Hall Court was built by a crusading politician who tried to clean up corruption in the Navy – and who, in his quieter moments, was rather fond of exotic plants. Penny Churchill reports.
Many of England’s least altered and most appealing country houses were originally farmhouses on estates acquired in the 16th and 17th centuries by the holders of some of the great offices of state.
Either way, this substantial, timber-framed, early-17th-century house comes with listed Victorian hop kilns, American-barn stabling, a manège and extensive outbuildings, plus views of the Malvern Hills.
Described in its Historic England listing as ‘a large symmetrically planned house retaining many significant features’, Hall Court was built in the early 1600s by the Parliamentarian and high-level bureaucrat John Coke, using materials recovered from an earlier building, the moat for which is buried in the field opposite the house.
Hall Court offers more than 8,000sq ft of historic living space, including a charming reception hall, a panelled drawing room and an impressive dining hall.
There are six bedrooms on the first floor, plus two more and a huge attic on the second floor.
The Victorian hop kiln that comes with the house
The other interesting nooks and crannies of this intriguingly sprawling home include a dairy, cellar and a sitting room which sits in its own annexe.
Of particular note is the spacious farmhouse kitchen, which has large windows overlooking the garden and is attached to a separate pantry.
The gardens and orchards are thought to have been laid out between 1608 and 1623 by Coke, who was interested both in kitchen gardening and exotic or little-known plants.
Born the son of a lawyer in 1563, Coke was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. As a young man, he established a firm friendship with the Elizabethan poet, dramatist and statesman Fulke Greville, filling a number of important administrative roles on his behalf, including chief clerk and naval paymaster from 1599 to 1603, when Greville was treasurer to the Navy.
Hall Court has huge stables and a fine all-weather manege
At a time when was corruption rife throughout the ‘senior service’, Coke and Greville attempted to introduce reforms, but were largely thwarted in their efforts and eventually forced out of office.
With time hanging heavily on his hands, Coke returned to Herefordshire in the summer of 1604, where he courted and married Marie Powell, daughter of one of Greville’s chief retainers, and, by 1608, had begun building Hall Court at Kynaston.
In 1621, thanks to Greville’s support, Coke was elected MP for Warwick and later ‘Master of Requests’ to the Navy, which meant moving his family to London. Although generally well respected as a conscientious and honest royal administrator, there was a venal side to Coke’s character and, when others dug deep into their own pockets to bail out the monarchy during the wars of the 1620s, Coke reputedly used his own considerable earnings to buy property and land.
Following Marie’s death in childbirth, in March 1624, Coke married Joan, the rich widow of William Gore of Tottenham, that November. Knighted the same year, Sir John lived at Tottenham until his death in 1644, after which Hall Court was let to a series of prosperous long-term tenant farmers – notably the Smith and Powell families – before being bought by the current owners some 20 years ago.
The former home of Frances Donaldson is up for sale, a beautiful old Gloucestershire farmhouse named Burden Court where she chronicled Edward VIII's tumultuous decision to abdicate.
Originally part of the estates of Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England at the time of Oliver Cromwell, Grade II*-listed Burden Court at Tresham, three miles from Badminton, is described by Historic England as ‘a good and intact example of the south Gloucestershire farmhouse type’.
From the end of the Second World War to the 1960s, the striking cross-passage farmhouse was home to the writer Frances Donaldson and her husband, Jack, a brilliant academic-turned-farmer, social worker and politician, who served as Minister of Arts in the Wilson and Callaghan governments, before being sent to the Lords as Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge in 1967.
Although Frances is probably best known for her award-winning biography of Edward VIII – upon which the TV series Edward and Mrs Simpson was based – no less fascinating is her enchanting autobiography, A Twentieth-Century Life, which documents her life with Lord Donaldson at Burden Court, where she also wrote an endearingly honest biography of her father, the playwright and bon viveur Frederick Lonsdale.
With 4,844sq ft of internal space, the whole as fresh and neat as the proverbial pin, Burden Court is equally suited for use as a delightful family home or a Cotswold weekend retreat, says selling agent Ian Daniels.
The ground floor offers light, spacious and versatile reception rooms, including a reception/dining hall with a flagstone floor and a large stone fireplace with a wood-burning stove.
There is also an impressive drawing room with an oak floor, a large open fireplace with carved stone surrounds and a games room that currently houses a pool table and piano.
A wide first-floor landing leads to an open-plan study area with views over the gardens and the valley beyond and to the master bedroom suite, with two further en-suite bedrooms; the second floor lends itself to two further double bedrooms.
Once the seat of one of the most powerful families in Oxford, Crepping Hall and its surrounding grounds will provide the ideal countryside escape for one lucky buyer.
From the Norman Conquest to the present day, almost 1,000 years of English history line the walls of Grade I-listed Crepping Hall, on the outskirts of dreamy Wakes Colne, on the Essex/Suffolk border. Once part of a 15,000-acre estate held by the powerful de Vere family, who were Earls of Oxford, in the late 12th century, the house was a timber-framed and plastered open hall with aisles, of which 2½ bays remain, with many later additions. A cross-wing was added in about 1512, with signs of an original attic floor and an Elizabethan first floor.
Although impressive, the de Vere family’s long association with the house is not its only claim to fame. Distinguished owners since the Victorian era include writers, industrialists and aristocrats, all of whom have left their mark on the building in one way or another.
In the Victorian period, a red-brick extension was added to the north, followed by a double-bay Edwardian west wing housing the original billiard room, now an impressive formal drawing room. The most recent addition is a spectacular orangery/break-fast room, which connects the kitchen to the main drawing room to create a wonderful open-plan space.
