Port Eliot

Port Eliot in the parish of St Germans, Cornwall, England, UK, is the ancestral seat of the Eliot family, whose present head is Albert Eliot, 11th Earl of St Germans.Port Eliot comprises a stately home with its own church, which serves as the parish church of St Germans. An earlier church building was Cornwall's principal cathedral. The house is within an estate of 6000acre which extends into the neighbouring villages of Tideford, Trerulefoot and Polbathic and is listed Grade I.HistoryOriginally built as a priory with adjoining St Germans Priory Church parts of the house date back to the twelfth century. It was substantially altered and remodelled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by noted architects including Sir John Soane.In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Eliot family invested heavily in the estate, building numerous farmhouses, fisherman's cottages and other dwellings across the land. Many of these remain part of the estate to this day and are rented out to local residents and friends of the family. Some properties, mainly lying remote from the estate, have been sold in recent years.