Country Life August 30, 2023 Early Property Pages

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To horse, to horse

School life: animal magic, AI and Molesworth returns

Property market Penny Churchill

Compare and contrast

Above and right: Georgian beauty abounds at Woodhill Park in rural Shropshire. £4.5m

SET in the heart of unspoilt Shropshire countryside, four miles from Oswestry and 22 miles from Shrewsbury, Grade IIlisted Woodhill Park is described by the agents as ‘a glorious Georgian house standing in the privacy of a magnificent park and woodland estate’. For sale for the first time since 1987 at a guide price of £4.5 million, the ringfenced 156-acre estate has remained largely intact since the mellow red-brick house was first built in the early-to-mid 18th century.

Although altered and extended in Victorian times, the house remains true to its origins, having the beautifully balanced, well-lit rooms and fine decorative detail that are the hallmarks of the Georgian era. The estate itself comprises mostly wooded parkland, with a range of cottages and barns suitable for conversion to a variety of uses. According to Historic England, the park was laid out

in 1806–07 and later extended. Woodhill Park, better known as Woodhill, is said to have been built for Richard Jones, whose daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, married Lazarus Venables, scion of a prominent Welsh landowning family, in 1771. Venables greatly extended the house, moving the entrance front to its present position and altering the course of the road southwards away from the house. Their son, Lazarus Jones Venables, made further alterations to the house and acquired more land. In doing so, he appears to have overspent and Woodhill was offered for sale in 1852.

The property was then sold to a member of the Lees family, who were baronets of Blackrock, Dublin. In about 1870, they further extended the house, adding a new billiard room and dining room. In the late 1800s, Woodhill was the seat of George

Two grand country houses–one a Georgian gem, the other built to look like one–highlight our enduring love of 18th-century architecture

Dumville Lees, who was twice master of the Tanatside Harriers and, as ‘Tantara’ George, a well-known writer on hounds. He was killed in the hunting field in November 1906, when his horse tripped on some concealed barbed wire and landed on top of him.

The 20th century saw the removal of many of Woodhill’s Victorian additions. After the Second World War, the Woodhill estate, by then part of the Ormsby-Gore family’s Brogyntyn estate, was transferred to David Ormsby-Gore, later 5th Lord Harlech. He farmed the estates and was MP for Oswestry from 1950 to 1961. As Sir David OrmsbyGore, he served as British Ambassador to the US from 1961 to 1965, during which time he developed a warm friendship with the Kennedy family.

Following the President’s assassination in 1963, he maintained close ties with Kennedy’s widow, Jackie, and her brotherin-law, Robert, both of whom stayed with him at Woodhill. Lord Harlech reputedly proposed marriage in 1968, but she declined, marrying Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, later that year. Woodhill was sold with 93 acres in 1971 and, 16 years later, was again back on the market. Having sold Woodhill to its current owners in 1987, Tony Morris-Eyton of Savills (01952 239500) is now

fronting the campaign for ‘this exceptional small estate, which offers complete privacy in a truly glorious setting’.

The imposing Georgian house is said to be in good decorative order throughout. It offers 11,075sq ft of accommodation, including a spacious reception hall, four main reception rooms, a large kitchen, a study, 12 bedrooms and four bathrooms. Outside, an Edwardian

Art and property have been defining influences in the life of former Christie’s auctioneer and chairman Charles Allsop, 6th Baron Hindlip, and both live in perfect harmony at Lyddon House, King’s Stag, near Sturminster Newton, Dorset. The classic country house that Lord Hindlip created with his late wife, Fiona, is now on the market with Knight Frank in Sherborne (01935 810062), at a guide price of £6.5m.

stable courtyard of two-storey stone stables has lapsed planning consent for conversion to two cottages. Other estate buildings include a two-bedroom lodge, three cottages, a pair of unrestored semi-detached cottages, and a courtyard of farm buildings, including a clear-span modern building that could easily be converted to an indoor riding school.

Lord Hindlip and his wife, a talented interior designer, had an eye for houses that had what 18th-century landscape designer Lancelot Brown called ‘capabilities’—or room for improvement. This led them to buy, renovate and sell a series of London properties before moving to a family home in the country at Inkpen in Berkshire. His daughter, Kirstie, of Location, Location, Location fame, recalls sitting around the breakfast table on a Friday morning as her parents searched the pages of COUNTRY L IFE for suitable properties to buy and restore. ‘They always wanted a house with water, and when, in 1999, Lyddon House came on the market, they jumped at the chance to buy it,’ she reveals.

Built around the footprint of a large, mid-19th-century farmhouse, the elegant, 5,660sq ft main house stands in almost 48 acres of exquisite formal gardens and

Jackie Onassis and Robert Kennedy are among the luminaries to have been entertained in the sumptuous interiors at Woodhill Park

Woodhill Park is an exceptional small estate, which offers complete privacy in a truly glorious setting

Property market

grounds alongside a mill house and mill race, with frontage to the River Lydden, and surrounded by the lush pastures of Dorset’s Blackmore Vale. Previously known as Lydden House, it represents the shared vision of its owners translated into a modern Georgian masterpiece by local builder Martin Fulford. ‘A few walls and one window’, retained for period authenticity, are reputedly all that remains of the original farmhouse.