Currently on the market through Savills at a guide price of £3m, Crepping Hall stands in almost 10 acres of formal gardens, orchard and paddocks, filled with mature shrubs and ancient trees. A knot garden to the south comes complete with box balls and stunning roses, an elegant pond is traversable by a picturesque wooden bridge.
The main house boasts some 6,200sq ft of light and airy living space, including five reception rooms, six bedrooms and four bath/shower rooms. Amenities include a tennis court, swimming pool, verandah and terrace – perfect for idle days and lazy summer dining.
Gurrow Point sits on its own peninsula on the banks of the Dart, with 8000sq ft of elegant living space and acres upon acres of carefully tended gardens.
On the banks of the Dart, quite near Dartmouth, sits the beautiful riverside village of Dittisham. At the very end of riverside road (which unsurprisingly runs from the village centre to the river itself) sits the appropriately named Gurrow Point.
For property consultant Martin Lamb, whose first involvement with the sale of Gurrow Point dates back to 1987, the location is one of the most spectacular in the South-West, although in 1987, he recalls, ‘the house, probably built in the 1920s, was very old-fashioned, being finished with blue-painted overlap boarding with yellow windows’.
He continues: ‘At that time, the land on the peninsula was owned by Dittisham Court, a big house in the middle of the village, next to the church. It was farmland, divided by Devon banks, with little or no woodland, apart from a fringe running all the way round the river bank and, surrounding the house, a bank of huge conifers, which blew down in the hurricane of 1991. The house and land at Gurrow Point were put together in about 1987, creating a massive “marriage value” for the property.’
The 1987 buyer built much of what now exists at Gurrow Point, tripling the house in size. The estate was then sold not once, but twice, in 1991/92. The first buyer planted the poplar avenue that spans the length of the peninsula, but failed to complete on the purchase and the property was soon back on the market.
The next owner was a lawyer who finished off the house, built the cottage and tennis court, landscaped the gardens and planted the woodland, shrubs and hedges that are such an important element of the estate today. A keen sailor, he also repaired the slipways and jetty – rare and precious resources on the Dart, which, being in a conservation area and an AONB, is heavily controlled in terms of planning.
Everything was done by the book; however, when he moved on in early 2000, Gurrow Point was acquired by a buyer from the Midlands who rarely set foot on the property.
In 2008, the estate was sold to its current owners, who put their own stamp on Gurrow Point’s 8000sq ft of elegant living space, a highlight of which is the large family kitchen designed by Peter Booth of Newton Abbott. It opens onto a conservatory and an orangery, with access to the terrace – ideal for alfresco dining. The property also boasts three fine reception rooms, a study, a library/billiard room, five bedroom suites, an additional bedroom, a two-bedroom staff flat and a three-bedroom cottage.
The lush gardens, grounds and woodland that now surround the house are a striking testament to the work of several dedicated owners over a period of 30 years – and to the consistency of the oft-maligned planning authorities whose job is to protect this glorious corner of Devon.
Morwell House is a beautifully restored manor house, peaceful and secluded, set in the middle of its 207 acres of farmland and gardens.
More than 1,000 years of history are woven into the fabric of Grade I-listed Morwell House at Morwell Barton, near Tavistock, parts of which pre-date the Domesday Book.
For sale through Strutt & Parker at a guide price of £4.5 million, the beautifully-restored, medieval stone manor with its adjoining courtyard and outbuildings set in 207 acres of woods, pasture and farmland, was the country seat of the Abbot of Tavistock from the late 13th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, when the estate was granted to Lord John Russell.
He chose to live at nearby Crowndale, the birthplace of Sir Francis Drake in 1542, and the Morwell Barton estate was let over several centuries. In the mid 1800s, the Russell family, by then Dukes of Bedford, established a pattern of model farmyards on their estates and the traditional farm buildings at Morwell House were probably built around that time.
In the mid 20th century, a somewhat neglected Morwell House was sold off from the estate – only the second time that the freehold had changed hands in 800 years.
‘Not everyone wants to live in a Grade I-listed house, with all the commitment that entails,’ observes selling agent Mark McAndrew, ‘but, by and large, those that do, tend to stay there for some considerable time.’ The current owners, he reveals, who have maintained the property ‘to the highest of standards’, are only selling to be closer to expanding business interests in East Anglia.
The previous owners, who carried out a major renovation of the house and buildings, had owned the estate since 1969.
Morwell House is a wonderfully compact and peaceful place, which sits in a private and secluded spot in the centre of its land, with astonishing views to the south and west over the surrounding woodland and the Tamar Valley.
The main house, cottage and traditional farmstead are arranged around a central quadrangle to provide three reception rooms, five bedrooms and an integral three-bedroom cottage.
The present owners have converted part of the enchanting gatehouse above the entrance archway into a wine cellar and a long barn running along the east side of the courtyard serves as a splendid party venue.
Kimpton Grange is a stunning property, looking for an owner able to complete a much-needed restoration to return it to its former glory.
Standing at the front door of imposing Kimpton Grange, on the edge of the conservation village of Kimpton, four miles from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, it’s hard to believe that the red-brick Victorian exterior hides an elegant, early-18th-century house with mid-18th- and 19th-century additions, which now requires ‘extensive modernisation’ and, with remodelling in mind, is conveniently unlisted.
The house currently offers some 13,000sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including three light and spacious reception rooms, a study, kitchen/breakfast room, six bedroom suites and an indoor leisure area with a swimming pool, changing rooms, gym and games room. The property also features a private cinema.
