This four bedroom period property enjoys views over a beautiful wild flower meadow.
Situated on the edge of the small East Sussex town of Heathfield, Walnuts Farm is a pretty period property that was once featured in the book Perfect English Farmhouse published by Ryland Peters & Small in 2012.
Walnuts Farm is a perfect small double-fronted Wealden farmhouse with elevations of mellowed brick under a pitch tiled roof. On the ground floor the accommodation comprises a large kitchen/breakfast room with a useful cellar beneath and a well proportioned family room and a sitting room, both boasting attractive fireplaces with wood-burning stoves and exposed timbers.
On the first floor the master bedroom and three additional bedrooms can be found, plus a family bathroom. All the bedrooms have good views over the gardens and grounds, and two also include charming fireplaces.
Ancillary accommodation is provided by the former Coach House, which the current owners have developed into a large and useful workshop with a garden store to one side. On the first floor is a studio / office, approached by an external brick staircase providing additional useful space.
The pretty gardens and grounds of Walnuts Farm in total comprise of around 5 acres. The wild flower meadow lies to the south, the kitchen garden divided by mature box hedging and espalier pear trees lies to the north, and there is also a field which is principally laid to pasture.
The small market town of Heathfield has a superb range of amenities serving all the usual day-to-day needs, and the larger centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells (16 miles away) offers a more extensive range of shopping, recreational and cultural amenities. From Royal Tunbridge Wells there is a direct railway link to London Bridge which takes around 50 minutes. There are also major road links to the M25 motorway network and to the Kent and Sussex coast.
The guide price is £925,000. For further information please contact Knight Frank on 01892 515 035.
This pretty property sits in a meticulously maintained private garden and overlooks the village church.
Situated just north-west of Wetherby lies Kirk Deighton, a much sought after conservation village in North Yorkshire. Church Farmhouse is a beautifully presented stone built barn conversion that sits on Kirk Deighton’s main street, overlooking the village’s All Saints’ Church.
Church Farmhouse has been beautifully converted, and combines period features with luxurious modern fixtures throughout. On the ground floor the accommodation comprises a large family kitchen/breakfast room with living area and ajoining utility room, a reception hall, cloakroom/wc, a spacious sitting room and a seperate dining room.
Upstairs, the master bedroom with en suite and dressing room can be found, alongside a further three bedrooms and a family bathroom.
To the rear of Church Farmhouse lies the beautiful private and completely enclosed rear garden with its well tended lawn, well stocked flower borders, high conifer boundary hedging and paved sun terrace, seating area and outdoor cocktail bar, perfect for summer entertaining.
Kirk Deighton itself is a highly regarded conservation village filled predominantly with period properties and surrounded by lovely open countryside. It is served by a resurgent village inn, the church and well supported village cricket and football grounds.
The market town of Wetherby is just 1 mile away and and offers a wide variety of shopping and recreational facilities.
The guide price is £675,000. For further information please contact Carter Jonas on 01423 523 423.
The experience of Hereford shows that we need to think much harder about the future of our country towns and their commercial life, argues Ptolemy Dean.
Hereford offers the facilities necessary to a residential town, but the revival would be costly.
The River Wye meanders through a lush and rolling countryside to reach the walls and red-sandstone cathedral of Hereford. This is a marvellous city, with a dense layout of principal streets that thread like convulsing blood vessels into a large market place at its heart, known as High Town. Recently cleared, re-paved in proper stone and theatrically lit, this space with its shops and cafes can be enjoyed by all visitors to the city. Encountering it after hours is like wandering into a magical and abandoned stage set.
There are many other shops, however, in the city centre. Extending away from the High Town are the usual sorry array of 1960s and 1970s shopping precincts. Bleakly angular and rectilinear in layout, they have none of the old palpitations in layout of the old town.
What’s worse, they’ve aged badly. Cheaply constructed, their precincts are now inconvenient for modern retailers, despite the efforts to widen access roads and clear the former historic backlands to create arid and lifeless service and delivery yards. Here, at least, the bin lorry can turn around without having to reverse. In addition, their poor proportions and mean construction have made them inflexible and increasingly unable to meet the improving expectations of modern retailing. This story is repeated across the majority of ancient towns in Britain.
As a result, at Hereford, a heart bypass on the historic centre is planned. Outside the city walls, a new shopping centre is being constructed. This massive concrete superstructure, occupying the site of an old livestock market, is now rising next to the encircling ring road that had originally been designed to provide ease of access to the city centre. Now, the road dives straight into this new retail centre, avoiding the old city altogether.
As the ring road is so ugly, the architectural demands of the new shopping centre have been inexpensively satisfied by thin veneer sections of stretcher brickwork, cement render and timber planking. Inside, the shops can be as large or as small as they need to be and the increasingly huge juggernaut lorries that deliver to them need never again trouble the old city streets. A bin-lorry driver’s paradise.
From a retailer’s point of view, this must surely be a perfect solution and, if only someone had thought of this in the first place, they could have saved much of historic Hereford, whose demolition now seems so needless and short-sighted. But all of this raises a fundamental question. If our old city centres aren’t going to be used for shopping any more, what will they be for? What will become of those desolate shopping precincts once the shops have made their inevitable exodus and they are left boarded up?
The answer should, in theory, be straightforward. Cities such as Hereford should return to being what they once were, for people to live in. But modern housing developers will not want to touch them— designing the houses that people might want to live in will need care and trouble in the awkward medieval geometries of old Hereford. It would be so much less costly and so much more profitable if they could be allowed to roll out a field or two of existing boxy standard-prototype houses in the green fields of the Wye valley at the edge of the city. There would be no demolition costs, either.
This means that the Government, evangelical as it is about the need to build houses, should be looking very carefully at Hereford, because the revival of its historic centre as a residential town can’t be left to the free market alone. New family town houses in central Hereford will need gardens, schools, doctors, shops and cafes—indeed, all the facilities that are offered in the city already, so there is a com- munity that is waiting to be formed.
None of the above are supplied in the sprawling fields of modern housing estates that Nick Boles, the planning minister, and the housing developers think will be the answer to all of our housing problems. If we had a planning minister whose heart was really in his calls for the new communities that need to be built, Hereford could become an exemplar for how our old towns could be revived and given new heart. Instead, if Mr Boles gets his way, the remaining already demoralised planners will be dis- enfranchised, the developers will build as cheaply as they can get away with and Hereford’s old centre will be left to rot, its obvious potential hopelessly unfulfilled. An entirely avoidable case of cardiac arrest.
A new review concludes that more could be done to control grey squirrels.
The Forestry Commission and Defra have announced a more rigorous approach to controlling grey squirrels. Their review, undertaken at the behest of former Defra Secretary Owen Paterson, concludes that more could be done to address the threats posed by grey squirrels to woodlands and to red squirrels, which they infect with the deadly squirrel pox. It recommends a specific management prescription within countryside stewardship schemes, revision of the good-practice note on culling greys and research into new traps, chemical agents and the impact of predation by pine martens.
CLA president Henry Robinson backs this more robust approach, but reiterates a call for the relicensing of warfarin, ‘by far the most effective tool in controlling grey squirrels’.
Although 2014 began with a surge of activity, buyers and sellers gradually became reluctant to commit. But what were the successes of the past 12 months?
Fig 1: Adding extra land helped secure the sale of dreamy Nether Worton in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Guide price: £8m.
When in the latter half of 2013, the country-house market appeared to slip into gear after five years in the doldrums, vendors and agents alike were hopeful that the pre-Christmas surge would carry through into the new Year and beyond. Sadly, the expected ‘ripple effect’ of a decrease in the rate of London house-price inflation sending a wave of cash-rich Londoners out into the shires in search of country bargains again failed to materialise.
