EVERY WEEK
APRIL 27, 2022
Munnings: the artist for all seasons
Knowing Norfolk: a novelist’s county secrets Wonky walls: life inside the little crooked house On the wings of a dove: the bird back from the brink
Country Life International
La belle France
For the best in French life, there’s nothing like a home in the country’s beautiful south-western region Gers, €3.71 million (about £3.1m) Built at the turn of the 19th century, this château near Auch has it all: graceful architecture, views so long that they reach as far as the Pyrenees and a delightful setting in more than 59 acres of formal gardens, woodland and paddocks. The interior matches the elegance of the façade, with marble fireplaces, coffered ceilings, striking parquet flooring and tiling, and a head-turning staircase with carved balustrade. There are eight bedrooms—the master suite, with its fitted dressing room is especially impressive—plus a fully insulated attic that’s ripe for development. Ancillary buildings harbour a gîte and a wellness complex, complete with swimming pool, spa bath and sauna. Christie’s International Real Estate (00 33 689 010 520; www.christiesrealestate.com)
Gironde, €5.775 million (about £4.8m) The ideal home for a winemaker, this château in Blaye stands in more than 160 acres of grounds, of which about 123 are taken up by vineyards, with facilities already in place to make Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux wine. Matching the beauty of the grounds is the 6,243sq ft interior, with its spectacular staircase, vaulted dining room and tower bedrooms. The château also comes with a swimming pool, stables and a caretaker’s house. Leggett Prestige (0870 011 5151; www.leggettprestige.com)
Lot-et-Garonne, €1.89 million (about £1.58m) The Château du Fréchou soars above the Gascon countryside in Nerac, taking in long views to the Pyrenees from its towers. Originally dating from 1280, with 16th-century additions, it has preserved many magnificent features, including a stone staircase, open fireplaces and a library in the north-eastern tower. Despite its grandeur, it has a manageable size, with five bedrooms and about 6,400sq ft of living space. Outside is a range of outbuildings, including a pigeonnier and an orangery, plus formal gardens, a walnut orchard and grounds for a total of just under 17½ acres. Knight Frank (020–7861 1139; www.knightfrank.com)
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Country Life International Dordogne, €2.6 million (about £2.173m) French charm infuses every corner of this traditional Perigourdian manor house in Le Bugue, which originally dates from the 12th century. There are exposed beams and ancient stone floors, massive fireplaces and stone walls—plus additional accommodation in the form of two cottages, a pigeonnier and two barns. The grounds are, if possible, even more beautiful: patiently nurtured over the course of 30 years, they feature a pavilion with fishing fountains and ornamental pond, landscaped gardens with exquisitely trimmed topiary, plus two heated saltwater swimming pools, a tennis court, vegetable and herb gardens and an orchard. Christie’s International Real Estate (00 33 674 272 686; www.christiesrealestate.com) Lot, €1.7745 million (about £1.477m) For a golf course to call your own, head to this charming house in Cahors. Built of Quercy stone and brightened by pretty blue shutters, it not only has a panoramic tower, a pool and a lake but also a nine-hole course, all set in about 38¼ acres of part-forested grounds. Large fireplaces, exposed stone walls and ancient timbers give a special atmosphere to the living space, which is split between a fourbedroom main house, a guest house and a pigeonnier. There’s also a large renovated barn and a pétanque court. Home Hunts (020–8144 5501; www.home-hunts.com) Dordogne, €1.26 million (about £1.05m) Only 15 minutes from Bergerac’s airport, this property is not merely beautiful, but also versatile. The climberclad house has eight bedrooms and self-contained ground-floor apartment, then there’s a delightful two-bedroom pigeonnier and additional accommodation that can be let out in its entirety or as a chambre d’hôte. The lush 5¼-acre grounds include a lake, a heated swimming pool and an allweather tennis court. Savills Beaux Villages Immobilier (00 33 556 713 659; www.savills.com) and Home Hunts (020–8144 5501; www. home-hunts.com)
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Property market
Penny Churchill
The best of the East Four newly launched properties make East Anglia ever more alluring
T
HE persistent shortage of new country houses for sale in the Eastern counties was alleviated to some extent by the launch onto the market over Easter of an interesting mix of fine country properties in Norfolk and Suffolk, at prices ranging from £1.5 million to £3.75m. Ben Rivett of Savills in Norwich (01603 229229) is handling the sale of the exquisite Elizabethan The Old Hall, which stands in 16 acres of magical gardens, paddocks and woodland on the edge of the picturesque conservation village of Saxlingham Nethergate, eight miles south of Norwich and 14 miles from Diss. He quotes a guide price of £2.75m for the Grade II*-listed former manor house, which dates from the early 1600s, with later additions. It was reputedly given to Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII, as part of an amicable divorce settlement. 90 | Country Life | April 27, 2022
Set against a backdrop of mature trees and hedges, the house stands on high ground overlooking the 14th-century church of St Mary and concealed by trees from the early 18th-century Old Rectory designed by Sir John
The village is probably best known as the location of the Hoxne Hoard Soane. Built on a classic E-plan, with a northern service wing and a 20th-century extension to the rear, The Old Hall has been beautifully restored and remains largely unchanged in plan from its original construction. The main house offers 7,618sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including the