Outdoor amenities include two cottages, a staff flat, an outdoor pool, a floodlit tennis court and a large barn.
Attention to detail is evident throughout Kimpton Grange – the swimming pool boasts a stunning set of murals, which depict an idyllic countryside garden and flow seamlessly into the marble columns with decorate the walls.
The outdoor pool mimics its indoor counterpart, with a Grecian pavilion saving owners from a cold trip back to the main house after taking a dip. A picturesque pond, reached by a box hedge lined path, completes Kimpton’s water features.
The property does require extensive modernisation to bring it up to the modern standards which match its imposing exterior. The drawing and sitting rooms both feature stunningly moulded ceilings and with their palatial measurements and wooden floors are reminiscent of old country house ballrooms, however both are in great need of an update and polish.
In a bid to create a greater ‘sense of arrival’ at Kimpton Grange, drawings commissioned from a consultant architect propose a striking redesign of the Victorian east façade to match the more pleasing proportions of the south front, which overlooks the lake, and the replacement of the present, single-storey, indoor pool complex with a new kitchen/dining area overlooking the gardens.
There are fewer grander facades in Britain than the one you'll find at High Head Castle – unfortunately, the facade is almost all that still stands, as Penny Churchill reports.
It’s not entirely accurate to describe High Head Castle, near Carlisle, Cumbria, as a ruin: it does have some habitable indoor space, namely two bedrooms and a small kitchen.
But the opportunity here is not about finding a place to live. It’s about a chance to restore a property which was once the finest 18th-century house in the region. And if the initial response is anything to go by, there are plenty of people up for the challenge.
Despite the evident high cost of restoration, the response was ‘astounding’, reveals selling agent Melissa Lines, who was overwhelmed by enquiries from Cumbria, London and as far afield as Morocco and South Africa.
The result was some 50 viewings and the setting of a closing date of last Friday, November 16.
Given the building’s history, however, we’d recommend any interested parties to keep their ears to the ground for a while yet. The ups and downs of the castle have seen it come close to demolition several times, while some planned major restorations have fallen by the wayside over the years as well.
High Head Castle comprises a four-storey, mid-18th-century house known as The Classical House and a Tudor west wing dating from 1542, each separately listed Grade II*.
The west wing abuts a medieval tower – the remains of an earlier medieval castle from 1272 – and a servants’ wing added in 1903. The Classical House was built for the Brougham family in 1744–49, probably to designs by the architect James Gibbs.
High Head Castle has escaped destruction on at least three occasions. The first was in 1902, when it was bought and extensively repaired by Herbert Hills (Country Life, October 15, 1921). The second was in 1956, when The Classical House and the Tudor wing were both gutted by fire.
The accommodation is simple, but perfectly adequate as a place to live while work is going on.
The third came in 1985, when the then owner’s application to have the castle demolished was refused and it was bought by the late Christopher Terry.
Mr Terry embarked on a lengthy restoration project, but his family has reluctantly decided to abandon their efforts and instead pass the baton on to a new owner. Will it be fourth time lucky for High Head Castle?
This glorious home features a house that bears the mark of Portmeirion's architect, some of the greatest snowdrop gardens in Britain and a delightful Dower House that offers a chance for someone who is after a project to get stuck in to.
Its Historic England listing describes it rather less emotively, yet in its own way in equally glowing terms, as ‘an excellent mid-17th-century house with good coherent exterior character, and a fine interior’. For Bells Lewers of Strutt & Parker, Ty Fry is all these things – and more.
Among Ty Fry’s many fine historic features are the high-beamed ceilings, chamfered beams, moulded cornices, painted panelling, original oak staircase and magnificent arched stone fireplace in the entrance hall, which incorporates the Owen Williams coat of arms.
In all, the house has six reception rooms, seven bedrooms and four bathrooms, the whole set in 34.4 acres of historic gardens, grounds and pasture.
The present owners of this Grade II*-listed house near Menai Bridge weren’t looking for a restoration project when, in 2005, they walked up the drive and ‘completely fell in love’ with the house. Some previous structural renovations had already been carried out on the main dwelling, which was therefore sound, although the interior needed improvement and some basic repair, including painting and decorating, reinstating fireplaces and so on.
The gardens were completely hidden, but it was clear on walking around the grounds that there were major landscaped gardens underneath. Over the years, the rundown manor house and its two-bedroom cottage have been sympathetically restored, with only the Dower House still in need of full renovation, although it has already been re-roofed and some of the stonework repaired.
The building, which conceals a beautifully intact dovecote built to accommodate more than 100 birds, could potentially provide additional four-bedroom accommodation, the cost and scope of which would depend on a new owner’s requirements.
Once part of a 600-acre estate, the Tudor house at Ty Fry was modified in 1679 by Owen Williams, scion of one of North Wales’s most illustrious families, to create the present manor house. This was extended in 1805 to provide an impressive drawing room, which was later redesigned by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis of Portmeirion fame.
The wonderful woodland gardens at Ty Fry, all listed Grade II* and entered on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, include large natural rock formations enhanced to create raised walkways and viewing platforms.
Clearly of strategic military importance in ancient times, these platforms guard the neck of the small valley running up to Ty Fry. From these vantage points can be seen the mountains of Snowdonia to the south and east and a vast tract of Anglesey to the west; the house nestles unobtrusively below.
The gardens have been cleared to show the structure of the walkways and viewing platforms, although the scope for further restoration is unlimited. The snowdrop gardens are among the most extensive to be found anywhere in the UK and, until relatively recently, the snowdrops were picked by hand and sent daily by mail train to be sold in the flower market at Covent Garden.