Recent research from Knight Frank suggests that the surge of activity seen in the country market in the first half of 2014 ran out of steam in the latter part of the year. The slowdown was attributed to a combination of factors: uncertainty over the outcome of the General election, the threat of an impending interest rate rise, tighter controls on mortgage lending and the unnerving ongoing debate about ‘mansion tax’.
Affluent London homeowners continued to sit tight and even those families who finally decided to ‘go for it’ and move out of the centre tended to cling to the skirts of the capital. Established commuter towns in the inner home Counties were the main beneficiaries, say Knight Frank, with towns such as Elmbridge and Guildford in Surrey and Maidenhead and Windsor in Berkshire seeing the biggest influx of property millionaires.
That’s not to say that nothing was happening out in the country. On the contrary, the market for houses priced at less than £2 million was generally buoyant in 2014, with a handful of hotspots, notably Oxford and Cambridge, seemingly unaffected by the general mood of uncertainty. Many, although by no means all, of the special houses launched on the market in 2014 at more than £2m sold well and quickly. At the lower end of the price spectrum, Worcestershire agent Andrew Grant reported the sale of 146 houses, at prices ranging from £350,000 to £2m, in the month of September alone.
On the other hand, you could count the number of country houses and estates sold for more than £20m on the fingers of one hand and those sold for £15m to £20m on the fingers of two, reports Crispin Holborow of Savills. There was many a slip between Champagne glass and lip as prospective purchasers failed to complete on agreed sales. On a more positive note, this resulted in several lucky vendors pocketing buyers’ often substantial deposits when jittery lenders chose the 11th hour to change their
minds about their side of the deal. Once again, this year, the gold standard was set by farmland, despite some 20% less land being sold on the open market than in 2013, according to the latest land-market intelligence from Bidwells. May saw probably ‘the most significant UK land transaction in living memory’, with the sale of the Co-operative Group’s farming portfolio of some 17,800 freehold acres across seven principal estates (plus a farming business operating over a further 20,000 acres) to UK-based The Wellcome Trust for £249m.
For farmland investors, biggest is definitely best, say Bidwells, citing the example of the prime, 1,618-acre Nordelph Farm on the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border, which sold in February for more than £20m, against a guide price of £15.75m. Interestingly, the activity in the farmland market is largely being driven by investors using cash, rather than bank borrowings, to fund their purchases. But buyers prepared to pay top dollar will continue to target only the best farms, potentially increasing the difference in prices paid between the good and the not-so-good farms, Bidwells predict.
That principle applied to a number of important country-house sales, in which sometimes the only way to achieve a successful outcome was to include some additional land and a cottage or two. This was the background to the sale this year of dreamy Nether Worton House (Fig 1) in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, which came to the market in June 2013, for the first time in 87 years, at a guide price of £8m for the Grade I*-listed, castellated manor house, with 11 acres of gardens and grounds. It was smiles all round when the vendors, who owned the surrounding estate, agreed to negotiate on some further amenity land and estate cottages, reveals Mr Holborow.
Fig 2: The enthusiastic response to Yarnton Manor, near Oxford, by overseas buyers produced a strong sale. Guide price: £10m.
International buyers continue to play a major role at the upper end of the Oxfordshire country-house market. Mark Charter of Carter Jonas in Oxford was agreeably surprised at the response from overseas purchasers to the launch in late March, at a guide price of £10m, of historic, Grade II*-listed Yarnton Manor (Fig 2) in the pretty village of Yarnton, halfway between Oxford and Woodstock. Although sold as a high-level manor-house campus, with more than 35,000sq ft of accommodation set in some 30 acres of land, the impressive Jacobean mansion, remodelled by Sir Thomas Spencer in 1611, has obvious potential for residential or commercial development, a fact not lost upon the many international parties who expressed an interest.
Commenting on the sale, which was swiftly concluded a few months later, a jubilant Mr Charter said: ‘Country Life produced a flurry of international enquiries and viewings, particularly from Russia and the Middle East. We were thrilled with the level of interest and achieved a strong sale that exceeded all our expectations.’
Even more surprising perhaps was the sale, through Strutt & Parker in March, of substantial, Grade II*-listed Dunstall Hall near Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, to a Qatari businessman. Offers over £4m were sought for the distinguished country home, a former hunting lodge once owned by the Earl of Derby, and greatly extended by the Arkwright family in Victorian times.
Fig 3: The continuing strength of the Cambridge market meant that romantic Sawston Hall sold for more than its £4.75 guide price.
Over in East Anglia, Mr Holborow attributes the sale this year of romantic, Elizabethan Sawston Hall (Fig 3), near Cambridge, for more than its £4.75m guide price, as primarily due to the phenomenal strength of the Cambridge scene.
Launched on the market in spring of 2013, Sawston Hall, listed Grade I, was the family seat of the Huddlestons for more than 400 years and had been magnificently restored by the vendor as a grand family house after almost 30 years of use as a language school.
‘Were it not for “the Cambridge effect”, the hall would never have sold for that kind of money. What’s more, it bucked the perceived trend of people not wanting too large a country house,’ added Mr Holborow.
Despite a general reluctance on the part of London buyers to commit to more than an hour’s commute from the city, Charlie Stone of Savills in Salisbury reports the sale of eight houses launched in his area this year for £2m or more.
Fig 5: Donhead House, on the Wiltshire/Dorset border, sold for £4m in April.
The icing on the cake was the sale at £4m in April, following an early-March launch, of imposing, Grade II-listed Donhead House (Fig 5) at Donhead St Andrew, near Shaftesbury, on the Wiltshire/Dorset border. A former rectory that became a private house when the rector, Horace Chapman, converted to Catholicism in 1891, the house was renovated and extended by him and later acquired by James Pender, the son of the founder of Cable & Wireless. Having served as a convalescent hospital during the Second World War, Donhead House was rented to Sir Anthony Eden for a year in the aftermath of the Suez crisis of 1956. In the end, however, it was Hampshire that set the pace in the country, with the sale within weeks, following an April launch in Country Life, of handsome Georgian Cheriton House, near Alresford, which, according to George Clarendon of selling agents Knight Frank, ‘set the benchmark for what a classic Hampshire country house should be trading at in the current market’.
Fig 4: Hampshire set the pace in the country market, with good sales of properties such as Georgian Cheriton House, near Alresford, for a guide price of £5.5m.
And so it proved, with the sale of Cheriton House (Fig 4) at a guide price of £5.5m, followed at close quarters by that of Dummer House, near Basingstoke, at a guide of £5m.
Interestingly, both houses were regularly visited by the Prince Regent in the late 1700s, in the course of his equally ardent pursuit both of the stags of the Hampshire Hunt and the celebrated Mrs Fitzherbert, whose brother lived nearby.
Penny Churchill takes a look back over the major country house sales of the past 12 months.
January: Rhyll Manor, East Anstey, north Devon. Guide £4.25m. Savills
For Martin Lamb of Savills in Exeter, the year kicked off in style with the sale of rugged Rhyll Manor at East Anstey. The manor has long been at the heart of the Exmoor sporting scene, having been home to successive generations of the Hancock brewing family, many of whom were masters of the local Dulverton foxhounds. Unlike some West Country manors, Rhyll Manor’s recent owners have left it in a better state than when they found it, says Mr Lamb, who rates it the best house sold in the West this year.
February Remenham Place, Henley-on- Thames, Oxfordshire. Guide £8m. Savills
Signalling the resurgence of the Henley market, Remenham Place was the first of six houses sold by Savills for more than £5m there this year. Launched on the market in 2012, the classic Victorian house stands in 10 acres of grounds overlooking the Hambleden Valley. Its motto ‘Doe well and doubt not’ may be the ethos of the jetsetters who dominate this affluent corner, however, the time taken to secure a sale suggests that even the most aspirational of buyers are wary of the costs involved in maintaining a large country property.
