Sandridge Barton Estate

It's a very special place with a gorgeous landscape spreading across 450 acres, and an extensive history that has been enhanced over the years, most recently with our new vineyard and winery as well as entry into a higher tier Countryside Stewardship Scheme.

Sandridge Barton was the birthplace of the Elizabethan navigator and explorer John Davis, who mapped the Davis Straits between Greenland and Labrador, and the Falkland Islands. An image of his ship, the Desire, is on the Falklands' coat of arms. He grew up at Sandridge Barton and owned the estate when he was killed by Japanese pirates on the coast of Malacca in 1605. His childhood neighbours and lifelong friends were the explorers Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert, and their half-brother, Walter Raleigh. Davis was one of the foremost navigators of his time, and left maps and records of his three attempts to find the North West Passage, his voyage to the South Atlantic and four voyages to the East Indies. He wrote two books on navigation, invented the Davis backstaff that was used in navigation for two hundred years, and developed the model for ships’ log books.

In more modern times, US forces were stationed at Sandridge Barton during WWII and there are still signs of their presence today, particularly in carvings on beech trees in the woods along the River Dart. The woods also contain the remains of an Auxiliary Unit Operations Base.

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