These five properties all offer new owners a taste of luxury in the sun.
Caribbean idyll: Tortola, $2.5 million (£1.59 million) (pictured above)
This traditional Caribbean house is positioned to take advantage of the magnificent westerly and northerly views of the islands of St John and Jost Van Dyke. The open-plan layout makes the most of sea breezes and expansive terraces offer lots of outside entertaining options.
Coral Hill House, Smuggler’s Cove Beach
3 bedrooms, studio, infinity pool
Savills (020–7016 3740)
Extraordinary views: Tortola, $7.775 million (£4.96 million)
Sitting on Long Bay’s hilltop, overlooking one of the island’s most famous beaches, Celestial House has a wraparound verandah and an infinity-edge swimming pool. It’s a 15-minute drive from the West End Ferry Dock for passage to other islands and the international airport.
Celestial House, Long Bay
5 bedrooms, pool, Jacuzzi
BVI Sotheby’s International Realty (00 1 284 494 5700)
Contemporary Caribbean: Grand Cayman, $1.89 million (£1.2 million)
This modern development stretches from George Town harbour to Seven Mile beach and so is within walking distance of the action but is close to the beach. The apartment has professional appliances, an infinity- edge pool and parking.
Contemporary Caribbean: Barbados, $3.995 million (£2.55 million)
This 8,000sq ft villa overlooks the fairway at Royal Westmoreland. It’s almost entirely surrounded by a sun deck and has an entertainment room, gym, study and koi pond.
Contemporary Caribbean: St Barths, €4.95 million
This brand-new, three-bedroom villa is perched on a hillside. The beach below is just a short stroll away, although the currents are too strong for swimming.
Villa Wide View, Toiny
St Barth Properties (00 1 508 570 4481)
A rare opportunity to own a share in a fly fishing syndicate on the River Test at Timsbury, Hampshire has come up.
A rare opportunity to join a fishing syndicate in a productive chalk stream fishery on the River Test has arisen. The Timsbury Fishery is set between Romsey and Stockbridge in the Test Valley which has been described as “one of the best kept secrets in Hampshire” and is just an hour’s drive from London it is close to Winchester, Salisbury and the New Forest.
The Timsbury Fishery comprises four individual beats providing fishing for two rods of 1.5miles of both River Test and two carrier streams. There is a fishing lodge which has power, water, washing facilities, a kitchen, WC as well as a large patio area.
Each rod fishes one day per fortnight during the season which generally runs from late April until mid October. The fishing is for brown trout using up-stream dry fly and nymph. Any salmon caught must be returned to the water. The fishery is fully keepered and has had the same manager for the last 16 years. The annual management fee is the only one payable by shareholders.
James Millard of Strutt & Parker’s Salisbury offices says “The River Test is regarded by many as the most famous chalk stream in the UK and is also fondly referred to be the home of modern fly-fishing. The chalk water and abundance of weed are ideal for salmon, trout and grayling. The chance to purchase a share on this fine stretch of river is rare.”
The guide price is £30,000 per share. For further information please contact Strutt & Parker on 01722 344 051.
This pieds-dans-l’eau villa on Barbados’s platinum coast is one of the most expensive properties currently on the market. Nicola Venning finds out what that kind of money buys in this winter-sun playground.
It would be easy to live in Gardenia. Its large, airy rooms, soaring ceilings and striking views of the azure Caribbean combine with an all-pervading sense of relaxation. Despite being one of the island’s grandest beachfront mansions on the exclusive West Coast, it has an inviting informality. The impressive scale of the classically designed home, which is on the market for a bold $50 million (￡31.9 million), is softened by mellow creamy-white coral-stone walls and an architectural playfulness.
The influence of Oliver Messel, the tastemaker and supporter of traditional Barbadian great-house architecture, who also lived in the area until his death in 1978, is apparent throughout: there are flattened stone arches, slender Grecian-inspired columns and light filigree metal and woodwork; the finishes on shuttered windows, doors and verandah are all in the famous Messel sage green. ‘Somewhere in the background is his relaxed classical architecture,’ explains Larry Warren, the architect who designed the nine-bedroom 10,495.36sq ft home approximately 19 years ago.
Gardenia’s comfortable elegance lends itself to outdoor living: the verandahs are wide, every bedroom leads to a balcony and the impressive gazebo, used for alfresco dining, sits against a backdrop of palm trees and ocean vistas.
Although there are some 90 beachfront homes on the West Coast, Gardenia is unique, partly due to its privacy. Set in the Garden area of St James parish, it sits back from the rather busy coast road in almost three acres of verdant seclusion (which is a lot on this prized patch of coastline). The mature tropical garden, which includes frangipani, bougainvillea and ylang-ylang, as well as magnificent 200-year-old mahogany trees and a tennis court, tumbles down to about 250sq ft of pristine beachfront.
‘This is a home for people who will winter here every year,’ believes Sam Mahon, consultant real-estate broker with Bajan Services affiliates of selling agent Knight Frank (020–7629 8171).
At this time of year, the annual pilgrimage of winter-sun enthusiasts begins and owners who ‘winter’ on the island will flock to the palm-fringed white beaches and crystal-clear sea to enjoy the warm temperatures as well as a host of amenities available locally. Fine-dining restaurants such as Cin Cin and Lone Star rub shoulders with the barefoot simplicity of charming (albeit increasingly rare) beach-shack bars. St Nicholas Abbey, an authentic converted plantation great house, which offers tours to the public, also has a popular restaurant and sells its own mature Bajan rum.
The Royal Westmoreland golf course and Barbados Polo Club vie to entertain the glitterati who flock here. Notable owners include Cilla Black and Sir Cliff Richard as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber, who owns multiple plots on the Sandy Lane estate. Local girl-made-good singer Rihanna opted for Westland Heights, a smaller inland development, when she bought a home for her mother.
Gardenia is one of only a dozen or so beachfront mansions on the West Coast in this price bracket; another currently on the market is Four Winds, a large Palladian-style mansion that sits in just over 21/2 acres on beautiful Gibbes Beach, one of the best areas of shoreline on the island. Owned by British financier Sir Martyn Arbib and also designed by architect Larry Warren, the opulent six-bedroom home has 350ft of beach frontage as well as a tennis court and swimming pool and is on the market for $55 million (￡35 million) through Savills (020–7016 3740) and Knight Frank (020 –7629 8171).
Although most high-end beachfront homes tend to be in a classical style, there are also a few contemporary villas. Footprints is a modern, California-inspired, stylish, five-bedroom beachfront home in St James parish, with interiors designed by Kelly Hoppen. Sitting further down the price ladder from both Gardenia and Four Winds, it’s on the market for $12 million (￡7.168 million) through Chestertons International and Knight Frank (020 –7629 8171). The home’s modern design includes fun features such as a discrete outdoor terrace bath from which you can take in the glorious sea views.
Traditionally, these prime beachfront homes are generally the most sought after although, currently, there is a wide range of properties for sale, especially in the $10 million to $25 million (£6.4 million–￡15.9 million) price range. ‘Traditionally, we would not have as many homes on the beach for sale, which is an indication of a slow market,’ says Mr Mahon.
