Clare Place

In his fascinating account of the history of Sutton Harbour, Crispin Gill recounts the story of the Poor Clares, a group of nuns who fled from France in the first half of the nineteenth century and took refuge in a house that the wealthy woollen merchant William Shepherd had built for himself a hundred years earlier. The nuns renamed the house Clare House and here it was some years later that “the last of Nelson’s captains”, Sir William Parker lived and after him the James family of the well-known Coxside firm of Starch makers. In later years the firm was known Edward James and Sons and in 1905 it was taken over by Reckitt & Sons.

The house was large and attractively set and the Clare name was passed on into the name of a large tenement and a mission hall, both of which were still operating as late as the 1960s. Today the name is still remembered in Clare Place, which faced the site of the old house and which is perhaps best known now for housing the West Devon Records Office.

EH 20 December 1997