Country Life Early Property Pages: June 19, 2024

Why we adore Venus

Move over Buckingham Palace: our grandest houses

Jeremy Clarkson’s favourite painting

Old Masters: Chippendale and Coward revisited

Property market

Penny Churchill

Stars in the East

Continuing from last week, further East Anglian properties include a moat beloved by wildlife, a Georgian hunting lodge on the site of a Civil War battlefield and a well-restored manor with a Tudor-hall wedding venue

WITH few important country houses being offered for sale in Suffolk so far this year, Mark Rimell of Strutt & Parker (020–7318 5025) has set the ball rolling with the launch onto the market in last week’s C OUNTRY L IFE of historic Priory Hall, which sits in 21 acres of glorious gardens and grounds on the edge of the ancient market town of Hadleigh, halfway between

the larger towns of Sudbury and Ipswich. He quotes a guide price of £3.5 million for the impressive Tudor-style house, once owned by the Priory Church of Canterbury Cathedral, which is described by Historic England as ‘a large much-restored building with a probable 16th-century origin… the front has a number of gables and upper storeys projecting [with] all timber framing exposed

and all chimney stacks built in 16th-century manner’. Previously known as The Manor, Hadleigh, Priory Hall’s Grade II listing was awarded for the ‘original work’ done by restorers and the building’s ‘general appearance’. Much excellent work has been carried out by the current owners, who bought Priory Hall in 1993 and have spent the past 30-odd years improving the house and gardens.

room for informal gatherings, with doors opening to the gardens. The first floor houses a large principal-bedroom suite, five further bedrooms and five bathrooms, all of which enjoy views over the gardens and the surrounding farmland. The property comes with an array of secondary buildings, including a separate cottage, a pavilion, three double garages, barn, stores and stables.

A few miles south-west of Hadleigh, close to the Suffolk/Essex border, the Ipswich office of Jackson-Stops (01473 218218) is handling the sale, at a guide price of £2.25m, of Grade II-listed Scotland Place, near Stokeby-Nayland. Colchester is eight miles away, which makes it, say agents, ‘much sought after by buyers who find Chelmsford too pricey, whereas for London workers who need to commute more than two or three days a week, Ipswich can be seen to be too far out. Being bang in the middle, Colchester and its environs offer the best of both worlds’.

Off the kitchen are located the dining room with its open fireplace and the double-height drawing room, with a brick fireplace and decorative panelling. The ground-floor line-up is completed by a study with built-in bookshelves, a staircase and inner halls, a sitting room with a wood-burning stove and a utility room, with a door to the terrace and the playroom beyond. Upstairs are principal- and guest-bedroom suites, three further bedrooms and a family bathroom, with an open-tread staircase leading to extensive attic space, which could be converted to further accommodation, subject to planning.

To this end, they have added an impressive swimming pool and leisure facilities, updated kitchen and bathrooms and established a thriving wedding venue centred on the vaulted Tudor grand hall, the well-timbered drawing and dining rooms, and the magnificent gardens. However, with a maximum of 25 weddings a year and no wedding guests housed on site, the hall remains, above all, a wonderful family home.

The main house offers 10,247sq ft of flexible accommodation on two floors. In addition to the three main reception rooms, it provides a comfortable family room, a sitting room with a period fireplace and, leading off the kitchen/breakfast room, a second dining

Described in its listing as ‘a timber-framed and plastered house of 16th/17th-century origin’, Scotland Place was ‘considerably altered in the 18th century’ when a brick cross wing was added to the rear, followed by a later addition to the west. The house was further renovated in the 20th century. It stands in 1¼ acres of mature gardens and grounds bordered to the west by the River Box, with views towards the neighbouring lake and water meadows.

The everyday entrance to the house is a heavy back door, which leads into a large kitchen/breakfast room, fully fitted with modern appliances, an oil-fired Aga and a central island with granite work surfaces.