Agents estimate that prices on average have dipped about 20% since their peak in 2008, although some apartments, of which there is an oversupply, have seen falls of 30% and more. However, although often empty throughout the year, trophy beachfront homes on the West Coast have been ‘most protected being most in demand’, says Richard Young of West Coast Villas, affiliates of Sotheby’s International Realty (00 1 246 432 5050). ‘It’s only the truly wealthy who demand or can afford this level of luxury and privacy.’
Summer visitors dreaming of making the move are now using the winter to look for the perfect property.
Fig 1: The Trebarwith estate has excellent business potential. £3.75m.
Changing lifestyles and two long, hot summers have turned the Cornish property market on its head, says Jonathan Cunliffe of Savills in Truro: ‘Traditionally, here in Cornwall, the winter months used to be quiet, with the market picking up in April and falling off in September— now it’s the other way round. People with families are too distracted between Easter and autumn to think seriously about property hunting, but if they’ve enjoyed a really good summer down here, and realise what they can get for the price of a relatively modest house in Fulham, they start thinking “How can I make the move?”.’
After a relatively quiet summer, the months of October and November have been ‘the best ever’ for Savills in Cornwall, Mr Cunliffe reports, with three sales recorded in recent weeks at about the magic £3 million mark. A house near Padstow, on the north Cornish coast, sold for ‘just under £3m’, another near St Mawes on the south coast went for ‘well in excess’ of that figure, and a farm in picturesque Roseland found a buyer at a guide price of £3m. However, most of the best deals done in the Duchy have involved properties in the £1m–£2m bracket.
Fig 2: Grade II- listed Lavethan, near Blisland, is ‘as pefect as they come’. £2.75m.
If the current pattern of activity is indeed the shape of things to come, then new owners may be just a the corner for a number of higher- priced country properties launched earlier in the year, which have so far failed to find buyers. One of these is the exquisite, Grade II*-listed Lavethan(Fig 2), set in 33 acres of pasture, parkland and woodland near Blisland, eight miles east of Wadebridge on the western edge of Bodmin Moor—one of Betjeman’s favourite Cornish villages, with its classic village green, Norman church and traditional villages houses —which is for sale through Savills (01872 243200) and John Bray (01208 863206) at a guide price of £2.75m.
In her book Unwrecked England, the late Candida Lycett Green summed up the charms of this enchanting small estate centred on a 15th-century Cornish longhouse, extended and remodelled in the 16th and late 17th centuries: ‘Down a tree-lined drive is the ancient manor house of Lavethan, as perfect as they come, overlooking its own secret valley and small river, a tributary of the Camel.’
The beautifully renovated house has four reception rooms, 6/7 bed- rooms, four bathrooms, a flat and a guest suite and comes with a terrace of three delightful holiday cottages, christened Tom, Dick and Harry, set in a walled garden away from the house. Nowadays, the prospect of a partial income derived from holiday lets can be a key factor in the decision to buy a Cornish property, especially one worth more than £2m, advises Mr Cunliffe.
If cost-efficiency ranks high on the wishlist, then the breezy 50-acre Trebarwith estate(Fig 1), a mile inland from the coast at Trebarwith Strand, surely ticks all the boxes, being almost cost-neutral to heat and run, thanks to ground-source heat pumps and a single private wind turbine located discreetly at the rear of the property. The estate is for sale through the Exeter office of Strutt & Parker (01392 215631) for offers of about £3.75m for the main building complex surrounded by 32 acres of land, with a further 17 acres and the wind turbine available separately for offers over £350,000.
The last decade has seen Trebarwith transformed from a redundant dairy farm into an imaginatively restored 16th-century main house with three five-star holiday homes, all facing west over the Atlantic and currently the basis of a thriving lettings and wedding business. But, tempting though the rewards may be, not everyone wants the hassle of running a tourist enterprise and Trebarwith, with its ample living space and spectacular clifftop location, could just as happily accommodate several generations of families and friends drawn to north Cornwall by the roar of the surf.
Fig 3: Trewin House sits in 35 acres on the River Lynher close to the Devon/ Cornwall border. £2.35m.
Privacy and anonymity are both guaranteed at Newton House (Fig 4), which is unlisted, has no nameplate and sits discreetly in almost three acres of grounds behind a high stone wall in a secluded corner of the National Trust-owned Lanhydrock estate, halfway between Bodmin and Lostwithiel. In terms of access, the house is brilliantly placed within easy driving distance of both the north and south coasts, with Fowey—one of the finest natural deep harbours in the county—as well as Rock and Padstow just 12 miles away.
For sale through Knight Frank (01392 423111) at a guide price of £2.5m, Newton House has been cleverly reconfigured by its current owners to make the most of its 6,770sq ft of living space, spread over five levels between the original two-storey house and a large, three-storey extension. It has four reception rooms, a study, a kitchen/breakfast room, master and guest suites, eight bedrooms, three family bathrooms and a two-bedroom cottage.
Fig 4: Although guaranteeing total privacy, Newton House, near Bodmin, is ideally placed. £2.5m
Lillicrap Chilcott and Strutt & Parker are vying to be the first to secure the sale, at a guide price of £2.35m, of lovely, Grade II-listed Trewin House(Fig 3), which sits in some 35 acres of wooded gardens, grounds and paddocks on the banks of the River Lynher at Sheviock, close to the Devon/ Cornwall border.
The house, built in 1750, with later additions from the 19th and early 20th centuries and a walled garden created in the late 18th century (listed Grade II in its own right), has been painstakingly restored by the current owners to provide an enchanting family home, with three main reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, a study, extensive cellars, a large master suite, three guest suites, three further bedrooms and a family bathroom. The refurbished coach house at the rear of the main house offers ample accommodation for guests or staff and a number of outbuildings provides extensive garaging, workshops, garden sheds and boot stores.
One of Edinburgh’s most striking buildings, the former Donaldson’s College, is to be redeveloped by CALA Evans and City & Country.
CALA Evans Restoration Limited has reached agreement with City & Country to jointly develop the Donaldson’s College site in Edinburgh.
Donaldson’s College, formerly Donaldson’s Hospital, was named after its benefactor, James Donaldson, who bequeathed his property to build and found a hospital for children. It was designed in the 1840s, in the style of a Jacobethan palace, by the architect William Henry Playfair who is renowned for his other commissions such as the National Monument (1824-1829) and the National Gallery of Scotland (1850-1857).
Initially the building was an orphan hospital before becoming a specialist school for deaf children. The school retained use of the building until purpose-built new campus opened in Linlithgow in January 2008.
Set within 18 acres of elegant grounds, this magnificent Playfair building dominates the skyline and the 124,840 sq ft quadrangular form boasts an attractive internal courtyard, external elevations and a central tower with domed octagonal turrets.
Both CALA Evans and City & Country develop premium residential properties and have long track records in the industry. City & Country, the leading expert in the sensitive restoration of historic and listed properties, will restore the original building while CALA Evans Restoration Limited will retain the north part of the site to construct new build apartments.
The two companies have pledged to consult extensively with the local community and with heritage groups in drawing up a new planning application which will be submitted to Edinburgh Council in early 2015.
Helen Moore, Managing Director at City & Country, said: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the Playfair Building at Donaldson’s College, a truly inspiring building of immense history and character and our first development in Scotland.”