March The Shakenhurst estate, Bayton, Worcestershire. Guide £16m. Knight Frank
In a year when land—and lots of it—was the key to success at the upper end of the market, Knight Frank found a seasoned farming buyer for this historic, 1,324-acre estate on the Worcestershire/Shropshire border, in the first major estate sale of 2014. This was only the second time that Shakenhurst, which boasts a Grade II*-listed, 12-bedroom, Georgian hall, 15 farm- houses and cottages, fishing on the River Rea and a renowned shoot, had been sold since 1349. The vendors, who had extensively renovated the property, bought it in 2010.
April Hamptworth Lodge, Landford, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Guide £4.85m. Humberts
For James Grillo of Humberts, the sale to an English buyer with New Forest connections of Grade II*-listed Hamptworth Lodge with 132 acres of gardens and parkland within a 1,157-acre, sporting and forestry estate, was one of the highlights of ‘a rollercoaster year’. Built as a hunting lodge in the early 1600s, Hamptworth Lodge was completely rebuilt for Harold Moffatt in 1910–13 by the distinguished architect Sir Guy Dawber. Its brickwork is a notable feature, as is the magnificent interior panelling.
May Charles Hill Court, Tilford, Surrey. Guide £6m. Knight Frank/Savills
In one of the slickest country-house sales of 2014, elegant Charles Hill Court at Tilford, near Farnham, launched in Country Life on April 23 and exchanged for more than the guide on May 29. Built in 1908 for Elizabeth (Lily) Antrobus of the Coutts banking family, the house is a triumph of Anglo-French collaboration between the Arts-and-Crafts architect Detmar Blow and his Paris-trained partner Fernand Billerey. Set against the backdrop of the majestic Surrey Hills, it stands in almost 18 acres of sumptuous gardens and grounds.
June Hawling Manor, Hawling, Gloucestershire. Guide £10m. Knight Frank
Grade II-listed Hawling Manor on the edge of pretty Hawling village, between Cheltenham and Stow-on-the-Wold, was one of the year’s few high-ticket country houses to nail down a buyer in advance of its official launch date, exchanging in May and completing in June. An interesting mix of architectural styles from the 16th to 20th centuries, the house and its seven acres of gardens and grounds were restored in the 1990s by the architect Peter Yiangou, interior designer Charles Hesp and gardening expert John Hill.
July Eastlands Park, Horsham, West Sussex. Offers over £11m. Knight Frank/ Strutt & Parker
The rapid sale of this 588-acre estate at Warninglid, near Horsham, West Sussex, which launched in May and exchanged in July, confirmed a robust demand in 2014 for ‘the right estate in the right place,’ says Mark McAndrew of Strutt & Parker. Eastlands ticked all the boxes, having an impressive main house, a com- mercial farming enterprise, woodland, shooting, equestrian facilities, a regular income from let houses and cottages and the benefit of ‘mixed-use’ Stamp Duty at 4%.
August Lasborough Park, Kingscote, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Guide £12m. Savills
Launched in Country Life on May 7, romantic, 15,000sq ft Lasborough Park made the most of its glorious position on the northern slope of a hidden south Cotswolds valley and moved swiftly to exchange of contracts in August. Built in 1794, Lasborough typifies the Tudor-Gothic style favoured by Wyatt in the latter part of his career. Despite its having only 55 acres, the privacy of Lasborough Park’s high-profile new owners is protected by the grand shooting estates that surround it.
September The Bantham estate, Kingsbridge, Devon. Offers over £11.5m. Strutt & Parker/Michelmore Hughes
Long-term residents of the idyllic Bantham estate in Devon’s popular South Hams heaved a massive sigh of relief when, after months of uncertainty, the sale of the scenic, 716- acre coastal estate—comprising 21 let properties, two boathouses, a harbour, an 18-hole golfcourse and a Duchy of Cornwall lease of the fundus and foreshore of much of the River Avon—to Nicholas Johnston of the model Great Tew estate in Oxfordshire, was announced in September.
October Gaston Grange, Bentworth, Hampshire. Guide £11m. Knight Frank/ Strutt & Parker
Launched in mid May, the irresistible combination of a beautifully modernised manor house and 198 acres of formal gardens, paddocks, woodland and farmland on the northern edge of the South Downs National Park ensured the rapid sale of elegant Gaston Grange, with contracts exchanged in September and completion a month later. It was built in 1890 by Col Gordon Gordon-Ives, who inherited the prestigious Bentworth Hall estate in 1897.
November The Cluny estate, Laggan, Inverness-shire. Offers over £7.5m. Smiths Gore/Savills
The sale of a Highland sporting estate tends to be a leisurely affair, even for one as spectacular as historic, 10,143-acre Cluny, with its splendid A-listed castle (built in 1805), a renowned deer forest and grouse moor, salmon fishing on the Spey and Calder, a substantial farming enterprise and a glorious setting. Given the current uneasy market, the 14-month timelag between its launch in August 2013 and last month’s completion seems reasonable enough.
December The Dundarave estate, Bushmills, Co Antrim. Guide £5m. Savills
The recent sale of the prestigious, 550-acre Dundarave estate, along with a further 675 acres on the neighbouring Port Moon estate, is ‘a transaction on a scale never before seen in Northern Ireland,’ says selling agent James Walker. Launched in Country Life in mid July, Dundarave was the Irish seat of Scotland’s Macnaghten family and at its heart stands Grade I-listed, Italianate Dundarave House, built in 1846, which was described by historian Sir Charles Brett as ‘by far the grandest 19th-century house in north Antrim’.
This 6 bedroom 17th century property boasts converted outbuildings, a swimming pool and landscaped gardens.
Situated on the outskirts of Witney, Middlefield Farmhouse is a beautifully presented Grade II listed 17th century property with a gatekeeper’s cottage, courtyard with heated swimming pool and landscaped gardens.
Middlefield Farmhouse is approached by way of a private drive leading to the enclosed courtyard with gatekeeper’s cottage. This charming addition to the main house comprises of an open plan sitting room/bedroom with en suite bathroom and a kitchen.
The farmhouse itself has been meticulously restored and retains many of its original features including mullion windows, fireplaces and exposed ceiling beams. The house and outbuildings occupy approximately 7,735 sq ft.and combine these period features with state of the art modern technology throughout.
On the ground floor the accommodation comprises the entrance hall with limestone floor, cloakroom, boot room, study, a spacious sitting room, dining room, games room, kitchen, larder and cinema room. The first floor is apprached by way of a glass balustrade landing. On this floor the master bedroom can be found, plus a further four bedrooms (one with en suite shower room) and two good sized bathrooms.
Stairs from master bedroom and hallway lead to the second floor. This floor boasts two dressing rooms (direct access from the master bedroom) and another bedroom.
Middlefield Farmhouse is set in landscaped gardens of 0.58 acres. The fully walled rear garden with a dovecote (with date stone of 1656) is laid to lawn with pretty herbaceous borders. The front garden is also laid to lawn surrounded by herbaceous borders and boasts a little well and a fish pond.
The property also benefits from a gym/dance studio, a pool house and an outdoor heated swimming pool set within in a walled courtyard.
Witney itself is a West Oxfordshire market town and offers a wide range of amenities. The town has an excellent range of local shops including Waitrose and Marks and Spencer, private and public schools for all ages and a golf club.
Ideal for the commuter, Witney is ideally situated between Oxford (13 miles) and Burford (8 miles) on the A40 which provides good connections to the A34, M40 and M4. Long Hanborough (6 mlies) and Charlbury (8 miles) railway stations provide regular main line train links to London.
The guide price is £2.5m. For further information please contact John D Wood & Co. on 01865 311 522.
Arabella Youens asks the agents for their top recommendations, from first-time buyers to long-term investors, of where to buy in London in the coming year.
Southfields is the new Fulham for the current generation of couples with young families. John D. Wood is selling this three/four- bedroom house with a 50ft garden on Elsenham Street, SW18, for £985,000 (020–8870 8811).
