for sale

House of the week for sale: Abbey House, Dorset

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Abbey House, Dorset (Image: savills.com)

The New Year period can be a very quiet time for the sale of country houses.  This can often be easily seen in the much-thinner-than-usual selection of property adverts at the front of Country Life magazine, the weekly bible of the country house.  However, someone has obviously decided to steal a march on the spring rush by putting a stunning home on the market; Abbey House in Witchampton, Dorset.

The Grade-II* listed property was originally built in the early 16th century and is thought to be the first brick-built house in Dorset.  Formerly known as Witchampton Manor, it has 5 reception rooms, 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms (you might want to do something about that), plus the usual selection of outbuildings. The 6.8-acres of beautiful gardens also includes river frontage – perhaps an eco-alternative to the swimming pool.

This is a jaw-droppingly lovely house and I suspect with the currently dearth of decent larger homes on the market the owners may well have timed the sale very well as the bonus money from the City looks to find a country hole to escape to.

More details: ‘Abbey House, Dorset‘ [savills.com]

Quick news roundup: Gelli Aur, Raasay House, overseas buyers

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‘Welsh mansion appeal for armed forces retreat‘ [BBC News]

Raasay House: ‘Work to start on fire hit centre‘ [BBC News]

‘Overseas buyers snapping up country houses‘ [Country Life]

Eshott Hall, Northumberland, finally sold

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Eshott Hall, Northumberland (Image: telegraph.co.uk)

One event which can always creates a certain risk for country houses is the bankruptcy of the owner.  Once the contents have been sold, apart from the lack of maintenence, an empty house can be a magnet for the thieves who think nothing of stripping fixtures and fittings and even the lead off the roof.  So the news that Eshott Hall in Northumberland has now been sold following the bankruptcy of the owners is to be welcomed as hopefully the house will remain in use.

Full story: ‘Future of hall to become clear as sale nears‘ [The Journal]

If I won the lottery…Sheriff Hutton Park

Matthew Beckett - The Country Seat1 Comment
Sheriff Hutton Park (Image: Savills)

Launched this week in Country Life magazine is the stunning Sheriff Hutton Park, in Yorkshire. This is a quintessential English country estate: grade-I listed house with 10 bedrooms, farm, 200 acres, lake, and parkland.  The house, which dates from 1730, is in need of some modernisation but retains many of the original architectural features.  So if you have in excess of £5m available this could be the perfect estate for someone who wants the benefits of an important, but manageable house, combined with the opportunity to add your own choice of (architecturally sensitive) interior.

Property details: ‘Sheriff Hutton Park‘ [Savills]

Interesting houses for sale – Shurland Hall / Clifton Hall

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There are always options for those who have the sensitivity to own an interesting house rather than a simply expensive one.

kent-shurlandhall
Shurland Hall (Image: Jackson-Stops)

Shurland Hall, Eastchurch – Kent

Shurland  Hall was the gatehouse to a once impressive and important house built between 1510 and 1518 by Sir Thomas Cheyne and visited by Henry VIII in 1532 but now demolished.  The final residents of the house were troops billeted there during WWI who did enough damage to ensure that it was uninhabitable.  In 1996, the local council spent £200,000 to install supportive scaffolding to arrest the deterioration in the structure.  In 2006, a further grant of £300,000 was made to restore the facade and roof and this work has now been completed by the Spitalfields Trust.  This beautiful Grade-II* building is now for sale via Jackson-Stops for offers in excess of £2,000,000 – hopefully to someone who can complete the restoration sympathetically.

Property details: ‘Shurland Hall‘ [Jackson Stops]

nottinghamshire-cliftonhall
Clifton Hall (Image: Page One)

Clifton Hall, Nottingham

Grade-I listed Clifton Hall shot into the headlines in September 2008 when the owner walked away from the house and returned it to the mortgage company claiming that he and his family had been driven out by ghosts (‘Spooked businessman flees ‘haunted’ mansion‘). The house includes 10-bedrooms, 7 receptions, large cellars, 2.5-acres of grounds along with voices, knocks, apparitions and blood spots appearing on bed-linen.  If you don’t believe in ghosts then this house could be an absolute bargain; an advert in the Home section of the Sunday Times (15 November 2009) lists the price as £2.5m but on the agents website it’s down to £1.5m. So pack your holy water and book a viewing.

Property details: ‘Clifton Hall‘ [FHP Living] (interesting that none of the big agencies have taken this instruction…)