Budleigh Past and Present

Offers in excess of £2m are currently being asked for Watch Hill, an eight- bedroom detached house for sale in Cricket Field Lane, Budleigh Salterton. Watch Hill is the work of the architect William Hatchard-Smith, who designed no fewer than fifty private residences in Budleigh Salterton between the two World Wars. Watch Hill is generally thought to be his finest house. It was commissioned in 1929 by Blake Thompson, an American millionaire, and was later to become the home of William Hatchard-Smith and his wife Margaret. Between the years of 1939 and the late 1970s, some 1500 overseas servicemen from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the USA, who had nowhere to go when on leave, were invited to stay at Watch Hill. After the war, the hospitality continued and was extended, in particular, to Rhodes scholars at British Universities. The house is beautifully situated in a south facing location with extensive views over the east Devon coastline towards Berry Head. The selling agent is Wil...