Country Life early property pages 22nd Feb 23

Fine arts issue

Painting ugly, John Piper and Johnny van Haeften

Frog princes, cutting gardens and School Life

Property market Penny Churchill

Splendid isolation

BETWEEN the Fens, the vast Thetford Forest to the west and the Broads to the north, you will find south Norfolk’s Breckland district, the name of which means ‘abandoned field’. It is a sandy wilderness of heath and dry grassland set amid the rich farmlands of East Anglia, where, for centuries, the land was ploughed by itinerant farmers who moved on when its fertility dwindled. Now a precious habitat for some of Britain’s rarest flora and fauna, it was to this isolated area that the Modernist writer Virginia Stephen, later Virginia Woolf, came to find solitude and inspiration following a bout of the recurring mental illness that would plague her for the rest of her life.

In the summer of 1906, Virginia and her elder sister, Vanessa, rented Blo Norton Hall, a moated Elizabethan house near the Saxon village of Blo Norton on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, seven miles from the market town of Diss, 16 miles from Bury St Edmunds and 40 miles from Cambridge. A diary entry records her journey from Diss station, where ‘every mile seemed to draw a thicker curtain between you & the world. So that finally, when you are set down at the Hall, no sound whatever reaches your ear; the very light seems to filter through deep layers; & the air circulates

Above: The history of Blo Norton Hall, near the Saxon village of Blo Norton, Norfolk, can be traced back to the 16th century. £2.6m. Right: The 16thcentury hall and its magnificent gardens are at the heart of a 72-acre estate

slowly, as though it had but to make the circuit of the Hall, & its duties were complete’.

In a letter to her friend, Violet Dickinson, she describes the hall: ‘300 years old, striped with oak bars inside, old staircases, ancestral vats and portraits. There is a garden; and a moat… Nessa paints windmills in the afternoon, and I tramp the country for miles with a map, leap ditches, scale walls and desecrate churches, making out beautiful brilliant stories every step of the way.’ The hall and its environs were to serve as the setting for a short story, The Journey of Mistress Joan Martyn,

in which the thinly disguised main character, Rosamund Merridew, is a historian researching England’s medieval system of land tenure.

Now for sale through the Norwich office of Savills (01603 229229) at a guide price of £2.6 million, Blo Norton Hall sits at the heart of a 72-acre estate on the edge of the village, where a network of small country lanes, bridleways and footpaths offers unlimited scope for walking, cycling and riding. Bounded to the south by the River Little Ouse, the estate comprises a mix of meadows, farmland and wooded parkland along with a courtyard of

Two gems in East Anglia come garnished with history, space and privacy

period outbuildings with evident development potential. According to its Historic England listing, the present house was built in the mid 16th century, enlarged in 1585 with the addition of the gabled south and east wings and partly rebuilt or altered in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; the moated monastic site on which it stands dates from 1280.

Described by selling agent Ben Rivett as ‘a wonderfully atmospheric house—a real gem’, the hall and its two cottages (for sale by separate negotiation) have been the subject of a rolling programme of repair and improvement since 2009, which has included new plumbing and wiring, redecoration, a new drainage system and the replacement of defective areas of roof.

The heart of the house is the dining hall with its original 16th-century panelling, open fireplace and grand proportions. This leads

through to the drawing room, again with panelling and fireplace, and a living room with access to the west-facing gardens. A pleasant surprise is the large, light-filled, open-plan kitchen/dining area, a rarity among houses of this vintage. The hall boasts two staircases of note, the one in the west wing has particularly fine 17th-century, dog-leg oak stairs.

In all, Blo Norton Hall offers 7,900sq ft of living space on three floors, including an entrance hall, five reception rooms, the kitchen/breakfast room, boiler room and

cellar on the ground floor, six first-floor bedrooms and bathrooms, plus a games room and three further bedrooms and bathrooms on the second floor.