wonderfully atmospheric Great Hall, with its 17th-century, oak-inlaid chimneypiece and panelled Queen Anne room, four reception rooms, large kitchen and breakfast room complete with servants’ bells, principal bedroom suite with dressing, bath and shower rooms, eight further bedrooms and three bathrooms. The grounds include a Spanish garden based on the Alhambra’s Generalife, a heated swimming pool and a hard tennis court, with an inner courtyard leading to the thatched poolside pavilion, an informal garden room ideal for pool-side entertaining. A range of period outbuildings could be connected to the main house to create a leisure complex, linking the house, pool and pavilion, and a traditional barn could be converted to a variety of uses, subject to the usual planning consents. Across the county border in Suffolk, where downsizers are leading the charge in the
Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk
Left and above: The Old Vicarage, Suffolk, dates from the 15th century. £1.5m. Below: Grade II*-listed The Old Hall, Norfolk, was reputedly a gift to Anne of Cleves. £2.75m
country-house market, Peter Ogilvie of Savills in Ipswich (01473 234800) is handling the sale, at a guide price of £1.5m, of Grade II-listed The Old Vicarage, which stands west of the medieval church of St Peter and St Paul in the delightful village of Hoxne, five miles southeast of Diss and half a mile south of the River Waveney. For antiquaries, the village is probably best known as the location of The Hoxne Hoard, the largest collection of late-Roman gold and silver ever found in Britain: uncovered in 1992, it is now on display in the British Museum. Originally built in about 1470 and home to the vicars of Hoxne for more than 500 years, the former vicarage was bought from the Church by its present owners, who have restored it and excavated its historic moat, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument in its own right. Set in 3¼ acres of moated grounds with views to the rear over the April 27, 2022 | Country Life | 91
Property market
Built in 1807, Melton Hall, Suffolk, is Grade II-listed and set in 7½ acres of parkland. £3m
Waveney Valley, the house offers 4,783sq ft of unexpectedly light and bright accommodation for a building of its age, including four reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, six bedrooms and four bathrooms. George Bramley of Knight Frank’s country department (020 7861 1069) quotes a guide price of £3.75m for 116-acre Newton Hall Farm, which sits tucked away next to the church on the edge of Newton village, just over three miles from Sudbury and 12 miles from Colchester—a 45-minute train ride from London-Liverpool Street station. Alternatively, the farm is being offered in up to five lots, with lot one—Grade II-listed Newton Hall, its two-bedroom annexe and converted outbuildings set in almost four acres of gardens and grounds—priced at £1.7m. The charming five-bedroom farmhouse has been lived in by the present owner’s family for more than 120 years. As the third generation to have occupied it, they have extensively renovated and refurbished it, as well as preserving many of its original features. Its Historic England listing describes the hall as ‘a timber-framed and plastered house with mainly 17th-century and 18thor early 19th-century external features, but incorporating a 16th-century timber frame’. The accommodation includes a reception hall, four reception rooms, five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Beyond the house and reached by a separate gateway is a complex of large farm buildings, including one currently used as a livery yard, with stabling for 15 horses, access to an outdoor school and a three-acre paddock. The rest of the farm is a pleasant mix of arable, pasture and woodland. 92 | Country Life | April 27, 2022
Over in east Suffolk, Jonathan Penn of Jackson-Stops in Ipswich (01473-218218) quotes a guide price of £3m for elegant, Grade II-listed Melton Hall at Melton, a small village on the north bank of the River Deben, a mile north-east of the popular market town of Woodbridge, at the edge of the Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB. One of Melton’s grander houses, built of Suffolk white brick under a shallow-pitched slate roof and set in 7½ acres of parkland to the north of the village, the present house was erected by John Wood the Elder in 1807, to replace an earlier, 16th-century one destroyed by fire. According to a history of Melton Hall compiled by the current vendors, Colin and Cindy de la Rue, the Wood family lived at Melton
Hall for 400 years, from the time that Richard Wood, youngest son of the Earl of Halifax, moved to Suffolk and built the first hall, until 1936, when the 92-acre Melton Hall estate, comprising a ‘fine Georgian Residence, 12 bed and dressing rooms, two bathrooms and… 88 acres of valuable building land’ was offered for sale by John D. Wood & Co. The house was bought with 17 acres by retired Indian Army colonel Monty Wace and his wife, Maude, with the rest of the estate broken up and sold, mainly for development. In 1958, Melton Hall, little altered since it was built, was acquired by Paul Dixon, a successful young architect, who modernised the house, fitting new heating and plumbing, converting the coach house to garages with a two-bedroom flat above, and installing the glasscovered swimming pool. The Dixons were succeeded by Welsh-born Judge Bertrand Richards, who was posted to Suffolk as Recorder of Ipswich Crown Court in 1971 and bought Melton Hall the following year. In 1995, five years before he died, Judge Richards sold the hall to the incumbents, whose cherished family home it has been ever since. Melton Hall combines a convenient and accessible village location with a countryhouse outlook, all within walking distance of Woodbridge. It offers 7,767sq ft of wellproportioned and well-organised accommodation, including central reception and inner halls, four reception rooms, a kitchen and breakfast room, nine bedrooms and four bath- or shower rooms and a second-floor games rooms and studio, plus service rooms and cellars. Lovely gardens include a magnificent walled rose garden, a kitchen garden, woodland and meadow, together with a tennis court and swimming pool.
