Chudleigh

Activists who oppose the building of new roads will find little sympathy in this former coaching town on what used to be the main thoroughfare between Exeter and Plymouth. By the 1960s, the volume of traffic had reached unbearable levels, especially during the holiday season. Mercifully, the dual carriageway A38 now bypasses the little town and it is once again possible to enjoy Chudleigh’s 14th-century church, containing some fine memorials to the Courtenay family, and its former Grammar School nearby, which was founded in 1668. (It is now a private house.) It was at the coaching inn here that William of Orange stayed after he landed at Torbay. From one of its windows, the new king addressed the good people of Chudleigh. The Dutchman’s English was so bad, however, they were unable to understand what he was saying. They cheered him anyway.

Clifford Street is named after Sir Thomas Clifford, Lord Treasurer to Charles II and a member of the king’s notorious Cabal, his secretive inner cabinet. As was the custom then, Sir Thomas used his official position to amass a considerable fortune. This was later put to good use by his grandson who employed Robert Adam and Capability Brown to design Ugbrooke House and Park, a couple of miles southwest of Chudleigh and well worth visiting. Dating from the mid 1700s, and replacing an early Tudor manor house, Ugbrooke is named after the Ug Brook that flows through the estate and was dammed to create three lakes in the beautifully landscaped grounds. In the 1930s, the 11th Lord Clifford abandoned the estate as he could not afford to live there. During World War Two, Ugbrooke was used as a school for evacuated children and as a hostel for Polish soldiers. In the 1950s, some of the ground floor rooms were used to store grain, but today the house has been beautifully restored by the present Lord and Lady Clifford. It is noted for its collections of paintings, dolls, military uniforms and furniture.