Across the border in Essex proper, Paddy Pritchard-Gordon of Knight Frank (01279 213343) quotes a guide price of £2.95m for handsome, Grade II-listed Boxted Lodge, which stands in 24 acres of gardens, grounds and paddocks near the village of that name, five miles north of Colchester and 24 miles north-east of the county city of Chelmsford. Boxted is located on the edge of the picturesque Dedham Vale National Landscape and was the site of a series of skirmishes between Royalist and Parliamentary forces in July 1648. Known as ‘the Battle on Boxted Heath’, it ended in a Royalist defeat and the lifting of the siege of Colchester. Today, all is quiet around Boxted Lodge, which stands in a peaceful country setting at the end of a long gravel drive. The secluded, three-storey Georgian house dates from the early 1800s, when it was built as the hunting lodge for Boxted Hall. It was extended in 1792 and again in 1886, and has been owned by the same family since 1978. Described as ‘an elegant and traditional family home, flooded with lots of natural

Handsome Scotland Place near sought-after Stoke-by-Nayland in Suffolk. £2.25m

Historic Priory Hall near Hadleigh in Suffolk is framed by magnificent gardens. £3.5m

Property market

light and set in glorious gardens and grounds’, the striking, 7,570sq ft main house is entered through a central front door, which leads into the reception hall, off which are two bright reception rooms. The south-facing drawing room, which overlooks the garden, retains many original features, including ornate cornicing, sashed bay windows and a large open fireplace. The study/sitting room on the opposite side of the hall has a marble fireplace, with views and proportions similar to those of the drawing room.

Great care has been taken to preserve the original medieval and Tudor character

Also off the entrance hall is the music room, where arches frame the corridor that leads to the dining room at the front of the house, and the kitchen/breakfast room, office and pantry at the rear. A fine staircase rises to an open landing, leading to four large bedrooms, two smaller bedrooms, two dressing rooms and three bathrooms. The two principal bedrooms at the front of the house have large sash windows and balconies overlooking the gardens. There are two further bedrooms on the second floor.

Additional accommodation is provided in the two-bedroom Garden Cottage that forms part of the old stable block and Tower yard, and the two-bedroom Gate Cottage at the head of the drive. A courtyard of period

outbuildings off the main drive houses traditional stables, garaging and stores with potential for conversion or modernisation, subject to the usual consents. In addition to the magnificent gardens, Boxted Lodge’s 24 acres of land include 14 acres of paddocks and meadows, which are well fenced with a ready supply of water.

Across the county in north-east Essex, Bruce King of Cheffins in Saffron Walden (01799 523656) quotes a guide price of £1.675m for the charming, Grade II-listed Byeballs Farm, which sits in 1¾ acres of gardens in the tiny picturesque hamlet

of Tindon End, 20 minutes’ drive from the pretty market town of Saffron Walden. With parts of the impeccably restored, sixbedroom farmhouse dating from the 12th century, Byeballs Farm is said to be one of the oldest privately owned properties in the area. The house was lovingly renovated by the current owners, who bought it more than 20 years ago and took great care to preserve its original medieval and Tudor character.

An ancient panelled front door leads into a vast hall, which dates from the 1500s, from where steps lead, via a study and music room, to a pretty sitting room lined throughout with medieval murals. A corridor on the other side of the hall leads to a snug, a separate study and a dining room, which together form the 12th-century part of the house. The corridor leads on to an impressive vaulted kitchen, which was added by the current owners. Behind an old Tudor door, a sweeping staircase leads to three first-floor bedrooms and two bathrooms, with two further bedrooms up another flight of stairs in what was once the servants’ quarters.

The grounds at Byeballs Farm are no less appealing. Outside the kitchen is a smart swimming pool with a gym and outdoor seating area and, to the side of the pool, what remains of the original moat still attracts wildlife throughout the year. On the other side of the house, the gardens include wooded areas, an orchard and sweeping lawns, with about 1,000 daffodils flowering every spring. A further five acres of land is available by separate negotiation.

Grade II-listed Boxted Lodge is set in 24 acres of grounds at Boxted in Essex. £2.95m

Charming Byeballs Farm in the picturesque hamlet of Tindon End in Essex. £1.675m

Property comment

Edited by Annunciata Elwes

IT’S Friday lunchtime at Babington House in Somerset and among the mini-breakers enviably horizontal beside the pool are locals savvy enough to have bagged a property near enough for a lunch-break dip. Eighty-five miles north-east at Nick Jones’s Oxfordshire outpost, Soho Farmhouse, it’s the same story; members close enough to Great Tew sneak in for a crab linguine in the Hay Barn before dashing back for 2pm calls. The spring research by Knight Frank has shown that houses within a mile of Britain’s top-tier countryside members’ clubs exchange hands in an average of 19.1 weeks, compared with more than 21½ weeks for those six to seven miles away.