“Our aim is to create a restoration of which the local community, Edinburgh and indeed Scotland can be proud. We do not underestimate the challenges ahead, but we firmly believe that we have the best and most talented team available to deliver a successful outcome.”
Show your support for hunting with a new badge from the Countryside Alliance.
The Countryside Alliance have launched a new bespoke metal badge to support, 10 years on from the enforcement, the repeal of the Hunting Act.
Henrietta Rutgers of the Countryside Alliance’s hunting campaign said: “This badge is a celebration of hunting and signifies the strength of this great tradition which continues to survive ten years on from the introduction of The Hunting Act. All proceeds from the sale of this badge will go directly to the Hunting Campaign which continues to fight for repeal of this unjust and unworkable law.”
The Hunting Act came into force on 18 February 2005, but 10 years on hunts have not folded and have adapted to find new ways to hunt within the confines of the current legislation. The Countryside Alliance expects around a quarter of a million people to support their local hunts on Boxing Day.
This beautifully refurbished former rectory boasts a large Cotswold stone barn and a tennis court.
Built in traditional Cotswold stone, Glebe House is a charming traditional family home situated on the edge of the pretty Gloucestershire village of Notgrove. Although the subject of a recent refurbishment, the former rectory still maintains many of its original period features including broad flagstone flooring, open fireplaces, exposed stone walls and ceiling timbers, large stone mullion windows, built-in cabinets and shelving and oak joinery all completed to the highest standard.
Glebe House is approached through a double five bar wooden gate, hung on Cotswold dry stone walls over a rising gravel driveway. On the ground floor the accommodation comprises the entrance hall and dining room that together form a large entertaining space or operate as two separate rooms. There is also a spacious drawing room and a sitting room with open fire place that gives access to the study and wine room. The kitchen/breakfast room is open plan, with plenty of space for a large farmhouse kitchen table and the utility/laundry has a door through to the boot room. There is a also play room with a pretty outlook over the terrace and gardens.
The first floor of Glebe House is particuarly impressive. The master bedroom suite is a spacious and light room with extensive built in wardrobes and excellent views over the surrounding parkland and countryside. The en suite bathroom has an antique oak floor and a free-standing roll top bath, perfect for a long soak after a day out with one of the local packs (the Cotswold and Heythrop Hunts and the VWH are all close by).
The main guest bedroom is a beautiful double aspect room with part-vaulted ceiling and polished cast-iron fireplace to one end with a carved sand stone surround. Glebe House also boasts a five bedrooms and 3 further bath/shower rooms on the first floor as well as a second floor attic bedroom or large storage room.
The 2.2 acres which surround Glebe House are exceptionally well maintained. The gardens are populated with specimen trees and shrubs and there is a pretty brook running below the house. At one one end of the gardens is a hard tennis court and copse of woodland.
Glebe House also boasts a large Cotswold stone barn with planning permission for ancillary accommodation.
The house is situated about 3.5 miles from the A40 giving easy access to Cheltenham to the west and Oxford to the east. Cheltenham and the M5 are about 12 miles away providing excellent communications to Birmingham and the South West. Perfect for the commuter, there is also very good access to London via rail with a mainline station at Kingham (about 12 miles distant) providing regular services to London Paddington, taking from 85 minutes.
The pretty market town of Northleach (4.25 miles) has a number of extremely good shops providing for everyday needs including a chemist, post office, wine bar, grocers, bakers, butchers and the renowned pub The Wheatsheaf. The larger towns of Cirencester (14.5 miles), Stow-on-the-Wold (7.5 miles) and Cheltenham (12 miles) provide for more extensive shopping and recreational facilities.
The guide price is £3.5m. For further information please contact Knight Frank on 01285 659 771.
This beautiful seven bedroom house overlooks the glorious Worcestershire countryside.
As the founder of one of Worcestershire’s most prestigious estate agencies and a former High Sheriff of the county, Andrew Grant has crossed the threshold of every grand house in the area. Given that country-house prices there are still some 20% lower than 2007 levels, he can’t understand why the owner of, say, a £10 million house in London, would not seize the opportunity to downsize slightly in the capital and buy a fine, well-placed country seat such as Napleton House, near the ancient Saxon village of Kempsey, four miles from Worcester, eight miles from Pershore and nine miles from Malvern.
Built in the early 18th century, reputedly on the site of a Roman villa, the classic Georgian house was remodelled in Victorian times and owned at one time by the Marquess of Blandford. It stands in a magical private setting overlooking glorious countryside and the Malvern Hills.
The Worcester office of Andrew Grant (01905 734735) quotes a guide price of £1.895m for this carefully renovated, unspoilt period gem, set in more than 20 acres of gardens and grounds, with some 7,750sq ft of accommodation on four floors, including four main reception rooms, a conservatory, an orangery, a kitchen/ breakfast room, seven bedrooms and six bathrooms.
It comes with planning consent to build a stable block and manège and to convert the coach house into a detached four-bedroom house.
The guide price is £1.895m. For further information about Napleton House please contact Andrew Grant on 01905 734735.
Auchyle Farm is affectionately known as Scotland's smallest grouse moor.
Auchyle Farm lies in the shadow of the Menteith Hills, in some of Scotland’s most splendid scenery, with the Achray Forest and the Trossachs a short distance away and the magnificent Inchmahome Priory on the Lake of Menteith on the doorstep.
Affectionately known as Scotland’s smallest grouse moor, Auchyle Farm occupies 385 acres including moorland and several acres of supporting heather. Woodcock and grouse have been shot on the land and Red and Roe deer are also regular visitors.
Built circa. 1800, Auchyle Farm is a good example of an unaltered period farmhouse. The traditional 2-storey, 3-bay farmhouse is built of stone and slate and is grade C listed. Outwardly stout and strong to resist the weather, but modernised inside to reflect the needs and amenities of modern living, Auchyle Farm boasts a wonderful open fire as well as oil central heating.
The property features well proportioned rooms. On the ground floor the accommodation comprises a reception hall, a spacious lounge with an open fire, a dining room, a fitted kitchen, a utility room, a rear hall and a shower room. Upstairs, 3 bedrooms and another shower room can be found, plus a large floored attic on the upper level accessed via a fixed staircase.
Set on the east side of the village of Port of Menteith, Auchyle enjoys a prime position within The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Port of Menteith amenities include a primary school, a church, a hotel with an excellent restaurant and plenty of surrounding countryside ideal for outdoor pursuits. The city of Stirling is 14 miles away and offers additional shopping and leisure facilites. Edinburgh (51 miles) and Glasgow’s (41 miles) amenities and international airports are also easily accessible via the M9 / M80 motorway network.
Auchyle Farm, its outbuildings and its land are being sold either as a whole, at offers over £795,000, or in a number of lots. For further information please contact Baird Lumsden on 01786 833 800.
Get considerably more for your money in this attractive, centrally located county.
Fig 1. The West Wing, near Evesham, is the major part of Victorian Gothic Abbey Manor. £1.295m.
There’s an air of Flat Earthism about the country-house market at present, with nervous London buyers loathe to venture beyond the Home Counties in their search for a rural idyll, in case they can never afford to return. An hour’s travel time from the capital is generally perceived as the absolute limit and the Cotswolds the boundary beyond which no prudent London house-hunter dare go.
