BROOKDALE COTTAGE

Built around 1800. The first occupant was John Upham, a bookseller from Bath with a shop in Exeter. His brother Edward built Knowle House, which is now Dawlish Museum. After his wife’s death in 1829, John moved away and leased the house to a variety of people at £100 a year with the option of a stable and coach house.

In 1880, Walter Tebbitt bought the property for £1460. He had a building constructed for the use of the working people of Dawlish. This was known as “Our Room” and became the Shaftesbury Theatre. Later that year Tebbit held a fundraising event there for a parochial room for the vicar. At this event, he demonstrated Gower and Ball’s loud speaking telephone, which connected a room in Brook Cottage to Our Room, where people could hear music and speech from the house.

In 1916, the cottage was sold to Mrs CA Lock, a relative of the miller at Strand Mill. In the early 20s it had several tenants and was known as The Rookery but in 1923, the name was changed to Brookdale.

In 1959, a new Post Office was built on the house’s tennis court (now the Monkey House).

In 1967, the seven bedroom residence was offered for sale at £4,500.
The house is a charming, ornate, thatched cottage painted a warm pink and is a picturesque site alongside the Brook and weeping willows.