‘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]
for sale
Eshott Hall, Northumberland, finally sold
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
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
There are always options for those who have the sensitivity to own an interesting house rather than a simply expensive one.
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]
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…)
For sale: country house with good local shopping
To call Stone Castle a country house is pushing it really. The house, built on the site of the castle where William the Conquerer signed a peace treaty with the men of Kent in 1067, is now besieged by property development which has marched to within 70ft of the front door. Current owners, Land Securities, have used the house as a venue for conferences and weddings.
The house is perched on an outcrop high above the old quarry which now houses the vast Bluewater shopping centre. The house has a tower dating from the 14th-century but the majority of the house is late Georgian, built in 1825. The house now only has 2.5-acres of gardens but luckily the developments are to the rear of the property leaving lofty views from the lawns.
The house is being auctioned on 5 November with a guide price of £750,000 – but expect to spend even more to make it a home.
Full story: ‘STONE: Hidden castle from medieval era up for auction‘ [News Shopper]
Anyone looking for a very large country house?
Blaisdon Hall (Image from The Times)
An example of just how cyclical the housing market – particularly for country houses – a house which 60 years ago might have been at risk of demolition is now a trophy purchase.
Blaisdon House, in Gloucestershire, was built in the 1870s for Edwin Crawshay, a local ironmaster, by a Gloucester architect, F.S. Waller. Currently for sale, it includes a convenient 85-acres, sauna and gardens. The house was rescued from the threat of the 1950s when it was converted into a school but has now been skilfully converted back to family home with no trace of it’s former institutional use. One can only hope that more of these houses are rescued.
Full story: ‘The grandiose Victorian country house is back in vogue‘ [The Times]
So if I won the lottery…Dowdeswell Court
Although many of the stories in this blog are about houses at risk, it should also be noted that, should funds permit, many a fine country house comes up for sale every week via the big agencies such as Knight Frank, Savills, Chestertons etc. Whilst for most the dream of the large country house is out of reach, the sumptuous photos allow us a brief glimpse of these beautiful buildings. So, watch out for postings of the best of the country houses which have been advertised.
Dowdeswell Court, situated just outside Cheltenham, is an elegant essay in ne0-Classical style. The estate had been in the Rogers family since 1582 but by the early 1800s the house was so dilapidated that it could only be replaced. The new house was built in 1833-7, and was designed by a well-respected architect, Charles Paul of Cheltenham, who incorporated the distinctive Corinthian orders and cornicing. Interestingly though, the final design owes much to the master mason, Thomas Denley, who altered the plans. The interiors are to the 1830s but have been sympathetically restored. The house was then sold the now Coxwell-Rodgers family in the 1900s and it then went through a succession of owners and uses including as a school and residential home. It was from this latter fate that the house was rescued in 2005 and has since been carefully restored. This truly is a stunning house – a great example of it’s type and conveniently sized and located.
So if you have the requisite £7.9m please do contact Savills and ask for a viewing. And if you would like someone to carry your bag or something while you do so, please just let me know.
Full details: Dowdeswell Court [Savills]
The Country Seat 