Even in good times, Worcestershire has often been considered a step too far by country-house buyers from the south-east of England, an attitude that Will Kerton of Knight Frank in Worcester finds mystifying, given the county’s central location and easy access to the business centres of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Oxford.
‘Especially when you consider that a farmhouse in Worcestershire probably costs half the price of a similar house in Oxfordshire, a character cottage in Worcestershire is about two-thirds the price of one in Oxfordshire and a Cotswold manor house costs about three times the price of a manor in Worcestershire,’ he adds.
Compared with the cost of a family home in London, the amount of bricks you can get for your bucks in Worcestershire is almost laughable. For instance, a budget of £1.295 million will buy The West Wing (Fig 1), Abbey Manor, near Evesham, through Knight Frank in Stratford-upon-Avon (01789 297735) and Savills in Cheltenham (01242 548000), both towns a mere 15 miles away.
The imposing, 7,000sq ft house represents the major part of a Grade II- listed, Victorian Gothic manor, built in 1816 on the site of the original Evesham Abbey, which was founded between 700 and 710 and razed to the ground following its surrender to the Crown in 1540. Stone gargoyles— reputed to be more than 1,000 years old —were salvaged from the site in the early 19th century and are an arresting feature of The West Wing’s entrance hall. Other historic elements include a stone obelisk erected in the grounds by the manor’s long-term owners, the Rudge family, to mark the losses incurred during the 13th-century Battle of Evesham and the Leicester Tower, built on the spot where Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was killed in battle in 1265.
Abbey Manor stands in 30 acres of parkland and woodland, with commanding views across the River Avon towards Bredon Hill and the Cotswold escarpment. In addition to the use of the communal Abbey Manor grounds, The West Wing has its own just over half an acre of peaceful private gardens. The house enjoys the best of the afternoon sun and the sunsets over the surrounding landscape are quite magnificent.
The West Wing has been sympathetically renovated and retains many striking original features, including the Gothic-style battlements, stonework and arches, the grand reception hall, the fine oak staircase, elegant entertaining rooms and spacious bedrooms.
Fig 2: Historic Wichenford Court, near Martley, has scope for expansion. £1.7m for the main house, gardens and outbuildings.
In recent years, the house—which has five reception rooms, a kitchen/ breakfast room, master and guest suites, three further bedrooms and a family bathroom—has been run as a top-end country B&B by its enthusiastic owners, who are happy to share their passion for the house and its history with their guests.
Grade II*-listed Wichenford Court (Fig 2), near Martley, in the picturesque Teme Valley, six miles north-east of Worcester, is one of several historic manors currently for sale through Knight Frank’s Worcester office (01905 723438). Originally a moated farmhouse listed in Domesday, the court was remodelled by Edward Skinner in 1712, further improved in the 1970s and again by the present owners in the past 10 years.
In medieval times, Wichenford was the seat of the Washbourne family, where, according to Noake’s Guide to Worcestershire, the redoubtable Lady Washbourne had one of the Bourbon princes imprisoned and executed in 1405, when the Welsh nationalist hero, Owain Glyndwr, was making his last stand against the English on nearby Woodbury Hill.
Wichenford Court stands at the end of a long drive surrounded by its outbuildings and 6.4 acres of formal gardens, grounds and paddocks. The house is exceptionally well proportioned and has some 7,000sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including four reception rooms, a study, a large kitchen/breakfast room and five first-floor suites, with a sitting room, two further bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor.
Knight Frank quote a guide price of £1.7m for the main house, gardens and outbuildings, along with a cottage, stabling and a swimming pool. The adjoining 131⁄2 acres of paddocks are offered separately at £150,000 and an extensive range of traditional barns with potential for development is available for a further £500,000.
Fig 3: Naunton Court, near Pershore, is situated in The Lenches, an area renowned for its blossom trails in spring. £2.15m for the whole estate.
They also quote a guide price of £2.15m for striking, Grade II-listed, black-and-white Naunton Court (Fig 3) near Pershore, east Worcestershire, which sits in some 28 acres of gardens and grassland, in an area of rolling countryside known as The Lenches, famous for its blossom trails in springtime.
Naunton Court is thought to date from the 1600s and was the home of many generations of the Lyttelton family, who were county notables.
The main house boasts 5,802sq ft of impressive living space, including four reception rooms, a study, a kitchen/breakfast room, eight bedrooms and five bathrooms.
Arabella Youens seeks out winter homes for those desperate for winter sun - but on a budget of £1 million.
British Virgin Islands, $1.25 million (£797,753) (pictured above)
The focus of this beachfront house is on the great room, which features a well-equipped kitchen and living area that overlooks the shore. The spacious patio is open to the sea and leads down to the sand. Shops and restaurants are a short walk away.
Cane Garden Bay, Tortola
3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, garden
Knight Frank (020–7861 1097)
Kenya, $1.5 million (£952,790)
Knight Frank’s Nairobi office is selling this traditional-style Arabic house with a pretty courtyard pool in its centre. Situated right on the beach in the Mabrui suburbs of the popular coastal resort of Malindi, it also comes with a two- bedroom apartment in the Blue Marlin Beach complex that has access to resort facilities.
Coco Loco, Malindi
5 bedrooms, courtyard pool, 2-bedroom apartment, 2 acres
Knight Frank (00 254 727 099 364)
Miami, $1.6 million (£1.02 million) This contemporary house has vast floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Outside, the garden is shadowed by the tropical hardwood hammock and giant bamboo that are prevalent in this district of the city. Inside, the house has been fitted out with top-of-the-range gadgetry.
Braganza Avenue, Coconut Grove
3 bedrooms, pool, garden
One Sotheby’s Realty (00 1 786 277 7539)
Barbados, $1.45 million (£925,231)
Positioned in the heart of the Royal Westmoreland estate, just a few minutes’ walk from the club house, tennis courts and gym, is this semi- detached villa. It comes with its own pool and terrace and the house is 2,500sq ft, boasting high, vaulted, pickled-pine ceilings.
Sugar Cane Ridge, Royal Westmoreland
4 bedrooms, pool, golf access
Royal Westmoreland (01524 889341)
British Virgin Islands, $950,000 (£606,113) Set within a private estate, the main house has an eat-in kitchen, living room and master bedroom. On the other side of the swimming-pool terrace is a separate guest cottage. Each room enjoys unobstructed views of the neighbouring islands.
Eternity House, Tortola
2 bedrooms, pool, 0.79 acres
Knight Frank (020–7861 1097)
Seychelles, from $1.8 million (£1.149 million)
A four-bedroom maison within this residential marina development, which lies just off the coast of Mahé, the main island, it comes with its own mooring. Larger yachts—including superyachts—can be accommodated in the Eden Island Marina. A swimming pool can be added as an optional extra.
Eden Island, Mahé
4 bedrooms, mooring, garden
Savills (020–7016 3740)
South Africa, £1.008 million
This contemporary home overlooking the popular Camps Bay suburb of Cape Town is in excellent condition and is ready for the new owner to move in. It has a large living area that leads onto the pool terrace and garden. The kitchen has a sleek finish and leads out to a small rear garden.
Camps Bay, Cape Town
4 bedrooms, pool, garage
Savills (020–7016 3740)
Morocco, €1.2 million (£952,400)
This traditional Moorish single-storey house looks out over the beautiful Atlas Mountains. All the rooms lead off from the central atrium and there’s a large, fully fitted kitchen. It’s a 20-minute drive from the centre of Marrakech.