All agents agree that the market in London this year is one of the hardest to forecast because of the uncertainty caused by the General Election in May. Mark Pollack of Aston Chase sums up most people’s feelings: ‘The market is likely to be spongy in the first quarter of 2015, with sporadic activity from those who are highly motivated to buy or sell. However, most of the market will bide their time and see how the cards are dealt.’ In the meantime, we look at different areas to think about while the dust from the election settles.
First-time buyers What? Two-bedroom flat for a flatshare with friend; budget of £500,000 Where? Kilburn, Finsbury Park, Hackney, Peckham Why? Lucian Cook of Savills Research highlights Kilburn in north-west London and Finsbury Park in north London as two areas where under-35 year olds of high socio-economic groups are tending to cluster right now. ‘This group of buyers tends to be a bit more adventurous and will seek out real emerging areas—the average house price in Kilburn right now is £475,000.’
James Hyman of Cluttons agrees that buyers need to be flexible on their preferred location: ‘This will increase their chances of securing value for money and for their property’s value to exceed average growth levels over a three-year period, enabling them to move up the ladder quickly.’ He recommends looking in Hackney and Peckham, which are still ‘relatively affordable’.
Couples with young children What? Three/four-bedroom house, with garden and near good schools; budget £1 million Where? Blackheath, East Dulwich, Southfields, Ealing Why? ‘All these areas have decent family housing stock without needing to pay the prices of “Nappy Valley” [Clapham],’ believes Mr Cook. ‘Of all of them, I think Ealing is the shoo-in: it’s a classic emerging prime area and will benefit from Crossrail—Ealing Common is the new Balham.’ Blackheath has, according to Mr Hyman, ‘all the family-friendly infrastructure of Clapham and Battersea, but is 30%–40% cheaper’.
Jonathan Loney of John D. Wood in Southfields sees many young families moving from Fulham and Battersea into his patch in search for a larger house with a good-sized garden, ‘plus the schools are a major draw’.
The same budget will buy a house on the increasingly popular Friern Road and Upland Road in East Dulwich, one of the prettiest of the more affordable south-east London villages that makes for an easy commute into London Bridge, recommends Oliver Burgess of Winkworth in Dulwich.
Retiring to London What? Three-bedroom lateral apartment, close to amenities and the town centre; budget £2 million Where? Battersea, Bloomsbury, Highgate Why? Howard Elston of Aylesford International says that Battersea is 10 minutes’ walk from Chelsea and has great open spaces. ‘Yes, the arrival of the American Embassy has created a stir, but that’s not the only reason why buyers have woken up to an under-priced location—even the international community has now moved south.’
Alex Oppenheim of John D. Wood agrees: ‘I would recommend the mansion blocks on Prince of Wales Drive and Albert Bridge Road, which provide views over the park and lateral space with substantial reception rooms for entertaining.’ Expect to pay in the region of £2 million for an apartment in excess of 1,5000sq ft on a good floor.
‘And although Bloomsbury isn’t stacked with value, it has an enviable location for access to the West End and a lively character and identity of its own,’ adds Mr Cook. Buyers bringing beloved four-legged friends back to London with them should look in the north London village of Highgate, which is close to Hampstead Heath.
Investment buyers What? Buy-to-let flat Where? Camberwell, Acton Why? Dominic Agace, CEO of Winkworth, recommends looking in areas that have a high percentage of young residents, which will equate to strong rental demand for properties. ‘In terms of buy-to-lets, we expect areas such as Camberwell in Southwark and Acton, on the borders of Hammersmith and Ealing, to see an increase in demand from young professionals. Both boroughs already have young populations and good transport into central London—Acton will particularly benefit from Crossrail once it opens.’
When it comes to luxury houses in the Mediterranean, property buyers are spoilt for choice in Mallorca.
Mansion in Puigpunyet, Mallorca €26,500,000 This magnificent 17th century mansion is a jewel on the majestic mountains of Puigpunyet. Olive plantations surround this beautiful property and it boasts cobbled courtyards, a chapel, several water wells, covered terraces on stone columns and arches and beautiful gardens with pergolas, as well as a swimming pool and a tennis court.
7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
Christies International Real Estate (020 7389 2551)
Villa in Port de Andratx, Mallorca, €3,900,000 Located within a beautiful garden setting, this extensive villa boasts terraces, a swimming pool and a tennis court. Its immaculate interiors feature marble and hardwood flooring throughout and it also benefits from two separate guest houses.
6 bedrooms
Knight Frank (020 7861 1097)
Modern villa in Son Vida, Mallorca, €5,900,000
This prestigious residence in Son Vida enjoys sensational views over Palma bay and the city. This three level villa has been finished to an incredibly high specification, and also boasts a large infinity swimming pool and unique interior wellness area with jacuzzi and garden.
4 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms
First Mallorca (+34 971 425 262)
Waterfront villa in Cala Vinyas, Mallorca, €18,000,000 This recently completed south facing villa is perched on cliff-top and offers breathtaking panoramic views over Palma Bay and the Mediterranean sea. In additional to 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms and 3 living rooms, the property also benefits from a private swimming pool, extensive gardens and terraces and guest and housekeepers accommodation.
6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms
Chestertons International (020 7201 2071)
Estate in Llubí, Mallorca, €12,000,000 Surrounded by wine groves, this elegant mansion boasts breathtaking views across the tranquil Spanish countryside. The property itself is built around a magnificent Roman baptism fountain dating back to the 2nd century, and also benefits from a beautiful botanical garden.
9 bedroom, 9 bathrooms
Christies International Real Estate (020 7389 2551)
What effect will the General Election and recent Stamp Duty changes have?
Fig 1: Pretty West Cottage at Westonbirt, near Tetbury, in Gloucestershire. £515,000.
If you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it in 2015. That’s the message circulating at the top end of the prime property market on the run-up to one of the longest, and strangest, pre-election campaigns in history, the outcome of which will affect the workings of the country-house market for years to come. As Government and Opposition continue to target the estimated 2% of the population who buy and sell houses for more than £1 million, to the benefit of the 98% who don’t, the continuing uncertainty in the market-place has already dented sales of properties valued at more than the proposed ‘mansion tax’ threshold of £2m.
Even more so those valued at £5m- plus, says Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank, who, in 2014, saw a ‘significant’ increase in the number of off-market sales at this level, as vendors and buyers sought to maintain a low profile. ‘Almost a third of Knight Frank’s deals in the country have been by this method, reflecting vendors’ desires to sell quietly and buyers not wanting to be seen to be buying expensive property,’ he reveals.
When Chancellor George Osborne announced his surprise overhaul of Stamp Duty (SDLT) in his Autumn Statement on December 3, his supporters felt that he had done much to kick Labour’s dreaded ‘mansion tax’proposals into the long grass. However, this notion was instantly rebutted by Ed Balls, confirming his intention to proceed with his plans for such a tax should Labour return to power at the General Election.
As buyers, vendors and estate agents around the country digest the implications of the new SDLT regime, Lucian Cook of Savills comments: ‘The new graduated system of SDLT bands will mean savings for about three-quarters of a million home buyers across England and Wales, who will benefit from reduced SDLT on transactions up to £937,000. By contrast, about 17,000 transactions above £937,000 will carry an increased SDLT burden.’
He explains: ‘For example, the new SDLT rate payable on the purchase of a £2m house is now £153,750, compared with £100,000 at the old rate, an increase of £53,750; that payable on a £3m house is now £273,750 as against £210,000 (+£63,750); that payable on a £5m house is now £513,750, as against £350,000 (+£163,750); and that payable on a £10m house is now £1,113,750, as against £700,000 —an eye-watering increase of £413,750.’
