The estate or
manor of Escot is not listed in the
Domesday Book of 1086.
de Escote The earliest
holder of the estate was the
de Escote family which, as was usual, took its surname from the estate. The Devon historian
Pole (died 1635) states that it "hath taken his name from the situacion", presumably meaning that it was a
cott (mediaeval farmstead) on the east side of the
manor of Talaton. In 1249 it was occupied by the widow
Domina Lucia de Escote (Latin: Lady Lucy de Escote), who was succeeded by her son Baldwyn de Lestre.
Beauchamp The estate then passed to the family of Beauchamp of
Ryme in Dorset, a junior branch of the Beauchamp
feudal barons of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset. Thomas Beauchamp (son of Sir John Beauchamp (1315–1349)) died without children, when his heirs to one
moiety each became the descendants of his two sisters: • Joan Beauchamp, wife of Sir
Robert Chalons, whose share was said to have passed to an unnamed member of the Carwitham family. Both moieties were purchased by Richard Chanon, His son and heir was Phillip Chanon (died 1622), who married Frances Calmady, daughter of
Richard Calmady (died 1586) of Farwood in the parish of Talaton, MP for
Plympton in 1554, second son of John Calmady of Calmady in the parish of
Wembury, Devon. Escot descended to the latter's son and heir Richard Chanon (born 1584),), by whom he had children. by
Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet (1653–1731) of
Great House in the parish of
Colyton, Devon, and was completed in 1688. It is generally stated the architect was
Robert Hooke, but
Colvin quotes in his
Dictionary of Architects that in 1684 a certain "William Taylor" was contracted to "contrive, designe, and draw out in paper and supervise the building of the house, for which he was paid £200". Little is known of Taylor but Colvin states that he was almost certainly responsible for the rebuilding of Halswell House in Somerset. It was a brick house of rectangular form, about by , the facade of which is recorded in a detailed drawing published in the 1715 edition of
Vitruvius Britannicus (see above). Rev.
John Swete (died 1821) of
Oxton House in the parish of Kenton, Devon, visited the house in 1794 during one of his
Picturesque Tours and arrived one or two weeks before the estate was about to be sold at auction, when marquees had been set up on the front lawn to house the crowds of prospective buyers. It had been advertised for several months in various newspapers. The seller was
Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet (1731–1812), grandson of the builder. Swete remarked in his
Travel Journal: "From the sight of the tents I assumed a notion that Sir George with some of his friends was come once more to greet the
Lares of his ancestors". Swete remarked as follows concerning the house: :From the road which ran through a very wide avenue of oaks which were at so great a distance from one another as to exhibit the noblest specimens of this tree
the Glory of the Forest, in all their beauty and luxuriance, the house was beheld to considerable advantage, seated on a gently rising slope just beyond a piece of water, which being of an oval figure detracted in a most glaring manner from the beauty which the scenery would otherwise have possess'd...The walls are formed of brick with freestone mouldings and a variety of ornaments...a light and not inelegant air pervades the whole, which united with its many rural beauties, gave me much pleasure and excited my admiration". As a
connoisseur of landscaping, Swete mused on what improvements might have been made by "Mr Brown" (
Capability Brown) to the park, and made a watercolour of the scene (see at right), now in the Devon Record Office.
Kennaway Sir John Kennaway, 1st Baronet (1758–1836) Shortly after Swete's visit, as he recorded in his Journal, the estate was purchased for the sum of £26,000 (sic) by
Sir John Kennaway, 1st Baronet (1758–1836), a returning
Nabob (like his contemporary
Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet (1717–1798) of
Haldon House). He was from Exeter and had made a fortune in the
East Indies where he served as British
Resident at the Court of the
Nizam of
Hyderabad. The house was destroyed by fire in 1808, resulting in almost total destruction of the structure and furnishings. One notable survival rescued from the fire was the prized portrait of
Lord Cornwallis,
Governor-General and commander-in-chief in
India, presented to the first Baronet when he left India. Although Sir John was a director of a local Fire Insurance company, his own house was uninsured as he had not yet signed the documents for his own policy. The author
William Makepiece Thackeray was an acquaintance of the 1st Baronet and his children, and in 1852, long after his death, he used his memories of former visits to Escot in writing his novel
Pendennis. The protagonist "Major Pendennis" was based on the 1st Baronet, and features of the house and grounds appear in the book, thinly disguised. Thus the nearby town of Ottery St Mary he called "Clavering" and Escot itself became "Clavering Park"; the oval pond in front of the house became "Carp Pond", the River Tale the "Brawl".
