British Country Houses

A property of the National Trust since 1960, Saltram Park is a crucial rural space among the urban sprawl of Plymouth. The woods and pastures are hemmed in by the noisy Devon Expressway to the north, and to the south by a former landfill site, where there was once a racecourse. The serene river Plym forms the western boundary while railway lines and a dual carriageway buzz on the opposite bank. This was the seat of the Parker family (Earls of Morley from 1815) for 200 years. With the former walled gardens and other outbuildings cut off, on the north side of the expressway, marooned in a twentieth-century housing development, Saltram is no longer a unified working estate. The house appears to be a plain, rendered, boxy Georgian building. However, inside there are many surprises, not least interiors by Robert Adam and a collection that includes several works by Joshua Reynolds (born in nearby Plympton), the first President of the Royal Academy, and Angelica Kauffman. Saltram Hous...