Argues Mr Cook: ‘Although reforms at the lower end of the SDLT rate bands are well overdue, and will benefit those trying to get on or trade up the housing ladder, particularly if they live in London or the South-East, we estimate that about £2.2 billion of SDLT receipts—more than one-third of total SDLT revenues—will come from fewer than 5,000 sales of property worth more than £2m, less than 0.5% of all transactions. This surely puts an end to any argument that these properties are under-taxed and further significantly undermines any case for a “mansion tax”.’
With the attention of the residential property sector focused firmly on the outcome of the General Election, leading agents expect 2015 to be a year in two or even three parts, with a window of opportunity in the first three months of the year, followed by a pre-election lull and a post-election period of reflection, and little serious activity taking place at the top end of the market before September.
Fig 2: Charming Cotswold House at Aldsworth, near Northleach, in Gloucestershire. £725,000.
Even in the Cotswolds, which was Knight Frank’s star performing area in 2014, Atty Beor-Roberts in Cirencester isn’t expecting to see many high-profile launches in the first half of the year. Although no one quite knows what will happen after May, he wouldn’t be surprised to see owners of high-value houses in London preferring to stick with a smaller house in town and buying a second home in the Cotswolds with the money they would save in SDLT by not going for a bigger house in the capital.
Two charming, quintessential Cotswold cottages currently for sale through his Cirencester office (01285 659771) are the extended, 17th-century Cotswold House (Fig 2) at Aldsworth, four miles from Northleach, which has three bedrooms, a large garden and outbuildings, at £725,000 and the pretty, Grade II-listed, semi-detached West Cottage (Fig 1) at Westonbirt, four miles from Tetbury, which has two bedrooms and beautifully landscaped gardens, at £515,000.
But not everyone wants to sit on the sidelines while Westminster performs its ritual dance and Strutt and Parker believe that, this year, the early bird will catch the juiciest worms. Mark Rimell, whose remit covers much of the South-East, has claimed pole position with the relaunch on Boxing Day of Grade II-listed The Laines (Fig 3), at Plumpton, East Sussex, at a slightly revised guide price of £3.15m.
Fig 3: The Laines at Plumpton, East Sussex, is the perfect family home. £3.15m.
Nestled in 5.3 acres of gardens and grounds on the edge of Plumpton village in the lee of the South Downs, The Laines has been the much-loved family home for the past 18 years of the actor James Wilby—best known for his roles in Maurice, Gosford Park and A Handful of Dust—his wife, Shana, and their four children. Prior to that, the former village rectory, built in the 18th century with 19th-century additions, of traditional Sussex knapped-flint walls under a hipped tiled roof, belonged, for 45 years, to Maj Bruce Shand and was his daughter The Duchess of Cornwall’s ‘perfect’ childhood home.
This delightfully quirky, rambling family house has four main reception rooms with classic Georgian proportions, high ceilings, fine working fireplaces and French windows opening onto the east and south terraces plus seven main bedrooms, three bathrooms and a shower room on the first floor. All the main rooms have wonderful views of the lovely gardens, partially designed by Lanning Roper and lovingly maintained by Mr Wilby. It comes with a three/four-bedroom cottage, which has been let to provide a useful income.
Simon Backhouse of Strutt & Parker in Canterbury (01227 451 123) is taking the bull by the horns in next week’s Country Life (January, 14 2015) of the 350-acre Linton estate at Linton, four miles from Maidstone, Kent, at a guide price of £7.3m for the whole or in up to 15 lots. For sale for the first time in more than 50 years, following the Daubeny family’s decision to relocate overseas, the estate, which dates from the mid 18th century, was divided in the late 1970s, when the mansion house and northern parkland were sold off.
Fig 4: The Linton estate in Kent includes Cuckoo Field House and 140 acres of parkland. £7.3m for the whole.
The estate, which is classified as residential and therefore subject to the new SDLT regime, has a large portfolio of houses, including the main estate house—the four-bedroom Cuckoo Field House (Fig 4)—a Victorian model farm-building complex with potential for redevelopment, six cottages, further outbuildings with development potential, a range of modern farm buildings, a cricket ground and 140 acres of Grade II*-listed parkland.
Unlike the vast majority of his country colleagues, Sam Gibson of Strutt & Parker in Morpeth, Northumberland (01670 516123), couldn’t be happier at the recent turn of events: ‘With much of our turnover concentrated in mid to lower values ranging between £350,000 and £650,000, the SDLT reform provides a cracking good reason to buy in the North-East.’
He adds: ‘For instance, one of my clients who signed a deal within the permitted 24-hour time limit woke up to find himself £10,000 better off under the new system. On the other hand, high-value vendors are not so happy at the prospect of having to absorb some or all of the SDLT increase.’
Fig 5: Buyers in Northumberland are attracted by excellent value properties such as Hawkwell Farm House, near Hexham. £810,000.
Typical of the excellent value to be found in his scenic part of the county, at a guide price of £810,000, Mr Gibson suggests, is the Grade II- listed, 17th-century Hawkwell Farm House (Fig 5) at Hawkwell, 11 miles from Hexham and 13 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Set in two acres of gardens and grounds, the house has three main reception rooms, a study, a breakfast kitchen, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, stabling and outbuildings.
Louis de Soissons of Savills in Norwich (01603 229229) is less euphoric at the recent turn of events, but is still quietly confident of riding out any impending storm, having seen the reappearance on the Norfolk country-house scene of the traditional London buyer—a feelgood factor that the arrival in Norfolk of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has no doubt reinforced. Barring unforeseen circumstances such as a prolonged period of extreme bad weather, Mr de Soissons is also advising his clients to go the market early.
Fig 6: The Old Rectory at Sculthorpe in Norfolk is certain to entice London buyers back to the county. £2.65m.
He will shortly be launching delightful The Old Rectory (Fig 6) at Sculthorpe, seven miles from trendy Burnham Market, on the market at a guide price of £2.65m. Beautifully renovated by its current owners, the elegant, Grade II-listed former rectory stands in 23 acres of landscaped gardens and grounds, with accommodation on three floors, including four fine reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, four bed- room suites on the first floor and three further bedrooms on the second.
It comes with a two-bedroom stable cottage and some useful outbuildings.
Overseas statesmen and a freezing British public alike came to pay their respects at Sir Winston Churchill's funeral, 50 years ago this month.
It was television’s finest hour. The broadcast of Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral, which took place on January 30, 1965, united the nation, just as the Coronation had done 12 years before. Many readers will remember the grainy pictures on small screens, accompanied by Richard Dimbleby’s voice, as resonant as a funeral bell. Others will have been at the event itself. It was remarkable how many young people could be seen among the crowd lining the route from Westminster Hall to St Paul’s, in, as Dimbleby put it, the new haircuts, fashions and styles.
It was a bitterly cold day. Although the servicemen taking part in the procession showed iron discipline standing to attention as they waited for the coffin to be placed on the gun carriage, members of the public, wrapped in blankets, stamped their feet; some collapsed.
Everyone had a sense that the ceremony marked the end of an era and that seems even more the case now. The television pictures show a different London: soot-blackened, mostly low rise, its riverfront lined with wharfs rather than millionaire’s flats. Dimbleby’s sparse and dignified commentary speaks of an age before sound bites. Ladies going into St Paul’s are wrapped in furs.
When The Queen told the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, that she wanted Churchill to have a State funeral, Churchill was gratified. A State funeral was a rare honour for a commoner there had not been one on a grand scale since the death of Wellington in 1852. Indeed, the candlesticks that stood over Churchill’s coffin were those that had been specially commissioned for Wellington and not used since.
He didn’t take a keen personal interest in the arrangements, beyond hoping, as his daughter Mary Soames remembered, that there would be ‘plenty of bands’. No doubt he was confident that the full panoply of which the nation was capable would be deployed. He would not have been disappointed.
