Prideaux Place

About

Completed by Sir Nicholas Prideaux in 1592 this stunningly beautiful Elizabethan manor house, home to fourteen generations of Prideaux, overlooks the Camel Estuary ‘An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’, and the bustling picturesque fishing port of Padstow to Bodmin Moor beyond.

The Prideaux family have been prominent in Cornwall for longer than that, being recorded as Lords of Prideaux Castle at Luxulyan at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, indeed Peter Prideaux-Brune is a direct descendant of William the Conqueror.

Prideaux Place has changed little in the last two centuries. The house as seen today is almost entirely the work of three members of the family, Sir Nicholas Prideaux in the 16th Century, Edmund Prideaux in the 18th Century and the Revd. Charles Prideaux in the early 19th Century. It now combines its traditional Elizabethan architecture with the exuberance of fine Horace Walpole Style Strawberry Hill Gothic with later Georgian additions. No Victorian fashion spoils this very Cornish house.

The topographical drawings by Edmund Prideaux, who travelled extensively, are some of the most treasured documents in the house and they are of huge historical value often helping with research, more recently with the detailed restoration of a window at Blickling Hall in Norfolk.

When Peter and Elisabeth arrived in 1988 a huge challenge lay before them. With dry rot, wet rot and most of the rooms under scaffolding there was also a large garden which had become completely overgrown. Today with the on-going restoration the house and the surrounding gardens are once more beginning to flourish.

The house, whilst still remaining very much a family home, opened to the public in 1987 and is now an internationally renowned film and television location. Visitors are enchanted by its cornucopia of Cornish history from tales of the Civil War, the 16th Century plasterwork ceiling of the Great Chamber, fine panelling, paintings and porcelain to its part leading up to the D-Day landings and a Japanese mother of pearl Namban chest, one of only three to survive from the time of the Armada.

From the house one overlooks the park with its fine herd of fallow deer. It is thought to be the oldest deer park in the country dating back to the 5th Century and its enclosure by the Romans. Legend has it that if the deer die out so does the Prideaux family.

Most recently the stunning and completely unspoilt cliff scenery on Estate land between Trevone Bay and Stepper Point at the mouth of the Camel Estuary has been used for the filming of Poldark.

Open air theatre, open air concerts, car rallies, art exhibitions, charity events. Corporate Hospitality/Functions: By arrangement. Suitablity for the Disabled: Partial. Ground floor & grounds. Refreshments/Cafe/Tearoom: Fully licensed. Guided Tours: Obligatory. Education/School Visits: By arrangement. Suitability for Dogs: On leads.