Across the county border in Suffolk, Tim Dansie of Jackson-Stops in Ipswich (01473 218218) and George Bramley of Knight Frank’s country department (020–7861 1069) are joint agents in the sale of Woodlands, a substantial early Victorian country house set in 46 acres of gardens, parkland, woods and farmland near the village of Holbrook, six miles from Ipswich, within the Shotley Peninsula Site of Special Scientific Interest and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.

The agents quote a guide price of £2.5m for the impressive country property that is for sale for the first time in its history, having been owned by five generations of the Hunter-Rodwell family since 1845, when

For sale for the first time in its history, Woodlands is an impressive country house nestled in 46 acres near Holbrook in Suffolk. £2.5m

Virginia Woolf wrote,

“when you are set down at the Hall, no sound reaches your ear”

Property market

distinguished banker and MP Benjamin Bridges Hunter-Rodwell, the son of William Rodwell, the Mayor of Ipswich, built Woodlands on the site of a former hunting lodge in this picturesque and quiet corner of Suffolk. The sale follows the death in 2019 of Andrew Hunter-Rodwell, who was the fifth member of his family to own the estate.

Alternatively, the property is being offered in up to three lots, at a guide price of £1.75m for Lot 1, the main house with its gardens, grounds and five acres of parkland, some 12 acres in all. Lot 2, priced at £250,000, comprises three arable fields surrounding the house (some 32 acres in all) that are farmed under a farm agreement secured for three generations. Lot 3, on offer at £500,000, is a range of farm buildings with its own separate driveway and potential for a number of uses, including agricultural, equestrian or residential use, subject to the usual planning requirements.

Benjamin’s son William, who qualified as a barrister in 1875 and was a JP for Suffolk, was a first-class cricketer and a member of the MCC. He served in the Suffolk Yeomanry and married Constance Ruggles-Brise of Spains Hall, now the home of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his family. William’s eldest son, Sir Cecil Hunter-Rodwell, also served

in the Suffolk Yeomanry and went on to pursue a career overseas as a colonial administrator, serving as Governor of Fiji from 1918 to 1984, Governor of British Guiana from 1924 to 1928 and Governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1928 to 1934. Sir Cecil died in 1953, leaving Woodlands to his eldest son, Col Evelyn Hunter-Rodwell, who served in the Second World War before returning to his Suffolk roots, where, over time, he was a JP, a partner in a maltings company and a chicken farmer, as well as serving on no fewer than 22 committees.

Col Hunter-Rodwell left Woodlands to his eldest son, Andrew, who built a house for his growing family on part of the Woodlands estate until his parents moved to nearby Stutton, and he and his family moved to the ‘big house’. His daughter, Miranda Kwiatkowski, recalls an idyllic childhood at Woodlands, where she and her sisters, Camilla and Patricia, ‘without a road in sight, rode ponies and cycled for miles through the glorious surrounding countryside. Otherwise we were climbing trees, making dens or going to the closest beach, Harkstead, a few miles away’.

The focal point of life was the house itself, especially the vast, galleried hall with its wonderful vaulted, plaster-panelled ceiling

and beautiful wide oak staircase. Mrs Kwiatkowski remembers the excitement of seeing a towering Christmas tree being put up in the hall, with ‘red satin ribbon cascading down the stairs, and no sliding down the bannisters allowed at that time’. Another great moment was when her parents discovered marble fireplaces beneath layers of paint in the reception rooms.

Many alterations and improvements took place over the years, both inside the house and outside, where a swimming pool was installed, the original grass tennis court was opened up and the croquet lawn provided hours of entertainment for young and old. Today, Woodlands is again a blank canvas, with more than 9,700sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including a grand reception hall, three main reception rooms, a kitchen/ breakfast room, playroom, office, two bedroom suites, six further bedrooms, two bathrooms and two flats.

Selling agent Mr Dansie is optimistic about the prospects for this house of happy memories at a time when, he maintains, ‘there are still more buyers than sellers at this end of the market and Woodlands is what everyone here is looking for—a classic country house with close connections to London’.