With a walled garden, an arboretum, a water garden and a vegetable garden, its no surprise that White House and its environs provided inspiration for Spring's creative genius.
Elegant, Georgian White House on Fenwick Road was home to the Welsh author and journalist Howard Spring from Midsummer Day 1947 until his death in 1965. Spring used Falmouth and its environs as the setting for several of his books, including Fame is the Spur, Hard Facts and The Houses in Between.
He and his wife, Marion, were passionate gardeners and, in her book Howard, she refers to ‘our rare and lovely trees – mimosa, tulip tree, embothriums, metasequoia’, many of which still grace White House’s wonderful walled garden, along with the arboretum, water garden and vegetable garden, which gave them ‘never-ending and supremely interesting work’.
White House, which, oddly enough, is unlisted – ‘probably because the listing inspector, in true Cornish fashion, couldn’t see the house behind its high garden wall and was disinclined to explore further’, suggests Mr Cunliffe – was built in 1780 for a spinster sister of the influential Fox family of Glendurgan Garden fame (now owned by the National Trust).
Bought in 2002 by businessman Kim Conchie and his wife, Sarah, who wished to bring up their young family – then aged nine, six and three – in his native Cornwall, White House has been a wonderful family experience and it will be ‘a real wrench’ to leave, Mr Conchie admits.
In a thriving historic town where terraced houses are the norm, White House’s especially private location a mere 400 yards from the beach, its generous six/seven bedroom accommodation and delightful walled gardens – 1.25 acres in all – make it a proposition that any serious buyer with the sea in his blood will find awfully hard to resist.
The area in and around the Teme Valley is full of spectacular views and beautiful homes, as the lovely places on this page demonstrate.
Is there a prettier town name in England than Shelsley Beauchamp? Or one that would make a better tongue-twister, come to think of it?
The name might be a bit of a mouthful, but there’s nothing complicated about the charms of this beautiful spot in the Worcestershire hills above the Teme Valley. And the houses you can find in this neck of the woods often match the scenery.
Take as an example this lovely home, featured in Country Life this week: Grade II-listed, Georgian Shelsley Grange, set in some 50 acres of elegant gardens, grounds and paddocks. The house was for sale through Andrew Grant and the Telford office of Savills at a guide price of £4m – but between the magazine going to print and hitting the news-stands, it seems a buyer has been found.
It’s not hard to see why. This is a heavenly location, a wooded hillside with distant views of the Malvern and Clee hills, is scattered with remote houses bounded by cherry and apple orchards – a world away from the hustle and bustle of the West Midlands conurbations.
Having bought Shelsley Grange a decade or so ago, the outgoing owners transformed the original mid-19th-century building into a classic country house of charm and grandeur, centred on a formal reception hall with a magnificent cantilevered staircase and four beautifully proportioned reception rooms with full-height, shuttered sash windows, high ceilings and impressive open fireplaces.
In all, the house offers 10,776sq ft of living space, including five reception rooms, a bespoke SieMatic kitchen, eight bedrooms and an orangery leading to a heated indoor-pool area, refurbished in January.
The same meticulous attention to detail is evident in the gardens and grounds and throughout the immaculate equestrian facilities – as befits a top-class competition yard that produced a four-star event horse to successfully complete Badminton Horse Trials earlier this year.
Though Shelsley Grange has now gone off the market, we found several other delightful homes nearby. The Court at nearby Alfrick, for sale at £1.6 million via Knight Frank, bears more than a passing resemblance, and also has its own equestrian facilities, including a manege, fenced paddocks and two stable blocks.
Also in the area is nine-bedroom Orleton House, on the market via Fisher German at £2 million, a splendid country house in just over nine acres with a separate cottage and ‘middle house’, as well as fine grounds and a swimming pool.
Ripple Hall near Upton-upon-Severn is a huge, striking house with 600 years of history. Penny Churchill investigates.
Estate agent Andrew Grant has crossed the threshold of almost every important house in Worcestershire in his 40 years in the business, and has also sold quite a few of them. All those homes have a story to tell, none more so than gracious Ripple Hall in Ripple, near Upton-upon-Severn, on the Gloucestershire/ Worcestershire border, which is on the market for the first time in almost 60 years at a guide price of £2.25 million.
Ripple Hall, listed Grade II, stands next to Ripple’s Grade I-listed, 12th-century St Mary’s Church, surrounded by more than 13 acres of gardens, grounds and ancient parkland.
The oldest, rear part of the house is believed to date from the 1400s, with the main south front added in 1780–90. The whole is rearranged in a style similar to several prominent houses in Upton-upon-Severn, including The Rectory, built by Ralph Sheward for the Rev J. E. Martin in 1787.
With its high ceilings, wide doors and original 18th-century design and fittings, Ripple Hall exudes a discreet grandeur rarely found in country houses these days. With more than 10,000sq ft of elegant living space on three floors, it caters for every aspect of full-time country living.
There are four fine reception rooms, a breakfast room, an orangery, 8–10 bedrooms, five bathrooms, three wine cellars and an alarmed strong room.
Traditional outdoor amenities include a stable block with original stabling, a green- house with productive vines, a croquet lawn, a heated outdoor pool with a view of the church, a walled kitchen garden and delightful gardens laid mainly to lawn.
There are some splendid specimen trees, including an ancient tulip tree, a cork tree and a majestic oak.
The remodelling of Ripple Hall in the late 18th century was carried out for Fleetwood Parkhurst, a descendant of John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich from 1560, who is renowned in academic circles for his Hebrew and English Lexicon.
