On This Day in Wembury — 16 October 1758
An advertisement in the Sherborne Mercury announced that the capital mansion-house of Langdon was “to be let, and entered upon immediately.” The notice described not only the main house but also the coach-house, offices, gardens, orchard, adjoining fields, and stabling for at least eighteen horses. A paddock and fish-ponds were included, with the liberty of killing deer and taking fish, and—remarkably—the free use of all the household goods and furniture.
The property had been the residence of Waldo Calmady, Esq., deceased, and the advert noted that it lay about four miles from Plymouth, firmly situating it in the parish of Wembury. Anyone seeking more details was directed to apply at Wembury House itself.
This glimpse of 1758 shows Wembury’s gentry houses in transition, their fortunes shifting with the deaths of owners and the needs of new tenants. The offer of hunting and fishing rights alongside a fully furnished mansion speaks of an elite lifestyle being marketed almost turnkey. Seen against later sales of Wembury estates in the 19th and 20th centuries, it reveals a long pattern: the parish’s great houses were never static monuments, but assets continually reshaped by inheritance, economics, and opportunity.
Source: Sherborne Mercury, 16 Oct 1758.
Entries are summaries and interpretations of historical newspaper reports.