I was E-mailed some information about Oare house by someone who grew up in the village here is the information:
“Oare House belonged for a large part of this century to Sir Geoffrey Fry, of the Fry’s chocolate family. He was a much-respected landlord in the village. My family lived in Orchard Cottage, one of his estate cottages, which was designed by Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect who designed Portmeirion.
Ellis wanted to put a split stable-type door on the house, but my grandmother told Sir Geoffrey that if he did, she would lean over it and neigh at him every time he walked past the house. She got her door all in one piece! During the 1970s Oare House belonged to Sir Alexander Downer, the High Commissioner for Australia. He instituted a tradition of having everyone who lived on the estate along to the house for a party on Christmas Eve. This was known in my family as ‘going to tug the forelock’ and my brother always wore his Oxford University tie to annoy Sir Alexander who had been unable to get his own son into Oxford.
The later owner (whose name escapes me as I had left the village by his time) has done a lot of work on the gardens, which are now quite highly-regarded. He has sold off the estate cottages, and the house where I grew up in the 60s and 70s is now privately owned”.