Dar Touge, Marrakech
4 bedrooms, pool, 71⁄2 acres
Aylesford International (020–7349 9772)
Cayman Islands, $1.6 million (£1.019 million)
This beachfront house sits on the north side of Little Cayman and enjoys fantastic ocean and sunset views. The house is surrounded by a wraparound deck and has a garage.
Beachfront, Little Cayman
4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2.1 acres
Hamptons International (020–3151 7276)
Mexico, $1.695 million (£1.082 million)
Part of the Cabo del Sol estate, on the southernmost tip of Baja California, Villa del Amor looks out over the Sea of Cortez. It’s a 10-minute walk from the beach and, for the villa’s owner, benefits include access to the Cabo del Sol’s Golf Clubhouse and other amenities at the nearby Sheraton Hacienda del Mar.
Villa del Amor, Los Cabos
4 bedrooms, pool, Jacuzzi, garden
Abercrombie & Kent International Estates (020–3667 7016)
As the milk industry suffers, Tom Levitt reports on the rise of the microdairy.
The prevailing narrative of the milk industry is a depressing one. Supermarkets sell milk as a loss leader, consumers have become used to buying it as a cheap, basic product and, for dairy farmers, the margins can be frighteningly small. Their only solution, say industry experts, is to scale up: increase their herd size, cut costs and produce as much milk as they can, as efficiently as possible. For smaller, family-sized farms, with little capital to expand, this inevitably means an exit from dairying.
Tragically, in a country with a long tradition of milk production and the perfect conditions for grass-based dairy systems, we are perilously close to dropping below 10,000 dairy farmers in England and Wales (the current figure is about 13,000)—a drop of 20,000 in 20 years. Scotland has only 900.
However, those vulnerable farmers are discovering an alternative, which allows them to stay in milk production, increase their margin and reconnect consumers with the traditions of dairy farming and the almost forgotten joys of creamy-top milk. It’s called microdairying: farmers bypassing the major processors and supermarkets and producing, bottling and selling their cows’ milk themselves.
Half a century ago, the countryside was full of dairy farmers bottling and selling some or all of their own milk locally, but the growth in supermarkets and the switch to refrigerated lorries sounded the death knell for many. No milk company is going to send a lorry down a small country road every other day to fetch a few hundred gallons of milk.
In 2006, the Norton family, who run a 60-cow herd near Norwich, were on the brink of quitting. ‘The milk price had been so low that we had to do something,’ says Emily Norton. ‘We looked at selling the cows or increasing the herd size, but that would have ruined the balance of our mixed arable and livestock farm.’ They installed a pasteurising and bottling plant and now sell almost half their milk within a 20-mile radius.
‘We’re bringing back something people can’t get in supermarkets,’ adds Nick Snelgar, who started his business from scratch last year in the village of Martin, Hampshire. ‘No one can do it as fresh as us. We can milk the cows at 9am and have it on your doorstep by 9am the next morning.’ He plans to have a herd of 17 cows by the spring, enough, he says, for a viable business. ‘We were told the only people who can make money out of dairying are mega companies. I don’t believe that’s true and I aim to prove it.’
Although there are no figures on the number of UK microdairies, farmers and industry experts are already excitedly talking about rep- licating the success of microbreweries, which number more than 1,000. ‘There’s no reason why we couldn’t see microdairies all over the country,’
Susan Garbett and her husband, Julian, who run a 40-cow, free-range herd at Holmleigh Dairy in Gloucestershire, were also considered ‘too small to survive’. ‘It was just uneconomical to bring milk tankers to us,’ she explains. They now deliver milk in recyclable glass bottles to 600 local residents. ‘People appreciate that it’s a local product. They drive past our fields and see the cows that provide their milk every week.’
It’s not just about local provenance. Milk from most microdairies is being sold unhomogenised. Even the semi-skimmed varieties are sold with the creamy top, a treat the younger generation has been educated away from, says Sid Betteridge, who runs Mabel’s Farm dairy, a 40-cow microdairy near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
‘We’re bringing back something people can’t get in supermarkets,’ adds Nick Snelgar, who started his business from scratch last year in the village of Martin, Hampshire. ‘No one can do it as fresh as us. We can milk the cows at 9am and have it on your doorstep by 9am the next morning.’ He plans to have a herd of 17 cows by the spring, enough, he says, for a viable business. ‘We were told the only people who can make money out of dairying are mega companies. I don’t believe that’s true and I aim to prove it.’
Although there are no figures on the number of UK microdairies, farmers and industry experts are already excitedly talking about replicating the success of microbreweries, which number more than 1,000. ‘There’s no reason why we couldn’t see microdairies all over the country,’ says Mr Snelgar. ‘Milk is far more relevant to people’s daily lives than beer. It’s a staple food. People may see it as boring or tasteless, and it’s true that it’s become that way, but we can change that.’
He’s not alone in his optimism. ‘Just as with bread and beer, milk has huge potential for innovation,’ points out food-chain expert Clive Black, head of research at Shore Capital Stockbrokers. ‘There’s a growing market for exclusivity, taste and localism. People are well informed now by the internet, travel and education and want choice and individuality.’ NFU Dairy Board chairman Rob Harrison agrees: ‘People want to buy from someone they know. They don’t necessarily want their money to go to big companies, so the opportunity is there to create your own local brand, support the local economy and keep cows in the countryside.’
The microdairy model is already attracting new entrants, such as Josh Healy, who runs a 12-cow organic operation near Oxford. He delivers his milk in glass bottles to about 250 regular customers, most of whom are within five miles of the farm. ‘I think a lot of dairy farmers enjoy not having to think about selling the milk and concentrating only on the production, but we are able to make quite good money on 37 acres.’
Mr Healy says microdairies can help shift public perceptions of milk as a cheap, standardised product. ‘The difference in the quality is remarkable. It feels strange to call both what we produce and what’s on most supermarket shelves by the same word. Craft brewers feel the same about their beers, I’m sure.’ Emily Norton agrees: ‘We’re lucky to be able to drink what these animals produce. We should be shouting about that and reminding people that milk is a superfood and not just white water.’
What is a microdairy?
A microdairy can have 10–60 cows, although larger ones are usually unable to sell all their milk themselves and keep a regular contract with a processor. A herd of about 50 cows would provide enough milk for more than 500 households.
Most microdairies are not certified as organic, although many advertise themselves as having a free-range herd kept mainly outside. The milk is usually sold at a premium on supermarket milk, but is often price-competitive against that sold in local shops or through the few remaining doorstep deliveries.
Although comparisons have been made with microbreweries, the challenge of producing milk is much greater. Microbreweries are unlikely to grow their own crops, but a dairy farmer has a herd of cows to look after. There’s also a processing unit to manage plus, crucially, a distribution and marketing operation. And there’s far less time to get milk to customers before it becomes worthless.
Several farmers have successfully applied to grant-making organisations, including The Prince’s Countryside Fund, to help with start-up costs. Others have had success with crowdfunding, offering local residents the chance to invest in ‘cow bonds’, which allow farmers to buy new stock, paying the investors back their original sum plus interest, as well as supplying them with milk.
