Inside the walls of a haunted Plymouth mansion

Inside the walls of a haunted Plymouth mansion

On the outskirts of Plymouth, there is a hidden mansion – which has both an engrossing – and frightening – past.

Now transformed into a beautiful family home, Plympton House was built between 1715 and 1720 by George II Treby, MP for Plympton Erle .

The grounds have since been renovated and built on, to become a private and high-end gated community, and a family has now moved into Plympton House itself.

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But the grand manor house – originally was turned into a ‘lunatic asylum’, as they were then known, and later a convent and old people’s home.

There was set to be 14 residential properties, including the main Grade I listed building. The overall value of the properties on the estate is circa £8.5m on completion.

Plympton House: History

The property was originally built for Sir George Treby, the then Chancellor of England and a local MP in 1716. Tour of Plympton House In 1835 the estate was sold to Doctor Charles Aldridge, for use as a private lunatic asylum, and less than 10 years later changed hands to RC Langworthy, a surgeon.

In 1844, a report listed it as one of six establishments in the country which used “excessive and highly censurable degree of restraint” and that such restraint “is rendered more necessary than in a well-constructed asylum”.

It housed 17 private and 66 pauper patients, but the pauper lunatics were kept to the outbuildings, and are thought to have slept on dirty hay.

In the 1930s, Plympton House was bought by Augustinian Care, a branch of the Roman Catholic religious Congregation of The Sisters of St Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.

In 1934 the congregation moved in and started care for up to 45 or 50 elderly and mentally ill patients.

Get the best stories about the things you love most curated by us and delivered to your inbox every day. Choose what you love here The care home was attached to a convent (Image: Sarah Waddington) But, in 2012, three members of staff were suspended following the death of a 96-year-old patient from a fall on the premises, which resulted in a police inquiry.The care home closed later that year and was put up for sale. After that property guardian began living in the building for security purposed.Adam Lessiter moved in just hours after the nuns moved out and took The Herald on a tour of the building in 2015. Tour of Plympton House “When we first moved in and looked around we found lots of things hidden in cupboards across the house,” he said at the time.”I was the first person to move in here. I moved in the day after the nuns moved out, at midnight, which probably wasn’t the best idea. It was pretty scary!”

Click here to view original web page at www.plymouthherald.co.uk