The committee, codenamed Hope Not, was chaired by the Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, and, meeting secretly at the Admir-alty, pulled out all the stops. One problem that they had to resolve was who would walk behind the coffin? This honour was accorded to the close male members of Churchill’s family and his loyal private secretary of 13 years, Anthony Montague Browne, representing those who had worked for him.
‘I feared marring things by weeping,’ recalled Montague Browne. However, the pain caused by the aftermath of an operation for a slipped disc proved, during a slow march of two miles, ‘a helpful distraction’. Even today, reliving the event through the medium of fuzzy television film, people of a susceptible disposition may find their eyes moistening.
The route presented many obstacles, starting with the narrowness of the gate from New Palace Yard, through which the gun carriage and its escort had to pass at the beginning of the procession. This was followed by the physical difficulty of carrying the coffin up and, particularly, down the steps of St Paul’s. The precision with which all the necessary manoeuvres were performed, to the accompaniment of solemn music, emphasised the feeling of the day: everything that could be done to show honour to the memory of a great Englishman was done.
Old men came, including the frail Earl Attlee. So did many people, such as representatives of the Danish Resistance, who had been inspired by Churchill during the Second World War. All together, six sovereigns, 15 heads of state and representatives from more than 110 countries attended. Towering over Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel, came President de Gaulle. ‘In the great drama,’ the sometimes immovable French-man wrote to The Queen on Churchill’s death, ‘he was the greatest of all.’
They were greeted on the steps of St Paul’s by the heralds, ancient and bareheaded, in tights and tabards—a rare splash of colour on a sombre day. No tradition was neglected, however arcane. The Lord Mayor of London was accompanied by his Swordbearer, in the fur Cap of Maintenance, and the City Remembrancer. The Lord Mayor carried the Sword of Mourning, wrapped in black velvet, before The Queen.
However, if anyone’s memory evokes the funeral as a great imperial or Commonwealth occasion, like the Coronation, it plays him false. Churchill loved the British Empire. He came to manhood reporting the South African wars, during which he escaped imprisonment by the Boers. He invoked ‘our Empire beyond the seas’ during the Second World War and adamantly resisted the attempts of Gandhi, ‘a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir’, to get independence for India. But no Commonwealth troops took part in the procession.
Nor, for that matter, was there more than one woman. Churchill had opposed female suffrage; he could not imagine them fulfilling a useful purpose in public life and growled disparagements at the first sitting female MP, Nancy Astor. The sole female who marched in the procession was a representative of the Westerham branch of the British Legion.
Instead, the funeral expressed another facet of Churchill’s personality. His mother was American and he saw Britain’s post-War destiny as allied with the United States. He wanted the Union Flag to alternate with the Star Spangled Banner on the flagposts of the Mall. Alert to the theatre of the occasion, as well as knowing a good tune when he heard one, Churchill had The Battle Hymn of the American Republic included as one of the hymns. To American commentators, the seat of Empire a selfish despotism, as they had previously seen it was forgiven, having been transformed by a different narrative: the bulldog nation that stood alone in 1940.
To Dwight D. Eisenhower, paying tribute during the BBC broadcast, ‘Winston Churchill was Britain’. And so the funeral helped shape a new identity for Britain, subverted, Churchillians might think, eight years later, when Britain joined the European Economic Community.
Not everything that Churchill hoped for in his obsequies came to pass. His wish was to be buried on the croquet lawn at Chartwell. That caused consternation in some quarters, in the belief that such a resting place would lack reverence. Instead, a steam locomotive, Winston Churchill, took the coffin to the little station of Hanborough, Oxfordshire, and thence to the churchyard at Bladon, the village to the south of the park at Blenheim Palace.
Hanborough, however, is on the Worcestershire line, for which the usual railway station would be Paddington. How was it that the Port of London Authority launch went instead to Waterloo? Churchill is supposed to have insisted that it was the only station that could be used, if President de Gaulle outlived him. I would like to think that story is true.
2014 marked another year of solid growth in vineyard values.
The Knight Frank Global Vineyard Index has recorded another year of solid growth in vineyard values, with wine-making regions in the US and New Zealand leading the rankings.
Kate Everett-Allen, Partner, International Residential Research at Knight Frank said, ‘Sonoma County in the US recorded the strongest price growth with vineyard values rising by 17.9% in the 12 months to June.’
Indeed, vineyards continue to be seen as a worthwhile investment by those looking to broaden their property portfolio and follow a passion. The survey suggests vineyards are acquired by a mix of buyers: some are purchased as early retirement projects and others are purchased as holiday homes, visited three or more times each year, with a manager employed to oversee the day-to-day running of the estate, including both production and sales.
Further key findings:
The price of a lifestyle vineyard increased by 4.5% on average in the year to June 2014, down from 6.8% last year
Sonoma County in the US recorded the strongest increase in vineyard prices year-on-year, rising by 17.9%
Asian buyers are looking beyond Bordeaux to the US, Italy, New Zealand and Australia
France and Italy are still top of buyers’ wish lists, some regions such as Piedmont have seen prices decline creating potential buying opportunities
This four bedroom cottage on the North Norfolk coast would make an ideal holiday home.
Situated in Burnham Overy Staithe, a small village on the North Norfolk coast, is Rahere cottage, a pretty period property with an enclosed south facing garden. Currently run as a very successful holiday let, it would also make a fantastic full time home and there is also planning permission to expand the existing 4 bedroom residence into a larger five bedroom, three/four bathroom property.
Rahere cottage has retained many of its many original features including oak panelling, open fireplaces, pamment tiled floors and floorboards. On the ground floor the accommodation comprises a sitting room with triple aspect windows, a dining room with two Georgian sash windows, an inner hall / boot room and a kitchen / breakfast room overlooking the garden. Upstairs, four good sized bedrooms can be found plus the family bathroom, which also overlooks the garden.
Outside, the gardens feature an attractive sunken paved terrace and a raised lawn with well established shrub borders and mature trees. There is also a partially covered barbeque area, perfect for summer entertaining and a shed ideal for boat storage.
Burnham Overy Staithe is a wonderful coastal village that lies on the River Burn. It has a good gastro pub – The Hero – and offers plenty of scenic walks across the marshes and long sandy beaches. It’s close to Burnham Market (2 miles), a stylish village which offers a range of amenities including a number of boutique shops and art galleries.
The guide price is £599,000. For further information please contact Sowerbys on 01328 730 340.
This exquisite three bedroom penthouse on King Street was once owned by fashion icon Daphne Guinness.
Situated in a vibrant part of central London, overlooking Covent Garden and the Piazza, this luxurious three bedroom duplex penthouse on King Street was once owned by fashion icon Daphne Guinness.
The exterior façade of the King Street property was designed by Henry Clutton and boasts red brick and Portland stone dating back to 1877. The building was originally occupied by a linen draper by the name of Boyd Burnet and Company. Over the centuries King Street has been home to a range of notable residents and the adjoining building, no 43 King Street is the former home of Admiral Edward Russell, grandson of the fourth Earl of Bedford. Edward Russell played an important leading part in bringing William of Orange to England and was treasurer of the Navy and fleet in the French war in 1689-97.
The 2,900 sq ft penthouse is spacious with high ceilings and period features throughout. The entrance floor offers a generous reception room, professional kitchen / dining room, cloakroom and two generous bedrooms complete with en-suite bathrooms.
Upstairs, the master suite spans the entire floor, and boasts a lavish bedroom with high beam ceilings and bespoke finishes including an abundance of bespoke fitted wardrobes and an adjoining living room which can be closed off by two large sliding screens.
The master bathroom has been created with beautiful black marble and luxurious bath and sink top with Art Deco style mirrored finishes.
The King Street penthouse also includes a large sunny terrace with views of the BT Tower and beyond, offering the perfect place for summer parties or relaxing.
Covent Garden is the ideal destination for those who want to live in a vibrant part of London. There are a range of cultural delights just a stone’s throw away at nearby theatres, as well as farmers markets, street performers and boutique shopping opportunities.