On his death in 1801, Ripple Hall passed to his son, also named Fleetwood – a clergyman who appears to have combined a number of ecclesiastical roles, including vicar of Epsom and curate of Penzance, with a successful career in the world of property. He retired to Ripple Hall, but died suddenly in 1844, apparently while out walking in Cheltenham.
Although not loved by all, the Rev Fleetwood’s passing was noted by his Rugby and Oxford contemporary, the writer Walter Savage Landor, who wrote in a letter: ‘Little as Parkhurst is to be respected, I am shocked and grieved at his death. A happier one, however, there could not be. I shall often think of our early friendship and our happier days.’
Thereafter, Ripple Hall was owned or occupied by a number of short-term tenants, before being sold to a Miss A. J. Behrens, who lived there until 1931, when it passed to Edward F. Gray, son of the Rev Edward Gray of Donnington Hall, Ledbury.
Following a career in the consular service, Gray died in 1960, after which Ripple Hall was bought by Mr and Mrs Hugo Baldwin Huntington-Whiteley, later Sir Hugo Baldwin Huntington-Whiteley, 3rd Baronet Huntington-Whiteley of Grimley and grandson of one of Worcestershire’s most famous sons, three-times Prime Minister Sir Stanley Baldwin.
Sir Hugo died in 2014, aged 90, and Ripple Hall is being sold by his widow, Jean, Lady Huntington-Whiteley. The Huntington-Whiteleys have long been involved with county affairs and it was entirely appropriate that Andrew Grant’s wife, Beatrice, daughter of Sir Miles Huntington-Whiteley, 4th Baronet, should have spearheaded a successful campaign for a life-size bronze statue of Sir Stanley to be erected in Bewdley – the town he served as MP for almost 30 years; the unveiling by The Duke of Gloucester took place on September 27 this year.
Priors Court includes everything from an original tiled hallway to a two-storey granary – but this quirky Gloucestershire home needs a bit of TLC.
Despite the long shadow cast by Brexit, Birmingham is currently enjoying something of a renaissance with local agents reporting demand for good country houses from landowners, farmers and businessmen.
And all those looking for a new family home in the areas around the West Midlands will want to consider taking a look at Grade II-listed Priors Court at Long Green, Forthampton. This a village just across the county border into Gloucestershire, six miles from Upton-upon-Severn and eight miles from Tewkesbury.
The substantial main house, which stands on high ground overlooking the M50 with spectacular far-reaching views, dates from the 17th century and offers six reception rooms, six bedrooms and four bathrooms.
It also offers a renovation opportunity. As the pictures here show, the whole house is perfectly habitable but is also in need of some modernisation.
Alternatively, with the benefit of planning consent (granted in 2007), the house could be converted into two dwellings and some nearby outbuildings to further residential accommodation.
Other outbuildings include garaging, an office, a two-storey former granary, stabling, a swimming pool and a tennis court in need of renovation.
This fine country rectory just outside Bath has had half a million pounds trimmed from its asking price – a realistic sign of the times, as Penny Churchill reports.
Arguably Bath’s most famous resident, Jane Austen lived in the city from the time of her father’s retirement until shortly after his death, a period of five years from 1801 to 1806. During her stay, she wrote the novel Persuasion and, later, Sense and Sensibility – concepts that appear to resonate perfectly with the city’s estate agents in today’s unpredictable property market.
‘At a time when sensible pricing has never been so important, some vendors still take a lot of persuading to lower their sights,’ says Charlie Taylor of Knight Frank. That message is hitting home with some, however: take the case of Grade II-listed The Old Rectory at Claverton, a historic manorial settlement on the southern side of Bath which has seen a substantial reduction in asking price to reflect the conditions.
Located in undulating countryside between Claverton Manor and Warleigh Manor, the valley was the subject of landscaping and grand planning during the 17th and 18th centuries, a legacy still evident today.
First launched on the market in May at a guide price of £2.95 million, the substantial, late-17th-century former rectory, rebuilt and extended in 1852, is now on through Knight Frank and Savills at a guide price of £2.5 million.
The recently refurbished main house provides more than 6,800sq ft of living space on three floors, including a drawing room, dining room and kitchen, all with fine views over the garden to the Limpley Stoke valley.
The first floor houses a luxurious master suite, a study, four further bedrooms and a family bathroom, with two further bedrooms on the floor above.
Outside, a bank of mature woodland ensures the privacy and seclusion of the lovely rear garden, which has been thoughtfully laid out and beautifully maintained.
In 1750, the writer, poet and Anglican minister Richard Graves – best known in scholarly circles for his novel The Spiritual Quixote, a satire of John Wesley and Methodism – was installed as rector of Claverton and, from then until his death in 1804, he rarely left the living for long.
In those days, the rectory, which stood on the same site as the present one, was, according to Graves’s biographer Francis Kilvert, ‘of a far humbler character, a long low building, beneath the level of the road, possessing nevertheless an air of comfort and respectability’.
Today’s handsome former rectory comprises three main parts: the original 17th-century house to the south, the imposing 19th-century part, with its distinctive gables, in the centre and the attached two-bedroom Rectory Cottage to the north.
Just a few minutes from Bath yet with its toes also in the Cotswolds, this Grade II*-listed home is the archetype of the liveable country house.
In a gloriously unspoilt and peaceful setting four miles north-east of Bath overlooking picturesque St Catherine’s Valley lies St Catherine’s End House, a beautiful country home that sits just within the Cotswolds AONB.
This imposing 17th-century building – for sale via Knight Frank at £2.325 million – is wonderfully private, approached from a country lane through high wooden gates that open onto a spacious gravel drive and extensive parking.