‘For every 10 buyers that contact us with a budget of £1 million to £2 million, half mention a desire to be in close proximity to one of the country clubs, either Soho Farmhouse or Daylesford and, now, Estelle Manor [ pictured, which opened last year],’ says Knight Frank’s Damian Gray, a regional partner in the Oxford office. ‘Ten years ago, the normal calls were with criteria to be near a certain school or station. We still get those calls, but they’re also likely to mention one of the clubs—it’s become as important as the commute.’ Those hankering after a property in the heart of country clubland tend to be moving from London in their forties or fifties, says Mr Gray, and members’ clubs ‘offer a little bit of what they’ve had before. They’re smart, exclusive and a hub for work and socialising’.

Buyers are likely to mention one of the members’ clubs–it’s become as important as the commute

Ten countryside members’ clubs were analysed in the study—Phyllis Court, Soho Farmhouse and Estelle Manor in Oxfordshire; Wentworth Club, Foxhills and Beaverbrook in Surrey; Linden Hall in Northumberland; Babington House in Somerset; 10 Castle Street in Dorset and South Lodge in West Sussex—with the duration between listing and exchange for properties near to each of them calculated in comparison with those further away and the results averaged. However, anecdotally, it is the new golden triangle from Soho Farmhouse across to Daylesford and down to Estelle Manor, as well as the enduring lure of Babington House and The Newt in Somerset, where the appeal of the clubs is most stark.

Very clubbable

Houses close to countryside members’ clubs are quickly snapped up, finds Madeleine Silver, particularly in the new ‘golden triangle’ between Soho Farmhouse, Daylesford and Estelle Manor

Oxfordshire, £2.75 million

Just over a 15-minute drive (eight miles) from Soho Farmhouse, Grade II-listed Manor Farmhouse is in the popular village of Bloxham, with five bedrooms, a home office and gym and outdoor swimming pool. Refurbished by the current owners, period features abound with open fireplaces, sash windows and flagstone floors. Savills (01295 228000)

Somerset, £1.25 million

An oasis tucked away in the centre of Bruton, just over three miles from The Newt, The Courtyard has been recently restored to offer four/five bedrooms, with a south-facing garden, private terrace and off-street parking. In the standout open-plan kitchen and dining room is an island made from reclaimed doors, bespoke units and a parquet floor.

Lodestone (01749 605099)

Buyers are not always overt about this draw, says Savills’s high-value country house specialist Crispin Holborow. ‘They don’t want to be seen as a slave to a particular club, but part of our job is to tease that sort of thing out of them. Once you’ve talked about schools and other attractions to the area, they might then mention they want to be near Soho Farmhouse.’

The clubs are in the best areas of the country, so you’re paying a premium already

However, for Sue Macey, a managing partner at Lodestone, which has offices in Bruton and Wells, the longstanding Babington House (Mr Jones’s first country retreat, opened in 1998) and the more recent The Newt (brainchild of South African hoteliers Koos Bekker and Karen Roos, which opened in 2019) are bonuses for buyers, rather than drivers. ‘Most of our clients are moving down for lifestyle reasons; for the schools, for commuting now we don’t have to do it five days a week [trains from Castle Cary run to London Paddington in 1hr 40mins —see part three of our ‘The new commute’ property series in the July 24 issue ] and for proximity to Bath and Bristol,’ says Mrs Macey. ‘Yes, we’re very lucky to have Babington and The Newt, but if they weren’t here, I don’t think it would stop anybody from moving down.’

Mr Gray estimates that buyers can expect to pay an extra 10%–15% to be within easy reach of the best clubs, yet the hike can’t always be directly attributed to them. ‘The clubs are in some of the best areas of the country anyway, so you’re paying a premium already,’ he explains. But the houses in their wake certainly don’t stick around for long—each club serving as a tempting beacon of sophistication for buyers taking a plunge into country life.

Oxfordshire, £2.8 million

Less than two miles from Estelle Manor, The Malt House is a Grade IIlisted manor farmhouse on a no-through lane set in 1¾ acres. It has five/ six bedrooms, a large, vaulted kitchen, games room, outdoor swimming pool and outbuildings. Long Hanborough’s mainline station to London Paddington (65 minutes) is 1½ miles away. Knight Frank (01865 790077)