Life at Woodlands revolves around the vast, galleried hall, with its wide oak staircase and magnificent vaulted, plaster-panelled ceiling

Edward or Edwin

The early 20th century saw a golden age of living and architecture

Richmond, TW10, £5 million

Mayleigh House may have Edwardian origins, but, inside, the property is a luxurious and modern family home in the sought-after area of Petersham, close to Richmond Park and the Thames. The property offers seven bedrooms and some 4,000sq ft of living space, and boasts a bespoke Mark Wilkinson kitchen (with Aga), electronic blinds, double-glazed and soundproofed windows, a Savant audio system, Lutron lighting system, EV charging point and a temperaturecontrolled wine store. Such modern luxury is elegantly housed in the Edwardian exterior and is merely a mile away from Richmond town centre. Hamptons (020–3369 4388)

Suffolk, £2.75 million

A classic Edwardian mansion, Cransford Hall sits in some 15 acres of gardens and parkland in the Alde Valley, near Saxmundham. Originally built as a private residence in 1910, the property has also seen use as a care home and boarding house, but has since been remodelled for family use. Excitingly, Cransford Hall and its 15,800sq ft of accommodation are unlisted, meaning that prospective owners can remodel and refurbish with relative ease, making this an attractive purchase for those looking to create their own home without having to actually build it. Inside, the property boasts 12 principal bedrooms across its four floors (all serviced via a lift, if necessary), as well as four impressive reception rooms. Outside, the gardens and grounds are a mixture of formal lawns, mature trees and bountiful borders, as well as pasture and parkland. The grounds also play host to a separate two-bedroom annexe. Jackson Stops (01473 218218)

James Fisher

Dundee, £1 million

In 1927, Dundee architect and businessman George Morton decided that he would build himself a house. The result is Melfort, a substantial family property in Broughty Ferry, designed and built in the Arts-and-Crafts style. Detached, harled and with a slate roof, the property has been ‘thoroughly modernised’ in recent years, but retains a wealth of period features. As well as seven bedrooms and four reception rooms, the house comes with a variety of different styles and spaces for entertaining. The owners recently installed a games room and gym, as well as a brand new kitchen, and a pitch-pine staircase in the heart of the house and wooden flooring throughout preserve the character. One for potential golf enthusiasts, the property is almost perfectly equidistant between the Open Championship-calibre courses of Carnoustie and St Andrews. Savills (01356 628628)

Surrey, £2.75 million

Surrounded and screened by mature trees on almost all sides, Great Oaks on the outskirts of Guildford hides its astonishing beauty from envious onlookers. Described by agents as ‘one of the finest Arts-and-Crafts houses to come to market in Guildford in recent times’, Great Oaks is something of a charmer, both inside and out. Externally, the long sloped roof, mullioned windows and intricate brick chimneys are fine examples of the Arts-and-Crafts style. Built in the 1920s, the property seems to have grown into its setting and the elegance of its threequarters of an acre of gardens is only matched by the interiors, which feature six/seven bedrooms, five reception rooms, a magnificent entrance hall with staircase, exposed beams throughout and a modern kitchen/breakfast room with island. Guildford High Street and its many amenities are only 1½ miles away, making Great Oaks as convenient as it is pretty. Knight Frank (01483 617920)

Worcestershire, £1.25 million

Within the Worcestershire countryside that occupies the gap between the Malvern Hills and the Cotswolds you will find the elegant Pirton Court South in the village of Pirton. Originally constructed in 1904 as an Edwardian addition to the neighbouring Elizabethan courthouse, the property offers five bedrooms and 2¼ acres of grounds, as well as a wealth of period touches. One highlight must surely be the wood-panelled drawing room, with a glorious stone fireplace and exposed timbers. Another would be the garden room, with its two bi-folding doors that lead directly to the terrace and gardens, which are complete with a wildlife pond, a sun terrace, lawns and paddocks. Outbuildings include a garage, stable, studio and workshop.

Fine & Country (01905 678111)