Terraced lawns sweep away to the east, where mature hedgerows protect the boundary without impinging on the splendid panoramic views across the valley.
Inside, the house boasts an array of fine, original architectural detail. There are steep gables and mullioned windows, beamed ceilings and stone fireplaces, and perhaps best of all an original 17th-century staircase.
The main house currently offers 3,831sq ft of accommodation, including a drawing room, library, family room, kitchen/breakfast room and four bedroom suites.
The sale also includes the Garden House – a converted former coach house – that offers a further 1,517sq ft of living space, including a kitchen/living room and two bedroom suites.
The owners have recently obtained planning consent to significantly extend the main house by linking it on one side with the separate home office to create a large kitchen/dining room and adding a new drawing room and loggia on the opposite side.
The proposed alterations, if implemented in their entirety, would increase the area of the main house to a total of 5,413sq ft and substantially enhance its overall appeal. Not that it needs much help in that regard, of course…
The church owned this property in the Somerset village of Northend for hundreds of years; now, after a huge refurbishment project, it's on the lookout for a new owner.
At a guide price of £1.95m through Knight Frank, Grade II-listed The Old Vicarage in the charming village of Northend, three miles from Bath, is for sale for the first time in more than 250 years, having been in Church ownership before being taken on by its present owners.
During their tenure, they’ve completely renovated the house, transforming the interior into a stylish, contemporary family home whose clean, modern interior seems to work well with the ancient space inside, despite coming as something of a surprise after first seeing this traditional Somerset building.
The drawing room, dining room, and a state-of-the-art Mowlem & Co kitchen wouldn’t look out of place in a swish city penthouse, for example.
There’s also a strikingly modern-looking sitting room/media room and a games room.
There are six bedrooms and four bathrooms across the first and second floors, and a cellar (including wine room) below the ground floor – the house has some 5,100sq ft in all.
Modern art decks many of the walls and the fittings also keep the modern theme – yet many period touches such as fireplaces, beams and the Georgian windows have been respected and incorporated.
Outside there is roughly half an acre of gardens, beautifully landscaped, with a lawn and shrubs and all surrounded by mature trees.
There is also an orchard with various varieties of apple trees, raised beds for vegetables and a garage that’s currently used for housing garden machinery and ancillary equipment.
No voice cried out more loudly than that of the late Major Anthony Crombie when Bath's historic city centre was threatened by the wrecking ball. Maj Crombie's own home has now come to the market, a place that holds true to the ideals he held dear.
‘When I first started selling houses in Bath in the 1990s, a Georgian house in need of renovation would come along every six weeks. Now, it’s more like one a year,’ says Andrew Cronan of Strutt & Parker, for whom Christmas has come early in the shape of 7, Sion Hill Place, one of a terrace of elegant Grade I-listed Georgian town houses built by John Pinch the elder in 1815.
The agents quote a guide price of £1.495m for the unspoilt Georgian gem, which stands in a quiet backwater on the upper slopes of Bath, with far-reaching southerly views over the city to the open countryside beyond.
For years, 7, Sion Hill Place was the home of Bath campaigner Major Anthony Crombie, who was horrified at the ease with which Georgian terraces were being demolished and replaced with poor-quality 1960s and 1970s buildings. Maj Crombie became a stalwart of the Bath Preservation Trust, castigating developers and estate agents alike over a period of 40 years.
During that time, the society – represented in court by the major himself, in order to save costs – won a landmark planning-law case in 1990/91, which strengthened the protection of architecturally important conservation areas throughout the country.
Maj Crombie believed in practising what he preached, as his much-loved Georgian home reveals. It now needs complete renovation, Mr Cronan explains, although it still retains fine Georgian features, such as ceiling cornicing, full sash windows, impressive fireplaces and staircases.
Originally arranged as three dwellings, with lower-ground floor and top-floor flats, it now offers the chance to create a splendid family home on five floors, with a superb bay window overlooking the garden to the rear.
7 Sion Hill Place is for sale via Strutt & Parker at £1.495 million – see more details and pictures.
Buyers were initially cautious this year, but once competition reared its head, they found estates worth every bit of the asking price – and sometimes more, as Penny Churchill reports.
It’s hardly surprising that the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the Brexit negotiations should have cast a long shadow over the workings of the country-house market in 2018.
More surprising, perhaps, is the fact that the market worked at all – and work it did, in some unexpected ways and places, according to Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank.
‘Generally speaking, buyers have used Brexit as an excuse to put things on hold, but when a special house or estate came along and they saw others bidding, they were happy to pitch in and pay the price to get it,’ he says.
‘Buyers were nervous of going it alone, which resulted in more top properties being offered on the open market and fewer being sold privately than in recent years, with some notable cases of competition among bidders resulting in sales achieved for more than the guide price. ‘
Mr Sweeting also points to what he describes as another ‘encouraging trend’: the level of interest shown by overseas buyers at the top end of the market, ‘helped no doubt by the weakness of sterling versus the dollar,’ he adds.
Against that perhaps surprisingly upbeat backdrop, here’s our look at the most important country house sales of the last 12 months.
Sutton Hall
For Rupert Sweeting, the standout sale of the year was that of the diverse, 2,177-acre Sutton Hall estate near Woodbridge, Suffolk, which sold to a UK buyer for more than its £31.5 million guide price within four months of its launch onto the market in July through Knight Frank and Ipswich-based agents Landbridge.
The thriving mixed-farming and sporting estate, which has 3½ miles of frontage to the River Deben and its own private quay, was acquired by Sir Cuthbert Quilter as part of his Bawdsey estate and assembled over a period of some 20 years.
