Knightshayes Court - History

History

The fortunes of the Heathcoat-Amory family were founded in the early nineteenth century. John Heathcoat was born into a Derbyshire farming family in 1783. An inventor of genius, he designed and patented a machine that revolutionised the production of lace. His manufactury near Loughbourough was destroyed by former Luddites paid by unknown persons in 1816, he then moved his basis of manufacture, and a large number of his workers, to Tiverton, Devon and there established a lace-works which, by the later part of the nineteenth century, was the largest lace-producing manufactory in the world.

By the late 19th centuary the Heathcoat-Amory family owned much of the manufacturing and land around Tiverton, Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Baronet chose the site of Knightshayes, because from the site Sir John could see his factory in the distance, nestled in the Exe valley below.

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