Prideaux Place at Padstow

Home to the Prideauxs (now Prideaux-Brunes) since Edmund acquired the property at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Prideaux Place looks from the outside like an ivy-clad minor Robert Adam castle. Inside it is a riot of totally unexpected Strawberry Hill Gothick with pendant plasterwork in brilliant white, only the Great Chamber and Grenville Room not conforming. In the former a superb 16th century plasterwork ceiling tells the story of Susannah and the Elders; the latter has an interior brought from Stowe House near Bude, demolished in the 18th century. Contents include armorial Worcester porcelain, heraldic glass, painted panels by Verrio and Cornish artist Alec Cobbe. Our favourite rooms are the Morning and Drawing rooms, charming, comfortable, well lit and clearly in family use. Gardens are under restoration and there are exhibitions in the stableyard, where you should walk through the dairy to see its gothic disguise. Long views east across Prideaux's deer park take in Rough Tor and Brown Willy on Bodmin Moor. When we first visited in July 2004 we parked at Daymer Bay, walked to Rock and took the ferry over the Camel estuary, lunching first at Rick Stein's fish and chip shop. If you park in Padstow, you can walk up the hill to Prideaux Place though there is parking by the house. One serious criticism: our chatty Welsh guide told us too much of himself, too little of the house! In the grounds are a Cornish Cross and St. Petroc's Holy Well.

Prideaux Place, crenellated and ivy-clad east front

Above Padstow town, signed off A389 from Wadebridge

January 2008: Major restoration work is taking place in the gardens and grounds, led by Tom Petherick, one of the leading figures in the restoration of the 'Lost Gardens' of Heligan. This includes re-opening woodland walks and clearing and replanting large areas. A Formal Garden, lost for years, has been re-created in a simpler manner than the original. Review of our visit in July 2008.

St.