At its heart is a Grade II-listed, eight-bedroom Georgian manor house set amid formal gardens and parkland. There are also 11 farmhouses and cottages, as well as two barns with planning consent for conversion to residential use.
Aylesfield House
An equally fast-moving scenario played out in June, following the launch onto the market of the idyllic, 278-acre Aylesfield House estate, set in rolling Hampshire countryside near Alton at a guide price of £11m through Knight Frank. Built in 1933 around the core of a 17th-century farmhouse for a member of the Westbury family, Aylesfield House was the home of the late Sir Robin McAlpine from 1948 until his death in 1993.
Restored and remodelled by the recent vendors, who purchased the estate in 2003, the immaculate Hampshire holding soon found a willing buyer – at comfortably more than the £11m guide.
Kingstone Lisle Park
Strutt & Parker and Knight Frank were joint agents in the successful sale of the spectacular, 257-acre Kingstone Lisle Park estate near Wantage, with its recently refurbished Grade II*-listed 13-bedroom mansion, considered by many to be one of Oxfordshire’s most beautiful houses.
Having been on and off the market for the best part of four years, it came to the open market this year at a guide of ‘offers over £20m’, much to the delight of Will Whittaker of Strutt & Parker’s estates and farm agency, for whom ‘this magical Oxfordshire sporting estate was a fun property to sell, precisely because it came to the open market, thereby attracting attention from all round the world, whereas most of the sales we handle in this price bracket tend to take place off-market’.
‘Buyers of country estates of this calibre tend to have exacting requirements,’ continues Mr Whittaker, explaining that a handsome house at its centre is often just the start: buyers specify everything from trout streams and hills to properties with no public rights of way or road noise.
Kingstone Lisle proves the point nicely. ‘In the end it was bought by a buyer from France who was specifically looking for a property within 30 minutes of his polo team’s base at Cowdray Park, West Sussex,’ adds Mr Whittaker. ‘His maximum budget was £8m, but he ended up buying a historic estate in Oxfordshire for £21.6m!’
Coombe Park
Strutt & Parker were the agents for the sale of another Oxfordshire gem this year: the 125-acre Coombe Park estate on the banks of the river at Whitchurch-on-Thames. Described by Mark McAndrew of Strutt & Parker as ‘a faded glory that time forgot’, it launched in the autumn at a guide price of ‘excess £10m’.
Centred around a derelict 18th-century mansion with numerous outbuildings and vast development potential, this ‘impossibly romantic’, rare Thames-side estate attracted interest from around the globe. It sold for about £8m to a buyer who plans to restore and live in the house and convert the former stables into offices.
Hexton Manor
For Crispin Holborow of Savills’ private office, two notable estate sales at the end of 2017 set up the top end of the market for 2018: the picturesque 762-acre Bibury Court estate near Cirencester, sold with a price tag of £17.5m, and the 1,044-acre Stubhampton farming estate at Tarrant Gunville on the Dorset/Wiltshire border, which had a guide price of ‘excess £13m’. In 2018, however, Savills point to the sale of the Cooper family’s 1,349-acre Hexton Manor estate at Hexton, in the foothills of the Chilterns AONB, a Hertfordshire rarity, as one of the highlights.
A model mixed-farming and sporting estate set around an impressive Grade II-listed manor house, with one of the finest high-bird pheasant shoots in the northern Home Counties, Hexton Manor was launched in May and sold in two lots with minimum fuss – and competitive bidding on both lots – at a guide price of £19m for the whole. ‘If only all sales were as orderly as this one,’ sighs Mr Holborow.
Woodmancote Place
In contrast to Hexton, it took the best part of five years to find a buyer for historic Woodmancote Place near Henfield, West Sussex, at its original asking price of £7.95m, its owner having steadfastly refused to reduce the price throughout that time.
Set in 149 acres of lakeside gardens and grounds, the romantic Tudor manor – once owned by Sir Edward Seymour, who was executed for treason in 1552 – was bought by a local businessman who had been patiently watching from the sidelines, waiting for the right time to make his move, reveals James Mackenzie, head of selling agent Strutt & Parker’s national country department.
Ince Castle
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the open-market launch of a 13,958sq ft castle in Cornwall, at a guide price of ‘excess £7m’ in April, would be a lost cause under present trading conditions, but you’d be wrong, says James Mackenzie with glee. Having set the ball rolling on elegant, Grade I-listed Ince Castle (also pictured top), which stands on its own 190-acre, private peninsula overlooking the River Lynher, near Saltash, in the Tamar Valley AONB, joint agents Knight Frank and Strutt & Parker were soon reeling in enquiries from around the world.
The agents eventually netted a South Africa-based buyer for the 13-bedroom castle, beautifully restored by its long-term owners, Viscount Lennox-Boyd of Merton and his wife, Alice, following a fire that gutted the building in 1988.
The Old Rectory at West Woodhay
Like Ince Castle, another special country house to rise phoenix-like from the ashes of a disastrous fire was Grade II-listed The Old Rectory at West Woodhay, in the North Wessex Downs AONB.
Launched on the market in May, at a guide price of £7.75m through Knight Frank and Savills, the impeccably restored Georgian former rectory, set in 14 acres of wonderful gardens and grounds on the edge of the 2,000-acre West Woodhay estate of which it was once a part, shook the market to its core by finding a buyer – reputedly at well over the guide price – almost before the ink had dried on the sales particulars.
Bowhill House
More than ever in 2018, successful sales have depended on the willingness of vendors to set a ‘sensible’ guide price from the outset – whatever ‘sensible’ is, of course.