This charming Grade II listed family home sits in just under an acre of beautiful mature gardens.
Situated in the small village of Little Oakley, this charming detached family home dates back to the 18th century. Grade II listed, Mayfield House is constructed of stone under a Collyweston and blue slate roof and boasts period features throughout including mullion windows, stone fireplaces, vaulted ceilings, galleried landing and exposed beams and timbers.
On the ground floor, a cathedral style door opens to a spacious and impressive sitting room featuring a large stone fireplace, part vaulted ceiling and galleried landing over, exposed stone walls. The rest of the accommodation comprises a family room, again with a marvellous stone fireplace with oak beam and stone hearth, a farmhouse style kitchen and breakfast room and a magnificent high pitched ceilinged dining/day room that looks out to the beautiful garden through double arched doors. The study, utility and cloakroom also lie to the rear of the property on this floor.
Upstairs, the master bedroom boasts wonderful views over the surrounding countryside and is situated next door to a good sized family bathroom. A further two bedrooms can be found on this floor, the second including an en suite shower room.
Beautiful landscaped gardens surround the Mayfield House, including extensive paved areas perfect for summer entertaining, manicured lawns and a wide variety of mature trees and shrubs. Two ponds and summer house sit to the rear and flanking the property are paddocks and fields.
Mayfield House also boasts a seperate indoor heated swimming pool separate complete with protective cover, shower room and pump room.
Well located, Mayfield House is ideal for a London commuter. Corby (5 miles) has a regular train service to London Paddington (1 hour 10 minutes) as does Kettering ( 7miles) away which takes 1 hour.
The guide price is £695,000. For further information please contact Carter Jonas on 01604 608 200.
The nocturnal barn own is still mysterious, but nesting figures are encouraging.
One of Nature’s most thrilling sights is that of the barn owl looming wraith-like out of the dusk on a hunting foray. This beautiful, yet elusive creature has been the good-news avian story of 2014; a mild winter and abundance of voles, its idea of a slap-up supper, have led to bumper breeding figures.
The statistics were bound to be an improvement on the disastrous breeding season of 2013 during a bitter March last year, regional volunteers had dismal reports of dead birds and empty nests but, even so, the BTO’s 2014 figures, with 17.2% bigger clutches and 43.6% more fledglings, are extraordinary and the best since records began.
Tyto alba is probably the most universally loved bird in Britain; it attracts a network of dedicated enthu-
siasts who provide nesting sites and observation, is popular with land managers because it eats rodents and is a genuine beneficiary of Government schemes to increase field margins.
‘The barn owl ticks all the boxes,’ says ecologist Dave Leech, who heads up the BTO’s Nest Record Survey. ‘It’s charismatic, has great cultural significance and has been one of the real conservation success stories of the past half-century through agri-environment schemes and people providing nest boxes.’
The Barn Owl Conservation Net-work’s ringing data has gone through the roof: in May 2013, only 20 barn owls were ringed this year, the figure was 428. June saw an even more remarkable year-on-year rise, from 183 to 1,814.
One study area, about 8km (five miles) square, in the fens near Bourne, Lincolnshire, supported 12 adults and 38 young. In some areas, up to 65% of owls produced a second brood a volunteer in Montgomeryshire recorded the same female six weeks and three miles apart, on nests of four and five chicks respectively, having left her mate in charge of the first brood.
The barn owl’s enemies are cold, hunger, traffic and lack of nesting opportunities, due to barn conversions and old trees being blown down. However, its nocturnal lifestyle makes it one of the most difficult species to survey. ‘Mild weather has obviously helped, but even though there are ecologists working full-time studying vole cycles, there is no definitive answer to why it’s been a good barn-owl year,’ comments Mr Leech. ‘What we need is for people to carry on the good work observing barn owls and providing nest boxes, and for another countrywide survey to take place.’
Kestrels and tawny owls (left) also had a healthy breeding season, with, respectively, 22.3% and 23.3% more fledglings; wrens and robins had their best results for five years, song thrushes and blackbirds did well and bullfinches bucked the trend for finches with record productivity.
The wood pigeon was the main hard-luck story; the birds were badly affected by Hurricane Bertha, which hit at the height of their breeding season, in August chick numbers were down by 63% per nest.
l The BTO has an online winter raffle, with a birdwatching trip to Spain as first prize. It costs £1 to enter; the closing date is February 9, 2015 (www.bto.org).
House prices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Bristol and Birmingham have grown at a faster rate than those in London.
House price growth has increased in five cities around Britain at a faster rate than the capital’s cooling property market in recent months, new data from Hometrack reveals.
UK house prices have increased by 8.9% year-on-year but there has been a continued slowdown in the monthly rate of growth in recent months. The rate of house price growth in London slowed by two-thirds in the last quarter compared to the 12 month average (0.5% compared to 1.4%) with Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Bristol and Birmingham now all registering higher inflation than the capital in the last 3 months as demand for housing continues to push prices ahead.
The Scottish cities of Edinburgh (1.8%) and Glasgow (0.9%) registered the fastest house price inflation in the last quarter, as demand fed back into the market post-referendum. At the other end of the scale, the former high growth cities of Cambridge and Aberdeen have seen a rapid decrease with growth of only -0.2% and -0.4% respectively.
Richard Donnell, Research Director at Hometrack, said: “The high growth cities over the last year are now recording the fastest slowdown and this is most pronounced in smaller cities such as Cambridge and Aberdeen. The Aberdeen economy is closely related to the health of the oil industry and a weakening oil price is impacting the housing market. The slowdown in London, which we identified in, will act as a drag on the UK rate of house price growth over the next 12 months. The rate of growth in house prices is starting to lose momentum across other cities in southern England, while across the rest of the country modest levels of house price appreciation continue as prices rise off a low base.
“Overall we expect modest UK house price growth of 2% in 2015, which is more in line with earnings growth. Significant pent-up demand has feed back into the market in the last two years pushing house prices higher in all cities but the underlying rate of growth is now slowing across the majority of markets.”
Survey after survey confirms that the classic Georgian manor or old rectory still ticks most boxes, but are their owners a different breed now?
Illustrations by John Holder
1960s The buyer Successful City men bought in what’s now known as the stock- broker belt. ‘There was no necessity for partners in big firms to be at their desks at the crack of dawn,’ remembers Richard Gayner of Savills. ‘They’d be on the 9.15am from Guildford to arrive at Waterloo by 10am’. The market Very local and, prior to 1969, when prices shot up, there was very little that couldn’t be bought for £15,000, adds Mr Gayner. ‘Don’t forget that, in this decade, country houses were still being demolished,’ says Dawn Carritt of Jackson-Stops & Staff. Brochure language ‘A most charming residence’, oil-fired central heating and hot water, domestic offices. Interiors Magnolia paint, wallpaper by Sanderson, furniture from Biba (although many had inherited brown furniture), Laura Ashley. Kitchen Oil- and (towards the end of the decade) gas-fired Agas, which were used to heat the kitchen and hot water. The era of white goods had also arrived. Deep freezers replaced ice boxes in fridges; washing machines or twin tubs that rocketed across the floor were in use. Bathroom The early days of en-suite, otherwise washbasins in bedrooms, plastic hoses attached to bath taps to create a ‘shower’ effect, separate loos, some saunas in new house. Exteriors Formal planting, lawns with very neat stripes, grass tennis court. Car Aston Martin DB5. Dog Yellow labrador. Drink Bloody Mary, sherry, Port. Night in Doctor Who and The Forsyte Saga; Monopoly. Night out James Bond film. Holidays Cornwall in summer. Dinner-party menu Chicken-liver pâté with toast; Boeuf en daube, salad with vinaigrette; Chocolate mousse or fruit salad; Beaujolais Nouveau.
