Would you give away your family home for your political beliefs? Sir Richard Acland did in 1944 with Killerton, his 6400 acre estate just a few miles outside Exeter, handing it to the National Trust. The estate includes 20 farms and 200-plus cottages, many miles of footpaths and woodlands to walk, and the main house that is open to the public. A walk that has long been a favourite of mine and my children when they were growing up, is at Daneswood, great for an hours pootling. Here are some of the sights in and views from the wood this misty, late summer evening.
Lucid Gypsy 
Looks like a great place.
Looks beautiful, a place I could spend hours wandering about in.
Love Killerton now but still haunted by memories of guide camp and leaky tent!
Bah. Politics are dangerous. Depends what the subject might have been but I’d try to avoid giving away my house and lands. Beautiful place though.
oh the golden evening! hope you met only walking horses enjoying the solitude with you 🙂
I know of such a man here who gave away his home for use by the District Assembly without charging them a pesewa! 🙂
Gorgeous sunset, Gilly. What a lovely place for an hour’s ‘pootling’. 🙂
A beautiful place. So much to see and appreciate.
Political belief? I don’t get it, gilly. If I had more than one, maybe. If I had just a hut, maybe. If nobody would occupy it, maybe. All in all, generally no. Ahihihihi
Looks like a wonderful place to ‘pootle’ Gilly 🙂
I’m going through all the september posts from the English blogs I follow, in my efforts to pull together a list of places to see while we are there Sept 13-23. Last week I got a great accomodations book from National Trust, with write-ups of the different rental cottage possibilities.
Killerton looks great!
It is, the house is one of the smaller National Trust properties, as is the garden and grounds, but the estate is huge. National Trust holiday cottages are expensive though. Ten days is quite good, have you worked out the maximum distance you want to drive? Are you interested in any particular type of garden to visit? Any towns or cities?