Haldon Belvedere

Haldon House (pronounced: "Hol-don") on the eastern side of the Haldon Hills in the parishes of Dunchideock and Kenn, near Exeter in Devon, England, was a large Georgian country house largely demolished in the 1920s. The surviving north wing of the house, comprising the entrance front of the stable block, consists of two cuboid lodges linked by a screen pierced by a Triumphal Arch, with later additions, and serves today as the "Lord Haldon Hotel". The house was originally flanked by two such paired pavilions, as is evident from 19th century engravings.

Haldon Forest is a forest located in the Haldon Hills, Devon, England. The forest consists of several different woods. Geographically, Haldon Forest is located between the towns of Chudleigh and Exminster and is south of Exeter.

Dunchideock ( DUN-chi-dək, dun-CHID-ee-ək) is a small civil parish on the north eastern slopes of the Haldon Hills in Teignbridge, Devon, England. It covers an area of 392 hectares (970 acres) and lies about 6 km (3.7 mi) south-west of Exeter and 11 km (6.8 mi) north-east of Bovey Tracey. The parish, with a population of 262 in 2001, lacks a compact village, but consists of scattered dwellings. It is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Holcombe Burnell, Ide, Shillingford St. George, Kenn, and Doddiscombsleigh.The name Dunchideock is of Celtic origin. Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Donsedoc, the two parts of the name derive from dun (fort) and coediog (wooded), which, according to W. G. Hoskins, refer to the nearby Iron Age hill fort of Cotley Castle.The parish church is dedicated to St Michael and is Grade I listed. It originated in 1308 at the latest, but the present church building, built of red sandstone, was started in the late 14th century. It has been partially rebuilt and restored many times. There is a good font dated to around 1400, some notable carved bench-ends, roof-bosses and rood-screen; and several memorials, most notably to Aaron Baker, who rebuilt the chancel aisle in 1669, and Stringer Lawrence. The theological writer Bourchier Wrey Savile was rector of Dunchideock with Shillingford St. George from 1872 to his death in 1888.Within the parish was the former Haldon House which was the home of Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet. Mostly demolished in the 1920s, the remaining wing is now the Best Western "Lord Haldon Hotel". Also in the parish is Haldon Belvedere, a triangular tower on top of Haldon that was built by Palk in 1788 in memory of his friend General Stringer Lawrence.Archie Winckworth, the former owner of Dunchideock House, posted a memoir about the village and its history, including an account of its buried treasure. The cellars of Dunchideock House are fancifully supposed to contain a treacle mine.

Doddiscombsleigh (anciently Doddescombe Leigh) is a small settlement in Devon, England. It is 5 miles (8 km) southwest of the city of Exeter and one mile East of the River Teign and the Teign Valley. Along with a few other places in Devon, it is one of the longest place names in England with 16 letters.

Ashton is a civil parish in the Teignbridge district of Devon, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 174, and it had a population of 203 according to the 2011 census. The parish consists of two villages, Higher Ashton and Lower Ashton, and is on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. The France Brook flows through most of Ashton just south of its main road, and along Ashton's eastern boundary flows the River Teign. The parish is located approximately 13 km north of Newton Abbot, and roughly 10 km to the south west of its nearest city, Exeter. Historically, Ashton has primarily been based inside the agricultural sector, but one of its most notifiable landmarks is the St John the Baptists church located in the Higher Ashton district. In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Ashton as: "Ashton, par. with ry. sta., E. Devon, 4 miles N. of Chudleigh, 1709 ac., pop. 195."

Whiteway House in the parish of Chudleigh in Devon is a Grade II* listed Georgian house set in parkland. It was built in the 1770s by John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon (1735–1788) of Saltram House, Plympton, and has early 19th-century alterations. It is situated 2½ miles (4 km) north of Chudleigh, at the foot of the Haldon Hills. The house had formerly a 5-bay north-east wing, a service range and a separate 19th-century service block to the rear, all demolished since 1962.It should be distinguished from Whiteway in the parish of Kingsteignton, Devon, 4 3/4 miles (7.6 km) to the south, a manor listed in the Domesday Book as the 157th Devonshire possession of Baldwin de Moels (died 1090), Sheriff of Devon, feudal baron of Okehampton, and in 1795 a grand mansion illustrated by Swete, formerly a seat of the Yard family of Bradley, Kingsteignton, and today a farmhouse known as Whiteway Barton.

Higher Ashton is a village on the western slopes of Haldon in Teignbridge, Devon, England. Along with Lower Ashton it is part of the civil parish of Ashton, which in 2001 had a population of 174. It features remains of the Chudleigh family manor whose most complete surviving range has been converted into the house Place Barton, and a fifteenth-century church with an Elizabethan pulpit. The fifteenth-century font still has a bar to lock it against witchcraft. Other fifteenth-century features are the benches, some stained glass and the screen.