1970s
The buyer Pop/rock stars whose operations were moved offshore by their managers and accountants to avoid Income Tax rates. ‘After the stock- market crash of 1973–74, you could no longer live off capital gains, so the only people who had money to spend were musicians, managers and their accountants,’ recalls Mr Gayner. Other country-house buyers were ‘real rogues who dealt in cash’. At the end of the decade, Arabs began to buy equestrian estates. The market ‘The country-house market halved in a year: my boss at the time said that no single house was worth more than £100,000,’ says Mr Gayner. In 1974, SAVE Britain’s Heritage held ‘The Destruction of the Country House’ exhibition at the V&A, but the mood and market improved with the Silver Jubilee in 1977. Brochure language Oil central heating, heated swimming pool, staff sitting room, hard tennis court, billiard room Interiors Wallpaper by Colefax and Fowler, Osborne & Little, shagpile carpets, rattan furniture, the Conran Shop, colour TVs, lava lamps. ‘Lots of yellow and blue and decorating treasures bought from Casa Pupo on Pimlico Road,’ remembers Giles Kime of Homes & Gardens. Kitchen ‘Didn’t matter—they were lost at the back of the house,’ says Mr Gayner; trolleys to wheel food to dining room, Kenwood food processors. Bathroom Blue or pink matching suites (‘but chocolate and avocado weren’t in the country—they were very much London colours,’ says Miss Carritt) and scallop shell-shaped baths. Bidets became popular. Exteriors More elaborate gardens Car Beige Volvo 145 station wagon plus a runaround. Dog Yellow labrador. Drink Vodka tonic. Night inUpstairs, Downstairs and I, Claudius. Night out Annabel’s. Holidays St Moritz (for the Cresta Run) and the South of France. Dinner-party menu Parma ham and melon; Sole Florentine; Tiramisù; Chianti.
1980s
The buyer Merchant bankers, some Arabs and Americans plus ‘hoards of Swedes and Danes’, recalls Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank. The market Many country houses with land were turned into golf courses, others were split into apartments. COUNTRY LIFE property advertising embraced colour. Barn conversions were ‘everywhere’, says Miss Carritt. Then, the market died in 1987 after Black Monday, adds Martin Lamb of Savills. Brochure language Utility rooms, dressing rooms, double glazing. Interiors Chintz was big, Colefax and Fowler, Designers Guild, wallpaper borders, paint effects such as stippling, Venetian blinds, Carolyn Warrender’s books ruled, conservatories, fitted carpets. Kitchen The Aga’s future as a must-have was sealed when Jilly Cooper wrote about one in Riders (1985). Branded kitchens such as Smallbone with central islands became popular; outdoor gas barbecues. Bathroom Gold taps, blue or pink bathroom suites. Exteriors Swimming-pool complexes and Jacuzzis, ride-on mowers, granny annexes, elaborate children’s climbing frames and ‘all-weather tennis courts by En-tout-cas’, remembers Mr Lamb Car Black or green Range Rover. Dog Black labrador. Drink Mateus rosé; Aqua Libra, if you were on the wagon. Night in’Allo ’Allo! and Blackadder. Night outThe Phantom of the Opera Holidays Val d’Isère and Positano. Dinner-party menu Choice of salad leaves (rocket, red chard) served with ciabatta; Sea bass en papillote; Exotic fruit salad with a coulis; Californian white.
The 2014 Georgian Group Architectural Awards recognise exemplary conservation and restoration projects.
Lord Shaftesbury
A house left to rot in North Wales and the abandoned family home of the Earl of Shaftesbury shared the prestigious accolade of best restoration of a Georgian country house presented at last week’s annual celebration of 18th-century architecture by the Georgian Group at Christie’s, London, sponsored by Savills.
Hendre House at Llanrwst, Conwy, had been empty for nearly 70 years and was in the parlous state that is sadly typical of some 50 other deserted Welsh country houses when Michael Tree bought it in 2000. Mr Tree has brought the estate back to life with a major restoration project on the house re-roofing and renewing all floors, rebuilding chimneys and replacing windows and, outside, underplanting and fencing parkland, restoring the walled kitchen garden and rebuilding drystone walls.
Writing in Country Life (July 2), the architectural historian John Martin Robinson described Hendre as ‘a perfect Regency house in an idyllic setting’ and Mr Tree’s achievement as ‘heroic’. When the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury inherited Grade l-listed St Giles House, Wimborne, Dorset, he was a DJ in New York and the house had been empty for 50 years. Clive Aslet, who visited it last year (Country Life, December 4, 2013), wrote that ‘the obvious option might have been to sell the house’, but, instead, the Earl ‘began a renovation programme of breathtaking ambition’.
He commissioned Philip Hughes Associates to perform a total repair of the house, internally and externally, plus the creation of a new ‘tower’ entrance, in 2011. Extensive work has been done in the grounds: dredging the lake, replanting the avenue, thinning woodland and repairing bridges, lodges and the grotto.
Crispin Holborow, director of Savills’ Country Department and a judge for the awards, says that the standard of entries shows the Georgian house ‘is still king a lovely combination of landscape and the Arts’ and that owners remain prepared to do remarkable things despite the significant barriers in the current tax restrictions on historic houses.
Fellow judge Hugh Petter, an architect and vice-chairman of the Georgian Group, adds: ‘It’s a strong entry, which shows the style is alive and well. The key thing about these awards is that they acknowledge a group of brilliant architects and craftsman who don’t get a look in with other, more modern prizes.’
Other winners Restoration in an urban setting Llanelly House, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire (by the Carmarthenshire Heritage Regeneration Trust) Interior Kenwood House, London NW3 (English Heritage) Reuse St George’s Chapel, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk (Hopkins Architects) Garden and landscape Painshill Landscape Garden, Surrey (Cliveden Conservation et al for Painshill Trust) (Country Life, September 11, 2013) New building in the Classical tradition Chitcombe House, Woolland, Dorset (Stuart Martin Architects for a private client), and Crucis Park, Ampney Crucis, Gloucestershire (Yiangou Architects for a private client) New building in Georgian context Nadler Hotel, London W1 (ADAM Architecture)
These five properties all offer new owners the chance indulge their equestrian aspirations.
The Paddocks, £4.5m This beautiful Grade II listed Arts and Crafts style home is believed to have been designed by Collcutt circa 1885. The detached stable block boasts 4 loose boxes, plus a tack room, hay loft, floodlit all-weather manège and 7.5 acres.
Hitherfield Farm, £2.35m
This attractive Tudor style country house sits in a a secluded rural setting on the edge of Knockholt. Its 11.8 acres includes a stable block with 8 loose boxes and tack room, a further stable block with 3 loose boxes, a horse walker, 2 paddocks and a sand school.