The guide price is £6.95m. For further information please contact Rokstone on 020 7580 2030 or Knight Frank on 020 7861 5020.
Will the proposed LBTT make England more attractive than Scotland as a place to buy property?
John Coleman of Smiths Gore in Edinburgh (0131–344 0880) is urging the SNP to rethink its proposed Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), which, he maintains, will make England more attractive than Scotland as a place in which to buy property. The introduction of the new Stamp Duty regime throughout the rest of the UK (Property Market, January 7) has highlighted huge differences between the two systems, making the tax payable in Scotland up to double that payable in England.
Buyers and vendors both need to act swiftly in order to avoid paying the new LBTT rates, which come into force on April 1 for any property sales not completed by that date. Consequently, Smiths Gore have advanced the sale of idyllic Loch Eye House (above) and Loch Eye Cottage at Fearn, Ross-shire, on the shores of Loch Eye, 33 miles north of Inverness, quoting a guide price of £650,000 for the main five-bedroom house and £250,000 for the two-bedroom cottage. A buyer completing the purchase of both houses as one £900,000 transaction before April 1 would be liable for £35,000 in tax—the same as in England. After April 1, however, the new LBTT rate payable in Scotland will be £67,300—an increased liability of £32,300. ‘The Scottish government needs to make Scotland more attractive to inward investors, not less so,’ Mr Coleman suggests.
The box office is now open for this year's Badminton Horse Trials.
Badminton was voted the best horse trials of 2014.
The box office opened this week for one of Britain’s most enduring sporting events: the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials 2015 (May 7–10). Last year, the cross-country course was given a radical overhaul by Giuseppe della Chiesa, only the fourth course-designer in the event’s 66-year history and the first from overseas.
Not every competitor had the smoothest of rides over the Italian’s new fences—notable scalps included Mary King, William Fox-Pitt, Pippa Funnell, Sir Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson—but, to their credit, the riders didn’t complain about the upgraded test and voted Badminton the best horse trials of 2014 in the L’Année Hippique awards.
England are rejuvenated under Eoin Morgan writes Christopher Clark, but Australia and India will prove to be a class apart.
England after an inevitable series defeat away to Sri Lanka before Christmas, finally dispensed with the services of Alastair Cook as One Day captain. Whilst this was the right decision, it was at least 6 months too late.
Now under the stewardship of Eoin Morgan, England are in Australia to prepare for the World Cup. What England need are some confidence boosting victories to get themselves in the right mindset for the 50 over World Cup which starts in February 2015.
Unfortunately for England they are in a tournament with two of the best one day sides in the World. The sides will play each other twice, and the top two sides will play each other in a one-off final. Those two sides will be Australia and India.
England will be looking to take some positives from this tournament, and before the competition starts, let’s have a look at what they will be:
More aggressive field placements from the new captain Eoin Morgan
The return to fitness of Stuart Broad
James Anderson spearheading the attack
What sets Australia and India apart from England, is that both the Aussies and Indians have game changers in their sides. Australia will open with David Warner and Aaron Finch. Australia will be aiming for 80+ in the opening powerplay from those two. Likewise India have Dhawan and Rahane hopefully blazing a trail for them.
England, now that Cook will no longer be opening, had been expected to have Alex Hales and Mooen Ali opening the batting. Alex Hales played in the Big Bash to gain some form for the one-dayers, unfortunately his spell with the Hobart Hurricanes was unproductive. In England’s warm up game, Hales didn’t even play. Ian Bell opened with Mooen Ali. It will be interesting to see if England go for safe and steady Bell, or are prepared to back the explosive, but erratic Hales.
England’s middle order batting is equally as good as their opponents in this tri-series, but what will let England down in this competition and the World Cup, is that there is no strength in depth to their bowling.
Whilst Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan and James Tredwell are steady County performers, it is highly unlikely that any of this trio would get into any of the top 4 international sides in one day cricket. During the World Cup these three bowlers are going to have to bowl approximately 20 overs a game. The better sides in the World Cup will be looking to score at 6 to 7 runs an over during these overs. Potential game-breakers.
England will give the new ball to Anderson and Broad in the tri-series, tried and tested at this level. However it has been a while since either had real success with the white ball, so England will be hoping that Steven Finn, on the hard bouncy Australian wickets can be the wicket taking bowler he has always promised to be. Under Eoin Morgan, England will be going all out to get wickets. With their limited attack, they know they won’t be able to stop the flow of runs. If Anderson, Broad and Finn don’t pick up wickets, England could be on the end of some tough run-chases in this tri-series.
The next few months promise to be a festival of cricket for fans. However there won’t be much fun in supporting England.
It's love rather than cold economic sense that drives the purchase of most Venetian property, finds Cathy Hawker.
Palazzo Vendramin: In the less touristy area of Cannaregio, it’s been newly renovated into 13 one- to four- bedroom apartments priced from €640,000 to €4.3 million. Savills (020– 7016 3740).
Few cities look very much as they did 500 years ago and even fewer are lived in by their residents in much the same way, but in Venice, merchants still transport their fruit and vegetables into the city by boat, selling directly from the waterside, locals linger over their morning caffè and walking remains the best policy for tourists and residents alike.
Of course, some things have changed dramatically. where once it was exotic silks and spices that flowed through this wealthy trading gateway, now it’s visitors in search of culture and beauty. As the year-round population has dwindled, down to 60,000 at the last count, annual tourist figures have stretched past 20 million with many arriving on cruise ships.
Yet it’s still possible to find the real Venice, insists Jelena Cvjetkovic of Savills (020–7016 3740) and although it remains a niche market, there is healthy interest in owning a bolthole in La Serenissima. ‘Buying in Venice is an emotional purchase,’ says Miss Cvjetkovic. ‘It makes economic sense, because the rental market is strong and the season is long, but that’s almost secondary for many buyers. Having a home in Venice is like buying a piece of art or gaining admission to an exclusive world. There is nothing else like it and buyers will put up with some practical difficulties such as little outdoor space or top-floor apartments without lifts because the emotional pull is so intense.’
Palazzo Molin: A fully restored canal-front 15th-century palazzo two minutes from Piazza San Marco with 18 modern apartments priced from €595,000. Sotheby’s International Realty (00 39 041 522 0093).
The French are the main buyers, says Miss Cvjetkovic, followed by the British and Italians. Most in demand are two- or three-bedroom apartments priced €500,000 to €1,800,000, which rent well. Venetian period details combined with private outdoor space and a water view top buyers’ wish lists says Rupert Fawcett, head of Knight Frank’s Italy department (020–7629 8171). It is, he says, the sense of place that Venice provides that marks it out for buyers and has meant prices in the city have suffered less than in other parts of Italy since 2007. Prices on the Grand Canal average €12,500 to €15,000 a square metre, reaching €20,000 for exceptional properties.
‘There are certainly some buyers who see Venice as a more investment-orientated purchase, but, for the majority, it’s somewhere they know very well,’ comments Mr Fawcett. ‘They often have a social connection there, attending operas and festivals regularly. Many of our clients looking to buy in Italy would consider Tuscany or Umbria, but 80% of those looking in Venice will only consider Venice.’
It’s rare to find an entire waterfront palazzo for sale—although Knight Frank do have one ready to move into on the Grand Canal: Palazzo Sangiantoffetti, with its own water gate for €10 million—as most have already been chopped into apartments with varying degrees of skill. The recently opened Aman Canal Grande, in privately owned 16th-century Palazzo Papadopoli close to the Rialto Bridge, is typical of many grand palaces that are now hotels. But although this building—the star of both a Veronese painting and a Turner drawing—has been exquisitely renovated, not all are done with such care.
Giudecca: A carefully restored two- bedroom ground-floor apartment with garden close to Harry’s Dolci on the island of Giudecca for €680,000. Knight Frank (020–7629 8171).