One example of a swift and successful sale for more than the guide price was that of handsome Bowhill House at West Stoke, which launched on the market with Savills at a guide price of £4.95m in May and sold for £5.15m in July.
For sale for the first time in 30 years, the imposing Edwardian-style house, built in about 1936, stands in splendid gardens and grounds on the edge of West Stoke village, gateway to the Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve, a particularly beautiful area of the South Downs National Park.
Martyr Worthy Manor
There are lots of good news stories on this page, but of course not all sales are straightforward. Take the sale of gorgeous, Grade II-listed Martyr Worthy Manor, with 36 acres of gardens, pasture and woodland in the beautiful Itchen Valley, four miles from Winchester. It came to the market through Savills in June 2017, at a guide price of £6.25m, but failed to find a buyer.
Relaunched on the market this year, with a revised guide price of £4.65m, it sold in October for about that figure.
And meanwhile, in London…
With the central London market supposedly in the doldrums, who’d want to be a London agent, I wonder. Well, Miles Meacock of Strutt & Parker’s Notting Hill office is more than happy, having secured the recent sale – jointly with Knight Frank – of 91, Clarendon Road, one of Notting Hill’s most sought-after streets. It’s not a country house, but it earns a guest appearance at the end of this list.
The stylish, semi-detached, five-bedroom family house, set behind a secure, gated driveway, with off-street parking and a large, west-facing garden, went to an overseas buyer, at a guide price of £13m.
‘Nowadays, anyone lucky enough to own a home in Notting Hill rarely wants to leave and families who buy in the best roads are likely to stay for anything from 20 to 40 years,’ Mr Meacock says cheerfully.
‘However, they do tend to migrate to the Cotswolds at weekends, where they will happily buy a weekend retreat within easy reach of Oxfordshire’s Soho House Farmhouse.’
Sensible pricing is all the rage as we enter 2019 and Lower Moor Manor comes with it all: six bedrooms, a reasonable price tag and planning permission to convert a beautiful tower into a two-bedroom dwelling.
An interesting subtext to the Brexit script, highlighted by Dawn Carritt of Jackson-Stops, is the current strength of the London rentals market, which she expects to stay buoyant, with potential purchasers preferring to sit on the fence for a while longer.
‘Overseas residents are still keen to remain living in the capital, a typical example being a family who recently committed to renewing their tenancy of a flat in Holland Park and paid their weekly rental of £3,200 up front for the entire year,’ Miss Carritt reveals.
Out in the country, where house prices lagged behind the FTSE 100 throughout 2018, Jackson-Stops expect to see investors again looking to bricks and mortar for capital growth post-Brexit. Particularly so in the case of properties with potential for improvement, either by extending or renovating the main house or converting outbuildings, although location still remains key.
The owners have maintained an ongoing programme of improvements, but have left scope for an incoming purchaser to make their own mark. The pretty Clock House has planning consent for conversion to a two-bedroom dwelling and an ongoing planning application is in place for a separate stable block, groom’s accommodation and manège some distance from the house.
The house as it stands is nothing to turn up your nose at – boasting six good sized bedrooms (some with beautifully vaulted ceilings and most with their fair share of natural wood), three reception rooms and extensive outbuildings built in beautiful Cotswolds stone.
With 36 acres of pasture and woodland, Lower Moor Manor is in the perfect position for a country home: secluded enough for total privacy, while remaining only a 15 minute drive from the thriving market town of Cirencester.
Too often properties in need of renovation require their owners to hold off on moving in until work is completed; not so with The Old Vicarage, a perfect country house with the potential to be magnificent.
The handsome Victorian former vicarage, set in some 13 acres of gardens, grounds, stabling and paddocks, a mere 37-minute train ride from London Kings Cross, comes with planning consent in place for a series of extensions.
The new owner will be able to build a basement extension, ground-floor extension, first-floor rear and side extension, a roof extension with three rear dormer windows and a new front porch – enough to keep the most enthusiastic doer-upper busy for the foreseeable future.
Eight comfortable bedrooms already sit among the three light and airy receptions rooms, meaning that when the new owners do come to renovating the areas which need it, they can do so from the comfort of their own home.
An easy commute into London is quickly becoming a staple for any country house hoping to leave the market in 2019 - thankfully Felden, near Hemel Hempstead, can see you into London Euston station in 26 minutes.
For sale for the first time in more than 40 years, the classic Arts-and-Crafts house – built in 1922 and featured in Country Life, August 25, 1923 – combines ease of access to the metropolis by road and rail (London Euston in 26 minutes) with proximity to the high-achieving Berkhamstead School nearby.
Felden Orchard stands in more than three acres of lovely private gardens, including a walled garden with a covered barbecue area, a summer house and an additional barbecue area that could be divided into paddocks for grazing if ‘room for a pony’ is required.
The immaculate principal house, which comes with an annexe and separate barn, offers 4,500sq ft of accommodation, including two fine reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, master suite, five further bedrooms and two bath/shower rooms.
Initially constructed in the early 1900s to the highest specifications with huge attention to detail, the care taken with building this impressive family home makes it one of not a little architectural and historical interest.
To one side of the house is an impressive swimming pool with an adjacent pool room, complete with changing area and sauna. Towards the front of the house is a triple carport, a detached studio and substantial barn, which has both a garage-style and pedestrian access – if you preferred to drive to London, there is no shortage of automobile storage.
All in all, Felden provides every possible amenity any buyer looking for a modern country house would want – with plenty of room for improvement to keep even the most die-hard renovator busy for a while.
White House is on sale with Jonathan Cunliffe at a guide price of £1.595 million, 
