A SLICE OF HEAVEN IN DEVON: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

Whenever there is an adaptation of a Jane Austen novel on the big or small screen, one thing can be certain: the locations will inevitably feature some of Britain’s finest stately properties. 

The property which kicks off the story in the 1995 film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee, is the fictional Norland Park in Sussex, which is left by a dying father to his son, but due to the rules of inheritance the three daughters Elinor, Marianne and Margaret and their mother (Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Emilie Francois and Gemma Jones) are left with next to nothing.  Worse still, they are forced to move out of their lovely family home, while the son and his wife John and Fanny (James Fleet and Harriet Walter) move in.  The mother and daughters are offered accommodation by a cousin, but it is a bit of a come-down, being just a ‘cottage’ in the depths of Devon, albeit in a heavenly rural setting near the coast.

The real-life version of Norland Park is Saltram House near Plymouth, a Grade I listed George II era mansion, while the cottage, Barton Cottage in the story, is Efford House on the Flete Estate, which actually is in Devon in real life, again near Plymouth.  The waterside scenes set near the cottage were also filmed in Devon, at the mouth of the River Erme.  However, the exterior of Barton Park, the wider estate where the cottage is located, is actually further east in Wiltshire, where the scenes were shot at Trafalgar Park, between the city of Salisbury and the northern edge of the New Forest.

Efford House - geograph.org.uk - 292694. Photo by Derek Harper, via Wikimedia Commons.

Another striking property in Devon, which is seen at a distance as a large grey mass of architectural splendour surrounded by sloping green fields, is the Combe Magna estate, owned by love interest John Willoughby (Greg Wise).  In real life this is a fortified manor house called Compton Castle near the resorts of Torbay.  The manor house dates from the 1400s and was connected to Sir Walter Raleigh.  Still in Devon, the wedding scene at the end was filmed at St Mary’s Church in the village of Berry Pomeroy near Totnes.

Compton Castle in Devon enh. Photo by Smalljim, via Wikimedia Commons.

One of the most dramatic scenes in the film comes towards the end, when Marianne suffers a life-threatening illness, to the distress of Captain Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), who has developed a soft spot for her.  She falls ill while visiting the estate owned by a couple in the Dashwoods’ social circle called the Palmers (Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie).  This magnificent property is the real-life Montacute House near Yeovil in Somerset, a late Elizabethan mansion with manicured lawns and gardens.

                                                                      Montacute House. 

Mid-way through the film we are transported to London, where many well-to-do people in Jane Austen’s time had their “London base” in addition to their country properties.  The London abode of the dreadful Fanny Dashwood and her husband John is represented by a house in Adam Street, WC2, while Chandos House in Queen Anne Street is the home of the Palmers.  However, the Chelsea home of the ebullient Mrs Jennings (Elizabeth Spriggs) is not in London, but in Salisbury, in reality the 18^th century Mompesson House in the Cathedral Close.

Most of the properties featured in the film are open to visitors.  Saltram, Compton Castle, Montacute House and Mompesson House are run by the National Trust.  Trafalgar Park is privately owned, but can be used for events and weddings.  Meanwhile, for anyone wanting to immerse themselves fully in the Dashwoods’ idyllic life in Devon, Efford House is available as a holiday let.