page_title: Greenway Estate
section_title: Location and early development: up to 1938
hierarchical_section_title: Greenway Estate / History / Location and early development: up to 1938
caption_attribution_description: English: Greenhouse in one of the walled gardens at Greenway
context_page_description: Greenway, also known as Greenway House, is an estate on the River Dart near Galmpton in Devon, England. Once the home of the author Agatha Christie, it is now owned by the National Trust.
  The estate is served by a steam railway service with trains from Paignton and Kingswear stopping at Greenway Halt station.
context_section_description: Greenway is located on the eastern bank of the tidal River Dart, facing the village of Dittisham on the opposite bank. The estate is two miles from Galmpton, the nearest village, and is in the South Hams district of the English county of Devon. Greenway is three miles north of Dartmouth. An early history book of Devon described Greenway as "very pleasantly and commodiously situated, with delightsome prospect to behold the barks and boats".
  Greenway was first mentioned in 1493 as "Greynway", the crossing point of the Dart to Dittisham. In the late 16th century a Tudor mansion called Greenway Court was built by Otto and Katherine Gilbert, members of a Devon seafaring family. One of the family's ships was named The Hope of Greenway and, according to Sara Burdett's history of the estate, it is probable that they kept their ships moored in the river. The couple had three sons, all born at Greenway. In 1583 one son, Sir Humphrey, took possession of Newfoundland for Elizabeth I, while his brother, Sir John, lived at Greenway. Humphrey and John's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, also lived at the house. In 1588 John was given the responsibility of 160 prisoners of war captured during the Spanish Armada; he put them to work on the estate, levelling the grounds.
  Little is known about the original Tudor building although, given the status of the family, Burdett considers it was "probably designed on a grand scale". An archaeological examination of the current house's hallway shows evidence of a Tudor courtyard underneath.
  In around 1700 the Gilberts made nearby Compton Castle their family seat and sold Greenway to Thomas Martyn, a resident of Totnes, also in Devon. Over the next 90 years the house passed down through the Roopes—the family of Martyn's wife—until it was bequeathed to a distant relation of the family, Roope Harris, on the proviso that he changed his surname to Roope. Roope Harris Roope, as he became, built what is now the existing house in Georgian style. Roope sold Greenway in 1791 to one Edward Elton for over £9,000. Roope went bankrupt in 1800; Burdett opines that this could have been because of the amount of money spent on rebuilding Greenway.
  The Elton family developed the garden, with some remodelling by the landscape gardener Humphry Repton. At some point in the late 18th century the Tudor house was entirely demolished. Burdett considers it was possibly Roope, while Historic England think it was more likely to have been Edward Elton. Elton's son, James, took possession of the house upon the death of his father in 1811, and expanded the property, adding two wings to the house, for a dining room and drawing room. He also paid for a new road from Galmpton to Greenway ferry, which changed the access to the estate. When he sold the estate in 1832, it was much changed. A large kitchen garden, swimming pool, boat house and redesigned gardens. The estate was purchased, although only briefly, by a Sir Thomas Dinsdale, but was soon sold for £18,000 to Colonel Edward Carlyon, whose family owned Tregrehan House, in Cornwall. The Carlyons did not make any significant alterations to the interior of the house; but, according to Burdett, they are likely the owners who introduced a rockery to the slope on the east of the house.
  Carlyon inherited Tregrehan House in 1842, and moved there the following year. Greenway was let out to a series of tenants until it was sold twice in quick succession, the last time to Richard Harvey—a Cornish copper and tin magnate—and his wife Susannah. The Harveys developed the estate extensively, restoring the stables and lodge house, installing two new greenhouses and redecorating the interior. They restored much of Galmpton, including building the village school and the Manor Inn; Harvey also acquired the Lordship of the manor of Galmpton. Harvey died in 1870, his wife in 1882; they had no children to pass the estate on to, and it was sold for £44,000 to Thomas Bedford Bolitho. Bolitho, the industrialist MP for St Ives, added what Burdett describes as "a Cornish influence" on the gardens, introduc
caption: A greenhouse in the walled garden, installed by Richard Harvey
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