Cannons Farm, £1.895m
This splendid Gade II listed 5 bedroom farmhouse in Hertfordshire boasts exceptional barns, 2 full size stables and a 4 bay cart lodge. It currently sits in 1.5 acres but a further 7.5 acres is also available via separate negotiation.
Moorlands Hall, £5m This impressive Victorian country house is set in just under 17 acres of beautiful mature gardens and grounds. The 5 box stable block has been fully restored over the years and is currently used as additional storage but could easily be returned to its original purpose.
Moorlands, York, North Yorkshire
8 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms
Knight Frank (01423 530 088)
Oldfield Farmhouse, £1.6m Located at the foot of the Berkshire Downs, this charming stone farmhouse dates from 1807. The property benefits from extensive farm buildings, an internal horse walker, all weather manège, paddocks and grassland of 11.97 acres.
Arabella Youens charts how purchaser profiles and bricks and mortar have evolved over the decades.
Illustrations by John Holder
1990s The buyer Investment bankers who had secured large post-deregulation bonuses. ‘They were often the sharp boys from public schools who’d been successful very young and were buying large country houses when they were in their early thirties,’ explains James Grillo of Humberts. The market The decade started in recession and many country houses were put onto the market following the Lloyd’s crisis as Names were forced to sell to pay their debts. However, according to Mr Lamb: ‘Things improved and fax machines meant you could move further out and manage wealth remotely, so Devon was now on the radar’. Brochure language Wine cellar, gym, indoor, oak-framed swimming pool, guest suites, shower rooms, games room. Interiors Wooden floors, Minimalist walls, Farrow & Ball. Saunas became ‘glorified suitcase cupboards’, adds Mr Sweeting. Kitchen The kitchen/breakfast room was now a must-have. Microwaves, bread machines. Bathroom Showers replaced baths, bathware turned white. Exteriors Swimming pools with bubblewrap covers still prevailed, some AstroTurf tennis courts, parterre lawns, hot tubs, zip wires and play areas. Car Mercedes estate. Dog Black labrador. Drink Absolut vodka. Night inThe Vicar of Dibley, Pride and Prejudice. Night out Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. Holidays Lech or Mustique; Tuscany and Rock; Paris for the weekend by Eurostar. Dinner-party menu Rocket, Parmesan and sun-dried- tomato salad; River Café’s filetto di manzo in tegame; Delia’s chocolate truffle torte; Chilean cabernet sauvignon.
2000s The buyer Dotcom success stories, entertainment moguls, Russians putting children into public schools. ‘And lots of headhunters,’ adds Philip Harvey of Property Vision. The market ‘It boomed until 2007, when Lehman Brothers collapsed,’ says Mr Grillo. ‘The wheels then came off and, although the market picked up in London in 2009, it has yet to do so in some areas outside of the Home Counties.’ Philip Selway of The Buying Solution agrees: ‘Whereas previously an investment banker would think nothing of dropping his bonus into a country pad, post-Lehman, the attitude completely changed’. Brochure language Home office, jack-and-jill bathrooms, party barn, geothermal heating, nanny annexe Interiors Mr Kime recalls the ‘Babington House’ look, more Modernist interiors, Neisha Crosland fabric and wallpaper, home cinemas, lighting technology and plasma TV screens. Kitchen Butler’s sinks, Nespresso coffee machines, American fridge-freezers, Mark Wilkinson kitchens, dishwasher drawers. Bathroom Underfloor heating, wet rooms or frameless glass shower stalls, free-standing baths, twin sinks. Exteriors Broadband hits the countryside, outdoor swimming pools with electric covers and invisible fences. Car Range Rover. Dog Black labrador. Drink Champagne. Night inFoyle’s War. Night out Royal Opera House (reopened 1999). Holidays Verbier, Mallorca, Polzeath. Dinner-party menu Chargrilled asparagus with hollandaise; Roast pork belly with home-grown vegetables; Individual sticky toffee puddings; Pinot Grigio.
2010s The buyer Hedge funders ‘and international buyers from all over the world—including China’, says Mr Sweeting. The market ‘Never has there been more of a margin between what you can sell in London and buy in the country,’ says Roarie Scarisbrick of Property Vision. ‘In the 1980s, when we began, you could swap your Scarsdale Villa house for a nice old rectory in commutable Hampshire; today, if you sold your Scarsdale Villa house, you could buy two old rectories and still have change.’ ‘People aren’t as hungry for the rural idyll—they want to be able to walk into Midhurst,’ adds Mr Harvey. Brochure language Biomass heating, car ports, wellness complex (indoor pool with gym attached), Lutron lighting system. Interiors Ben Pentreath’s eclectic mix of colour and antique pieces (preferably from Max Rollitt), colour blocking, plain silk curtains. Kitchen Clive Christian designs, the return of stainless steel, Wolf ovens, rotisseries by Jetmaster, boiling-water taps. Bathroom Wet rooms, slipper baths. Exteriors Barbecue pits, garden lighting (using LEDs that don’t burn plants), wall-to wall glazed swimming pool wings with hammams and ozone-cleaning systems. Car Discovery 4. Dog Labradoodle. Drink Hendrick’s gin, water is back in. Night inDownton Abbey. Night out 5 Hertford Street, the private members’ club. Holidays Ibiza, North Island, Seychelles, Verbier. Dinner-party menu Ottolenghi’s roasted figs with pomegranate molasses and orange zest; Pulled pork, slaw and crispy kale; Mary Berry’s pineapple-and-ginger pavlova; Rose.
Manor Farm is a Grade II listed farmhouse with grounds that include an orchard, fernery, and a very pretty large pond.
On the outskirts of Bishops Cannings lies Coate, a pretty village of fine period houses and cottages, surrounded by the beautiful countryside of the Pewsey Vale. One of these is Manor Farm, a Grade II listed farmhouse which has been sympathetically renovated by its current owners.
Manor Farm boasts excellent living space, with a beautiful kitchen/breakfast room with original flagstone floor, a dining room with period features throughout, and two further generously proportioned reception rooms, which are both light and full of character.
Upstairs, the accommodation comprises 6 bedrooms and a family bathroom, all set around a beautiful exposed beam landing.
To the west of the house is a charming former cheesery and bakery. This building, although in need of repair, provides a huge opportunity, subject to planning, to provide ancillary or additional accommodation to the farmhouse. Lying to the east of Manor Farm and centred around a traditional courtyard are the former farm buildings, some of which have been converted to commercial use to generate a significant rental income.
Manor Farm is set in beautiful grounds which comprise of approximately 2 acres of garden, including an orchard, fernery, and a very pretty large pond. The remaining land is spread over two fields with mature native trees, yew hedges and an ancient willow.
The village of Coate provides local amenities including a public house, a butcher’s shop and a cricket club. Devizes (3 miles) and Marlborough (13 miles) are both within easy reach and provide a broad range of additional facilities. Ideal for the London commuter, Pewsey is approximately 11 miles away, with a mainline station to Paddington (about 1 hour).
Extraordinary views: Tortola, $7.775 million (£4.96 million)
Contemporary Caribbean: Grand Cayman, $1.89 million (£1.2 million)
Contemporary Caribbean: Barbados, $3.995 million (£2.55 million)
Contemporary Caribbean: St Barths, €4.95 million