Lyddon House, which faces south-west, boasts large rooms, high ceilings and tall, wide sash windows that combine to create a wonderful feeling of light and space. The rooms are laid out around a vast, central reception hall, which is overlooked by a threesided galleried landing on the first floor. All three main reception rooms are south facing, with lovely views across the gardens to Lyddon’s own woodland and pasture. The light-filled drawing room is particularly impressive, with French windows opening onto the garden, flanked to either side by tall sash windows.

The magnificent kitchen is ‘to die for’, with windows on three sides overlooking the garden, the mill and mill stream and the parterre garden. Upstairs are four double bedrooms, each of which has its own bathroom and views over the surrounding countryside. Further accommodation is available in

the converted, four-bedroom mill house and two-bedroom flat above the garage. Both Lord and Lady Hindlip shared a passion for gardening and the gardens they have established at Lyddon House over the years provide a magnificent backdrop to one of Dorset’s most delightful country houses.

Above: Elegant Lyddon House at King’s Stag near Sturminster Newton in Dorset. £6.5m. Right: A vast reception hall is overlooked by a three-sided galleried landing

Home is where the horse is

Surrey, £3.25 million

Remodelled, renovated and ‘reinvented’ into a New England-style family home, five-bedroom Heather Farm House sits in a delightful location that backs directly onto Hankley Common with fantastic hacking and walks on the doorstep. With some 20 acres in total, the property would be a more-thanpleasant home for a family with a few horses: the equestrian facilities include a sand school, stable block, 11 boxes, two tack rooms and nine post-andrail paddocks, some of which enjoy direct access onto protected common land. For humans, the setting is deliciously private, with the nearest village of Elstead some 1½ miles away. The main house has been renovated to an excellent standard, with plenty of modern comforts throughout, and features superb of views of the surrounding countryside, especially Thursley Common to the front. A separate cottage offers a further two bedrooms. Strutt & Parker (01252 751709)

James Fisher

It’s hard to tell whether these five properties are more desirable to humans or horses

Shropshire, £1.5 million

Within the rolling countryside of the quiet Corvedale valley, you will find the immaculately presented fivebedroom Ouseley Farm and its almost five acres of land. A home of period charm, packed with exposed beams, extensive cellars, fireplaces and a black-leaded grate range in the formal dining room, the property has been carefully restored by the owners over the past 30 years. In 2009, a glazed extension was added to the kitchen to make the most of the views, as well as creating plenty of space. Outside, together with lawns, beds and an orchard, are two stables, a tack room, paddocks and an outside arena with a silica sand and rubber surface. Savills (01952 239500)

Berkshire, £5.495 million

Among many other things, horses need space and lots of it. That won’t be a problem at unlisted The Croft, near Padworth Common, which offers some 42 acres in all, including a 236ft by 100ft indoor arena, an outdoor arena, 25 acres of paddocks and 22 boxes. Thankfully, the property is as much a haven for humans as it is for horses, with the main house boasting seven bedrooms and some 5,300sq ft of space over its two floors, as well as a further four bedrooms in the detached Croft Cottage. Highlights include a wealth of period features such as exposed beams throughout, as well as a reception room that offers its own bar. Together with the more formal gardens that surround the house, the property also comes with 16 acres of woodland to the north of the house. Strutt & Parker (0118–321 8728)

Kent, £1.95 million

With origins dating back to 1536 and once a former Abergavenny estate cottage, Whippers In Cottage is an enchanting period house in a tranquil and rural setting, just over two miles from Tunbridge Wells. Sitting in about five acres, the gardens and grounds are an outstanding feature of the property and are laid out in separate areas, with sweeping lawns, a stream, a bridge, a pond, decked and paved areas, a rockery and a rose garden. Two separate paddocks would be ideal for keeping horses, being fully fenced and secure, with one paddock having its own field shelter and stable block. The five-bedroom main house has been renovated and extended, introducing contemporary influences yet retaining the character and integrity of the home.

Jackson-Stops (01892 521700)

Worcestershire, £2.5 million

A scion of 1930s Art Deco style, Woodland House on the outskirts of Blakedown is an exceptionally well-presented family home of some 7,100sq ft that will certainly turn heads. The property has been well decorated to complement that 1930s feel and features six bedrooms over its three floors. The ground floor is the entertainment hub, with a wealth of reception rooms and an indoor swimmingpool complex. A highlight must be the glass enclosed ‘summer kitchen’, which features all-round views of the garden, as well as a flue for a fire pit, a cooking area with a barbecue and a pizza oven. Outside, the gardens extend to almost two acres and feature lawned areas that have been tastefully landscaped to include mature borders of evergreen and perennial plants. The property also boasts stables and garaging, and intersecting the house and gardens from the paddock is a bridle track offering excellent outriding. Knight Frank (01905 746885)