Cotley Castle is a large Iron Age Hill fort near Dunchideock in Devon and close to Exeter in England. It occupies a significant hilltop at 220 metres (720 ft) above sea level, just to the north of Great Haldon, part of the same ridge of the Haldon Hills.

Trusham is a small village in the Teign Valley, between Newton Abbot and Exeter, in Devon, England. The name originates from the Celtic Trisma, meaning "brushwood" or "fallen leaves". It became Trisme for about 400 years, and then in the 16th century Tryssame or Trysham. A pub, the Cridford Inn, was opened in 1985 by converting part of an old farmhouse and adjoining barn.The Church of St Michael is an ancient stone building in the early English and Perpendicular styles with traces of Norman work. The church was thoroughly restored in 1865, when the stained east window and a smaller one were inserted as memorials to the Rev. William Edward Brendon, who died in 1864. There is also a memorial to John Stooke which mentions a charity he set up for the church and the poor of nearby Bovey Tracey.Trusham was the ancestral home of the Causley family, whose descendants include the poet Charles Causley and the folk singer Jim Causley. Causley's poem "Trusham" is an account of a return he made to the village in his later years; a reflection on one's family roots, what it is to be distant from those, and the legacies we leave behind us. Jim Causley's setting of this poem—amongst a number of other poems by his distant relation—is a modern song-setting, and is available on the album Cyprus Well. A later poem, "The Prodigal Son", recounts a further visit by Causley to his ancestral village, linking once again the local geography, history and landscape with the First World War and his own family memories. In 2007, Trusham held the first Charles Causley Festival in conjunction with the Charles Causley Society of Launceston. There is a plaque in the village to celebrate Causley's life and the Charles Causley Society hold regular events in Trusham such as Causley readings and poems set to music, hog roasts and barn dancing. The now disused and privately-owned Trusham railway station was part of the Teign Valley Line. Although the school closed in November 1948, its Victorian building is now the Village Hall. The Doomsday survey of 1086 recorded a settlement of 23 households (four of villagers, nine of smallholders, ten of slaves). Eight hundred years later, the 1881 Census recorded a very small growth, with 41 households and a population of 177; however, in Kelly’s 1901 Directory of Devonshire, the population had fallen to 165. By 2001, whilst the number of households had increased to 60, the population had fallen further to 144. Trusham is on the western side of the 250 m (820 ft) high Haldon Hills, roughly 90 m (300 ft) above the river Teign, which forms the Dartmoor National Park boundary and is just over one-half mi (0.80 km) away. The village is accessed via minor roads which are predominantly single track with passing places. The A38 passes within 2 mi (3.2 km) at Chudleigh. The centre of the village has the O S grid reference SX 854 821 and for sat nav users the postcode is TQ13 0NW.

Exeter Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located near the city of Exeter, Devon, England. Locally it is known as Haldon racecourse because of its location on top of the Haldon Hills. Until the early 1990s it was officially known as Devon and Exeter. On 1 November 2005 racehorse Best Mate died at the course of a suspected heart attack whilst competing in the William Hill Haldon Gold Cup.

Longdown is a small village in the parish of Holcombe Burnell, south of the A30 road, about four miles west of Exeter in Devon, England. It has a public house called The Lamb Inn. About half a mile south of the village is the 836 yard long Perridge Tunnel, through which the Teign Valley Railway Line ran until it closed in 1958. The tunnel is now blocked by a collapse, but the nearby Longdown railway station was reported as being in good condition in 2006.

Ide is a village in Devon, England, just under 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) southwest of Exeter. The village church is dedicated to the German Saint Ida of Herzfeld and was rebuilt in 1834. The majority of the village is separated from suburban Exeter by the A30 dual carriageway. Whilst it was controversial at the time of construction, the bypass has effectively enabled Ide to maintain an independent identity. The parish boundaries extend a short distance over the A30 and several notable buildings within the parish, including Ide House and the Twisted Oak pub, are located on the Exeter side. The village has two pubs: the Poacher's Inn and the Huntsman Inn. To the northwest of the village at College Lane, a ford crosses the Fordland Brook. Above Ide on a hilltop at SX8888 is the site of a Roman fortlet or signal station. Ide Halt railway station on the G.W.R. Teign Valley Line opened in 1903 and closed to passengers on 9 June 1958. The station site was re-developed as St Ida's Close and no trace of the railway now remains. Ide had a population of 526 in 2011 and decreased to 510 in 2014.