Newton Hall Farm, Suffolk, has a variety of outbuildings and 116 acres of land. £3.75m
Properties of the week
Annunciata Elwes
Treasures of the East From timbered cottages to a miniature estate, East Anglia boasts a crop of delightful properties for sale
Suffolk, £5.5 million Views of open countryside rival those of the local church at The Old Rectory, a beautiful Grade II-listed house in Lavenham. Originally dating from 1720, it has been painstakingly renovated by the current owners and retains many Georgian features, from fine fireplaces to original shutters and a barrelled ceiling in the wine cellar. There are eight bedrooms, a newly built conservatory and an indoor pool, plus additional accommodation in the form of a three-bedroom coach house and a one-bedroom apartment. Outside, the grounds span three acres of landscaped gardens with ornamental pond, terraces, an orchard, mature woodland and walled vegetable garden. Savills (01473 234831) Cambridgeshire, £695,000 Whitewashed under a thatched roof, this Grade II-listed cottage in Upwood looks straight out of a chocolate box and has an interior to match, with delightful period details, such as the inglenook fireplace in the part-vaulted sitting room and the exposed beams across many rooms, all combined with a strikingly contemporary open-plan kitchen, breakfast and living area, the French doors from which open onto a garden terrace. Upstairs are three bedrooms, including a large master suite. The gardens, which are mainly laid to lawn, house a pond and a barn with garage, workshop and studio. Peter Lane & Partners (01480 414800)
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9000
Suffolk, £1 million A cheerful burst of colour welcomes visitors to Mill Farm, a Grade II-listed, timber-frame Suffolk farmhouse in Stanstead, near Long Melford. With 2,072sq ft of living space, the house is full of original details, from the large inglenook fireplace in the open-plan kitchen and dining area to the exposed beams throughout—in the master bedroom, the timbers even have historical artwork painted onto the oak. There are five to six bedrooms altogether, many of which enjoy fine views of the surrounding countryside. The grounds, which extend to about an acre and include a vineyard, border the River Glem at the back. Carter Jonas (01787 844561) Suffolk, £2.55 million A beautiful Georgian house meets spectacular views across the Brett Valley at Sulleys Manor, a seven-bedroom house in Lower Raydon. The 6,811sq ft of living space features open fireplaces in the sitting room, dining room and drawing room, a four-oven Aga in the kitchen and a fully-fitted dressing room and bathroom with spa bath interconnected with the master bedroom (one of seven). The grounds are spectacular, with formal gardens, a large pond, a picture-perfect party barn, seven stables, a tennis court and a heated swimming pool that’s the ideal vantage point to soak up the panorama. A cottage with outbuildings is also available separately, for £550,000. Jackson-Stops (01473 218218) Cambridgeshire, £3.5 million It’s hard to tell what’s best about Grade II-listed Abington Lodge, in Great Abington —whether the idyllic setting in a little more than 12 acres of parkland and paddocks coursed by the River Granta, the 8,600sq ft interior with magnificent spiral staircase and floor-to-ceiling sash windows or the intriguing history: the house was once a hunting lodge for Richard, Earl of Grosvenor, whose wife scandalised Georgian Britain for her relationship with the Duke of Cumberland. Abington Lodge, which has eight bedrooms in the main building, also comes with a two-bedroom coach house, two self-contained apartments, a striking indoor pool and a stable block. Cheffins (01223 214214) April 27, 2022 | Country Life | 95