Flete House, 
The Flete Estate, Ermington, South Devon
An Historical Overview of Flete House and Estate
The first written evidence of an estate at Flete appears in Domesday 1086, referred to as Fluites. After the Conquest, the estate was in the possession of a Norman knight, Robert de Albermara, and later in 1379, known as the Manor of Fleet, was owned by Sir John Daumerle and his descendents for over 30 years. It then passed through a number of families until in 1558 Nicholas Hele of Exeter took up residence and built the Tudor house.
Modifications were undertaken in 1621. By 1801, under ownership of the Bulteel family, the estate had grown to about 3,000 acres. Decorative additions to Flete House were made, classic of the Victorian age, including the castellations and Gothic granite framed windows and the large square porch. By 1860 the Bulteel family had moved out and the house was let for 3 years before being sold to a Mr Splatt, a retired sheep farmer from Australia.
Then in the late 1800’s the estate once again changed hands as a Mr Mildmay bought the house in 1876, returning the estate to the Bulteel family that he was married in to. His cousin, Edward Baring, bought the nearby Membland Estate just a year later. In 1879 the Architect Norma Shaw was commissioned to dramatically re-build the house to include the tower we see today – the trademark of Flete itself. New wings were added and the interiors transformed. The estate itself had grown to some 5,500 acres.
Credit Crunch 19th Century Style at Flete House
Disaster struck in 1890 when a financial crisis emanating from Argentina forced near insolvency on the famous Barings Bank, luckily rescued by the Bank of England but leaving the Baring family to re-pay very substantial loans. As a result of this, Membland and Flete were put on the market.
Flete did not sell, although parts of the estate and its wealth had to be sold off. In 1894 improvements in the South American market enabled the loans to be paid off. Flete once again found some stability. The then Mr Mildmay sat in the House of Commons and Flete served as a place of elegant hospitality to many distinguished guests including royalty.
There are Beautiful Gardens at Flete House
The beautiful gardens were created through the early 1900’s and fortunately WWI left Flete relatively unscathed, but in WWII all staff left to join the war effort. In 1941 the maternity hospital in Plymouth was badly damaged and the unit was moved to Flete. During 16 years as a maternity hospital some 11,000 children were born at the house! The tragic death of Lord Mildmay in 1950 was later followed by the hospital vacating Flete and the house became empty.
The family later adapted the house for a more economical style of living rather than see it disintegrate. The Country House Association acquired the lease in 1961 and created many of the apartments we see today. Further apartments were then created by the current lessors, Audley Raven Ltd, in both the main house and The Stables Courtyard; the arrangement we see today, offering elegant, quiet living reminiscent of a bygone era, within a truly remarkable and historic house. (Facts extracted from Flete – A Historical Review. Douglas Watt-Carter. 2nd Ed. 1997).
The Flete Estate: Situation
Flete House stands just South of the A379 between the villages of Yealmpton and Ermington and the attractive Georgian town of Modbury. Good medical centres can be found in both Yealmpton and Modbury. Its setting is above the lower reaches of the River Erme about three miles inland from its mouth, where we find the quite stunning Mothecombe Beach – the famous setting for Film and Drama such as Sense and Sensibility and International Velvet among others. The location provide good access to many of the beaches of the beautiful South Devon coastline, the sheltered sailing waters of the Yealm Estuary at Newton Ferrers and the wild open spaces of Dartmoor National Park. We are then blessed by close proximity to numerous golf courses and leisure facilities.
Flete is about 10 miles from Plymouth itself, an historic and vibrant waterfront City, well provided with good shopping, modern University, Peninsula Medical School, Theatre Royal and cinemas, large department stores and cafes, bistros and restaurants. The leisure facilities are outstanding with superb watersports in and around Plymouth Sound. Communications are excellent; there are Intercity trains from Totnes and Plymouth, which also has a cross channel ferryport and expanding airport. The A38 links to the M5 at Exeter where we find another good international airport facility Life at Flete House.