Better by design

A house built of Beer stone in Devon has commanding views, as do a cleverly converted Chilterns farmhouse and a Scandinavian style property in prime Shires hunting country

- Penny Churchill

THE white cliffs of Beer in east Devon, at the western end of the 95-mile long Jurassic Coast, shelter the vast sweep of Lyme Bay from the prevailing westerlies and create a natural sun trap for the picturesque fishing village.

They have also provided high-quality limestone and flint used locally to build solid family homes designed to withstand anything that wind and weather throws at them. Further afield, Beer stone, renowned for ease of carving, was used in the construction of the cathedrals of Exeter and Winchester, as well as that of Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle.

For centuries, much of the land around Beer has been owned by the Clinton family, one of England’s oldest baronies, created in 1299, and still Devon’s biggest private landowner with 25,000 acres owned and managed across three separate estates. In the late 1800s, a successful collaboration between the Clinton Devon estates and the architect and artist David Carr, of the Carr’s biscuit family of Carlisle, saw the construction of a number of impressive Arts-and-Crafts houses in and around Beer, including the architect’s own house, built of the local stone and flint in 1890.

Many of the houses designed and built by Carr were bought as holiday homes by members of the gentry or captains of industry, who were drawn to the area by its mild climate and spectacular sea views. One of Carr’s finest creations was White Cliff, built-in 1897 on a wooded clifftop site overlooking Beer village with unbroken views across Lyme Bay.