Visiting Clovelly
Clovelly is a beautiful, picturesque fishing village, steeped in maritime atmosphere and history. It was once owned by the Queen of England!
Book TicketsThe 3rd Baronet, also a James Hamlyn, married Mary, daughter of the 1st Earl Fortescue, another distinguished neighbouring West Country family. They had three daughters. The eldest, Susan Hester, married Henry Fane of Fulbeck, Lincolnshire. The family assumed the surname Hamlyn Fane. Their son, Neville Hamlyn Fane, died in 1884, aged 26. Their daughter, Constance Hamlyn Fane, inherited land at Ringwood, the Avon Tyrrell Estate, and their other daughter, Christine Hamlyn Fane, was given the Clovelly Estate.
In 1889 she married Frederick Gosling. She requested him firstly to change his name from Gosling to Hamlyn because of the long association of the name Hamlyn with Clovelly. Secondly, she asked him to devote his not inconsiderable fortune to the restoration of all properties on the estate. As you walk down the village street you will see many houses inscribed with the initials CH and FH and a date. The dates mark the renovation of the building to meet modern-day standards, but the foundations and outer walls are much older. Christine and Frederick had no children, and the estate was left in 1936 to Christine’s niece, Betty Asquith.