In a city where damp and humidity can cause untold problems, there will always be concerns about build quality, agrees Filippo Gaggia of Savills associates Views on Venice. ‘Maintenance on rundown buildings can be high and some 95% of homes in Venice have foundations that are not properly dug down and “tanked”,’ explains Sig Gaggia, himself the owner of a handsome Grand Canal palazzo.
Palazzo Vendramin, an entire waterfront palazzo in Canareggio newly launched by Savills with 13 apartments for sale from €640,000 to €4.3 million, is a good example. The three-year renovation of the beautiful brick and white-stucco palace included the temporary removal of two vast stone staircases in the entrance hall to restore the foundations. Kitchens and bathrooms are pared back and modern with unobtrusive LED lighting and sleek units and centuries-old frescoes, internal quatrefoil Gothic stone windows and wooden and terrazzo floors have been renovated to add character.
‘The primary purpose of restoration was to keep the historical layering of this special building,’ says architect Alberto Torsello, a born-and-bred Venetian. ‘The second purpose was to maintain its health, protecting from high tides and humidity. We have designed it to live in easily, to be historic but also modern.’
Palazzo Sangiantoffetti: An entire 17th-century palazzo over three floors with an attic that has been completely restored with seven bedrooms and a roof terrace in Santa Croce. €10 million. Knight Frank (020– 7629 8171).
Canareggio, in the north of Venice, runs from the train station to the Rialto Bridge. It’s known as the ‘local’ sestiere (area) of Venice with fewer tourists and more reasonably priced restaurants and shops. San Marco is a 15-minute brisk walk to the east and the airport is 20 minutes by water taxi to the west. The main canals and calles are wider, allowing sunlight to fall over the diners enjoying their prosecco along the Fondamenta della Misericordia.
In San Marco, and also with water access, the renovation of 15th-century Palazzo Molin was completed earlier this year. Eleven of the 18 apartments remain for sale priced from €595,000 to €4,900,000. Mullioned windows, high ceilings and a spacious entrance hall and communal courtyard garden are matched by crisp contemporary interiors and a concierge service run from the nearby Hotel dei Dragomanni.
‘Smaller pied-à-terres in grand developments like Palazzo Molin are appealing as they offer the rare chance to live in exceptionally imposing surroundings with high-level concierge service for a surprisingly modest price,’ says selling agent Ann-Marie Doyle of Venice Sotheby’s International Realty (00 39 041 522 0093).
Individual properties currently on the market, which showcase well-renovated contemporary design, include a spacious one-bedroom piano nobile apartment in Palazzo Tron on the Grand Canal, also the work of Sig Torsello. The apartment is opposite the Aman Hotel and is for sale at €1.9 million through Knight Frank.
San Marcuola: This two-bedroom penthouse in Cannaregio was recently reduced to €1 million. Knight Frank (020–7629 8171).
The wisteria-clad entrance is through a peaceful garden overlooking Palazzo Fortuny and the interior by London-based designer Tim Gosling has a modern all-white Minotti kitchen, tactile creamy polished marmorino plaster on the walls and ruby-red handmade glass tiles in the bathroom.
‘The beauty of Venice is that it offers both classic historic homes and some newer apartments that are a blank canvas,’ says Mr Fawcett. ‘Giudecca, opposite Zattere and home to the Cipriani, has newer offerings.’ He highlights a two-bedroom ground-floor apartment there with whitewashed beams and open-plan living space for €680,000.
A two-bedroom apartment spread over three floors in ever-popular Dorsoduro with the magic combination of a private water gate and rooftop terrace is €2.3 million through Sotheby’s.
Finally, a first-floor Grand Canal apartment in San Polo in a Byzantine palace, restored in the 15th century with a pentafora (five-light window) and frescoed ceilings is €3.5 million and a restored one-bedroom light- filled apartment in Santa Croce is €850,000, both through Savills.
West Sussex, £1.5 million White Canons, Storrington, Henry Adams (01903 742535)
This five-bedroom house comes with a large eat-in kitchen, which extends into a light-filled conservatory. There is also a two-bedroom cottage annexe. It stands in 31⁄2 acres and includes a trout lake and fishing.
Lancashire, £620,000 Marsdens Farm, Bashall Eaves, Smiths Gore (01200 411046)
Within easy reach of Clitheroe town centre, this traditional farmhouse comes with four bedrooms, a large living room and a good-sized kitchen. The garden also offers a general-purpose workshop with two stables and a tack room.
East Sussex, £1.95 million Hayes Farmhouse, Rye, Savills (01580 720161)
Set in 41⁄2 acres, this farmhouse would suit anyone keen on hosting large weekend house parties. It comes with eight bedrooms, an annexe cottage and a large kitchen/ breakfast room. It also has pretty rural views.
Which party will best serve the interests of farmers?
English Countryside
Last week’s annual Oxford Farming Conference, which gives politicians a chance to address farmers, scientists and agricultural businessmen, provided an opportunity for MPs of different hues to woo the farming industry four months ahead of the election.
Defra Secretary Liz Truss would not be drawn on further rollout of the badger cull, despite the disease being prevalent way beyond the two pilot areas, notably in Cheshire. ‘I’m prepared to do whatever it takes [to eradicate bovine TB],’ she said, without elaborating. She told delegates: ‘It is not easy, but we will do the right thing even if the protest groups don’t like it.’
In the second of four pilot badger culls, shooters in west Somerset exceeded their target of animals culled and there is anecdotal evidence that the disease may be receding, but those in Gloucestershire fell short. Miss Truss says the area ‘reflects the challenges of extensive unlawful protest and intimidation’. Her opposition number, Welsh MP Huw Irranca-Davies—who opposes the cull, despite Wales being blighted by bovine TB said that, if Labour is elected, the cull will be halted.
Politicians shared their views on genetically modified (GM) crops on the eve of the European Parliament vote on whether member states should be allowed to make individual decisions about growing them currently, trials can be blocked by a single state. Miss Truss comments: ‘I think GM technology has a role to play in the UK. It could mean that crops can be produced with less water and fewer pesticides and I think our farmers need those opportunities.’
UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew, a Norfolk farmer who knows about the pressure on those running GM trials, was the most gung-ho and revealed that his party wants a free vote on the issue. Mr Irranca-Davies agreed that GM crops ‘could provide some of the solutions’, but argues: ‘We cannot have a situation where it’s GM or nothing there should still be a role for international governance.’ Scotland’s Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead remained cautious. ‘The jury is out,’ he commented, expressing fears for his country’s ‘Green credentials’.
Mr Lochhead revealed nervousness about the Tories’ proposed referendum on Europe because of Scottish farmers’ heavy reliance on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments. ‘Opting out of farm support means opting out of farming,’ he says, describing the referendum as a ‘£20 billion gamble’ and ‘the biggest threat to British farming’.
Research produced for the conference by The Andersons Centre concludes that Britain is lagging behind many other countries in terms of agricultural efficiency, even though our farming practices are often kinder. And, despite environmental campaigner George Monbiot’s coruscating attack on ‘exceedingly rich farmers’ receiving ‘millions’ from agri-environment schemes and on the ‘sheep-wrecked’ hills of Wales, James Bullock from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology concluded his presentation by saying that, in fact, if diligently applied, the schemes can increase both productivity and public good.
Prof Bullock concludes: ‘Most of our biodiversity blue butterflies on chalk grassland, hen harriers on the uplands is a result of traditional agriculture and sustainable grazing levels. There is no one size that fits all we even once came out against rewilding as an experiment in terms of biodiversity. Multiple solutions are the ways ahead. No one’s right and no one’s wrong.’
On the first floor the master bedroom and three additional bedrooms can be found, plus a family bathroom. All the bedrooms have good views over the gardens and grounds, and two also include charming fireplaces.