Sir John Kennaway, 2nd Baronet (1797–1873) The present house was built in 1838 by
Sir John Kennaway, 2nd Baronet (1797–1873) (whose father had died two years earlier in 1836), to the design of
Henry Roberts. The new house was built on the same site, but the ground-floor was raised on higher foundations and a terrace was created to the south and west. The principal entrance was moved to the east side, looking across the parkland. On the north side the hillside was cut back to create various service buildings. The building has two stories with basement and cellars, and is constructed on a square plan, being two rooms wide and two rooms deep. The entrance on the east side gives onto a hallway containing the main staircase. The house has multi-pane
sash windows with limestone
architraves. The building was designated
grade II listed on 24 October 1988. In 1860 part of the northern edge of the park was lost when used for the track of the new Exeter to Yeovil railway.
Sir John Lawrence Kennaway, 5th Baronet (1933–2017) Sir John Lawrence Kennaway, 5th Baronet (1933 – October 22, 2017), son, who in 1956 inherited from his father an estate which was barely financially viable, partly due to high
death duties payable. His main interest was in forestry, rather than in gardening, the passion of his ancestors. In the interests of economy he demolished the derelict and redundant old nursery at the rear of the house, but retained the remainder of the service buildings next to it, including the old dairy, the bread oven and the
bothy. In 1987, with the agreement of his family, he handed over the running of the estate to his son and retired to live in Malvern.
Sir John-Michael Kennaway, 6th Baronet (born 1962) Sir John-Michael Kennaway, 6th Baronet (born 1962), has been running the estate since January 1984, but took over formally from his father in 1987. He attended Hampshire College of Agriculture and is an expert in aquaculture (fish farming). In 1988 he married Lucy Bradshaw-Smith (born 1966), from nearby Ottery St Mary, trained in catering, who with her husband "shared a love of the natural world and a selfless commitment to the Escot cause". They discontinued the aquaculture business and in 1989 filled in the fish ponds in the walled garden, which became a Victorian rose garden. They opened instead a pet and ornamental fish business known as "Escot Aquatic Centre", situated in the disused
linhay of
Home Farm, which in 1992 was nominated UK Pet Centre of the Year. This business concentrated on the sale of ornamental fish and a range of pets and pet supplies. The gardens were opened to the paying public. The couple have faced many setbacks including: • 1990 hurricane, which blew down about 5,000 trees on the estate and 200 metres of garden wall. • 1997: the building of the new A30 dual-carriageway road through the park, opposed by the celebrated environmental protester
Daniel Hooper (better known as
Swampy), whose activities were "very much supported by the local community". This cut off the house from Escot Church. • 2000: a national outbreak of
Spring viraemia of carp which resulted in a government order to destroy the entire fish stock of eight ponds, and disinfection by
hydrochloric acid and quick lime which destroyed the pond plumbing system and caused a loss of £30,000. • 2008: flash-flooding which swept away two of the 1844 brick bridges over the river and three others. Otters and wild boar were introduced to the estate and boosted visitor numbers to 4,500 in 1990. A successful new water garden design and construction business was established, trading as "Gentlemen Prefer Ponds". In 1993 the "Coach House Restaurant" was established. The house itself is now hired out for a variety of events, including a Policeman's Ball, wedding receptions from 1994, Civil Marriage ceremonies from 1996, conferences, etc. Parts of the upper floors are let as flats. In 2002 the estate hosted "Beautiful Days", a new music and arts festival comprising a mix of music, art and crafts, which received 15,000 visitors. From 2007 various pop concerts have been held in the grounds. ==Escot parish==