Bantham beach estate sold for undisclosed sum

A 728-acre (295 hectare) seaside estate in a south Devon area of outstanding beauty has been sold to a Buckinghamshire-based company for an undisclosed sum.

The Bantham Estate includes Bantham Beach, several Grade II listed properties, the village shop, Bigbury Golf Course and several boathouses.

Announcing the latest sale, the estate said: "We are pleased to be able to say that the Bantham Estate has been sold to Chilton Home Farms... owned by the Aubrey-Fletcher family who have been farming in Buckinghamshire for generations."

The estate was bought by Nicholas Johnston for a figure estimated to be in excess of the £11.5m asking price in 2014 and was put on the market in September 2024.

It added: "The family have visited Bantham for many years and look forward to looking after this very special part of the South Hams".

The Bantham Estate, near Kingsbridge, was in the same family for 100 years.

The National Trust had hoped to buy part of the estate when it was put up for sale in 2014.

Last year, the estate appealed unsuccessfully when South Hams District Council rejected its planning application to build a replacement beach shower and toilet block, replacement village sewage treatment plant, a new car park and an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

In November, the estate also faced opposition from locals over plans to convert a listed boathouse built to mark the Coronation of George VI into a holiday let.

In 2021, plans to covert it into a restaurant were withdrawn after 150 objections.

The following year, a holiday let application was refused, and, last year, permission was granted for wine storage and packing of alcohol on the ground floor.

Plans for barriers to the car park attracted neatly 80 objections in 2015 and were later withdrawn.

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].