Killerton is a huge estate of over 6,000 acres. It includes a Georgian country house, superb garden, 1,000 acres of woodland and much of the villages of Broadclyst and Budlake.
The estate was the property of the Acland family who had lived in Devon since the 12th century and acquired Killerton at the time of the Civil War. Later additions to the house almost conceal the unpretentious central block built for Sir Thomas Dyke Acland in 1778-9 by the Essex architect John Johnson. This was originally intended to be replaced by a grandiose mansion by James Wyatt.
The magnificent stable block at the foot of the drive, with its elegant cupola rising above the splendid pedimented archway, is a far better monument to the talent of Johnson.
The Victorian chapel was designed in 1840 for the 10th Baronet by C.R. Cockerell.
In 1942 Killerton House and its estate was given to the National Trust by Sir Richard Acland Bt.
The interior was redesigned in the 1890s and again in 1924 following a fire. Killerton House is furnished as a family home and recalls the way of life in a country house between the First and Second World Wars.
The library houses the collection of the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould best known as the composer of 'Onward Christian Soldiers'. A chamber organ dominates the music-room with sheet music by Samuel Sebastian Wesley dedicated to the wife of the 10th Baronet who took lessons from Wesley at Exeter Cathedral.
The dining room, drawing room and the upstairs of the house are now used to display the Paulise de Bush collection of 18th to 20th century costumes. Here high-necked, full skirted Victorian gowns contrast with the flimsy chiffon evening gowns of the 1930s.
The glory of Killerton is its spectacular hillside garden.
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland engaged John Veitch to lay out the garden of his new house in the 1770s. At the time Veitch was a young man but he went on to become one of the greatest landscape designers of his day. The company Veitch founded was the first to send plant hunters to remote parts of the world to bring back exotic specimens never seen before in England.
Veitch had a lifetime's association with Killerton. He created a 15 acre arboretum on the steep slopes of the volcanic outcrop known as Killerton Clump, the highest point in the area. His beech walk follows the contours of the hill. Redwoods, wellingtonias, spruces and cedars from Veitch's nursery tower over a huge variety of rhododendrons, many raised from collectors' seeds.
At the edge of the arboretum tracks continue up to the Iron Age hill fort (c 400 BC) that crowns Killerton Clump. From the summit there are panoramic views in all directions. The deer walls on the western slopes on the hill enclosed the herd kept here until the 1920s.
Near the house is a more formal garden of shrub borders, plant beds and lawns. On the long terrace planted with dwarf shrubs Lloyd George once addressed 19,000 people in the park. A broad herbaceous border was created here on the advise of the famous Edwardian gardener William Robinson.The rock garden by the ice house was also planted at this time.
The gardens are surrounded by 300 acres of parkland and woods offering delightful walks
