Exeleigh South, Exeleigh House, Number 3 Exeleigh, Bell House And Exestowe East

Exeleigh South, Exeleigh House, Number 3 Exeleigh, Bell House and Exestowe East form a single villa divided into five houses. Dating from 1847–8 and enlarged in 1877 according to White's Devon (1879), when built for Sir J. L. Duntze, though evidence suggests an earlier origin—Exeleigh South and Exeleigh House appear in an engraving of the Atmospheric Railway line from 1845–48.

The principal block is constructed in fine bathstone ashlar with a hipped slate roof behind a parapet and rendered chimney stacks. Number 3 Exeleigh, Bell House and Exestowe East are rendered. The house follows an L-shaped plan with the principal rooms in the main southeast-facing range and additional rooms and services in a northwest right wing. A stable yard lies behind (a separate property, not included in this listing). The villa was substantially altered when divided in the late 1940s, though some original features survive.

The exterior comprises two storeys. The symmetrical three-bay southeast front features a plinth, moulded cornice below the coped parapet and moulded platband at first-floor level. The centre breaks forward slightly with pilasters and a canted bay clasped by pilasters to the extremes left and right. The canted bay and bay windows throughout contain plate glass timber sashes with moulded stone architraves; a ground floor window to the right was converted to a twentieth-century French window with timber glazing bars. The northeast return (Exeleigh House) displays three bays with a central Greek Doric portico containing an entablature, now glazed in. Two first-floor oriels flank this, with two ground-floor windows below. The southwest return (Exeleigh South) features a large first-floor tripartite window and a likely late nineteenth-century nine-bay conservatory. Bell House, projecting forward with a central courtyard and bellcote, adjoins Number 3 Exeleigh. Exestowe East forms the end bay to the right.

Internally, black and white paved flooring survives in the entrance and stair hall of both principal houses. Exeleigh South retains two good mid-nineteenth-century black marble chimneypieces and a grand staircase, probably late nineteenth or Edwardian, with turned balusters. Both houses preserve original panelled doors with moulded doorcases and plaster cornices to the principal rooms.

The house was previously owned by the Studd family, who also owned Oxton House, before its division in the late 1940s. The villa is substantially built with high-quality exterior detailing, set back from the road behind large gardens, overlooking the Exe estuary.