into the plasterwork by Gideon Sherman.

The main entrance doorway to the porch is Renaissance and probably the work of William Sherman in 1567. Similar carvings have been found on the earliest Tudor pews in Ottery Church. The flagstone paving in the entrance hall is Tudor. The fireplace in the Solar is from around 1500. The panelling in the chapel bedroom is Jacobean.

Gardens and Animals

The gardens are a main feature of Knightstone Manor. In its present form they were created by Colonel Reginald Cooper, and they are now lovingly retained and expanded upon by our gardener, Lewis Atkin.

We have built up a vegetable garden and have a few chickens that are laying eggs. In the south field, two llamas Jan and Eric, and two rare breed Jacob's sheep, Sanna and Kina are happily grazing.

Our faithful dogs Nallah, a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Chucky, a brown Newfoundland enjoy full run of the grounds.

In the parkland to the west of Knightstone the badgers have a home and can be seen at night time. And in the pond nearby, the wild ducks are now staying with us year after year.