Country Life early property pages 21st June 2023

Heaven in Hampshire

A 200-acre estate steeped in history and a prime angling opportunity light up the property market this week

LAST week saw the launch onto the market of the pristine, 206-acre Woodcote Manor estate with its handsome, Grade II*-listed manor house, set in a private wooded valley overlooking its own historic park, farmland and the surrounding South Downs National Park, half a mile east of the village of Bramdean, five miles from the Georgian market town of Alresford and 10 miles from Winchester. The sale is being handled by Geoff Jones of Savills in Winchester (07870 387700) and Crispin Holborow of the Savills country department (07967 555511), who quote a guide price of £15 million for the impeccably restored estate as a whole.

The manor of Woodcote dates from the late 12th century, although the remains of a Roman villa in the grounds suggest that this was already a place of importance in ancient times. According to the Victoria County History (1908), the manor was acquired by the Venables family between 1663 and 1667 and remained with them until the death of Catharine Venables in 1789, when it descended to her kinsman, Edward Hooper of Hurn Court, a former MP for Christchurch, who only visited it occasionally and left it on his death to the Earl of Malmesbury. In 1809, the Earl sold Woodcote to a speculator called Lipscombe, who, when Mr Greenwood

of Brockwood was deliberating on the purchase, bought the place and felled the timber. Greenwood, however, apparently ‘repented of his mistake and eventually bought the manor without the timber at the price he had demurred to give for the estate, which remained in the Greenwood family until September 29, 1900, when Mr Ulick Burke, the then lord of the manor, purchased it’.

According to Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows, Woodcote Manor was the home of Sir Francis Seymour Haden, an eminent former surgeon and a notable painter of etchings, from his retirement in 1887 until his death in 1910. A few years before he died, he sold Woodcote Manor

to his friend and fellow artist, the American illustrator, Edwin Abbey, who died in August 1911, leaving the house to his widow, who sold Woodcote Manor to the Bowes-Lyon family during the First World War.

The Bowes-Lyons were succeeded at Woodcote by the Knatchbull family and then by the Tudor-Owens family, who sold it in 1958 to the Mortons, who lived at the manor and farmed the surrounding land. The present owner, Richard Peers, bought Woodcote Manor with some 100 acres of gardens and parkland from the Mortons in 2003, and doubled his acreage four years ago with the purchase of a further 100 acres of adjoining farmland.

As have many historic country houses, Woodcote Manor has evolved over the years from a 17th-century Jacobean house built around a 15th-century hall house, the exposed timbers of which can be seen in the kitchen and family room. The Queen Anne-style south front was added in 1911 by the eminent architect Sir Reginald Blomfield, who made other important additions to the house, including the impressive reception hall with

its grand proportions, oak panelling and decorative ceiling. He also designed the charming, three-bedroom Gardeners Cottage, listed Grade II, which stands in a private location to the south of the manor, with separate road access, and is currently let on an assured shorthold tenancy.

During their 20-year tenure, Mr and Mrs Peers have completely rejuvenated the 14,133sq ft manor house, re-roofing and re-plumbing throughout, upgrading electrical and heating systems and reconfiguring the interior to create a better flow of rooms for comfortable family living. Having started out with a rambling country house with 13 bedrooms and one bathroom, they now have a supremely elegant country home, which boasts six fine reception rooms, a splendid master suite, five en-suite guest bedrooms, three family bedrooms and bathrooms and two staff flats.

Outside, exquisite mature gardens, partially laid out by Gertrude Jekyll in the 1920s, envelop the property, and include an 18th-century walled garden created by William Greenwood in 1817. The present owners have created a second estate entrance and added a proper Victorian glasshouse, where Mrs Peers has reared a variety of exotic plants and trees, including an avocado tree grown from the stone of a fruit bought at Tesco. Extensive outbuildings include a substantial coachhouse, a former water tower, a squash court and a stable block, all of which have planning consent for conversion to residential use.

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales (1870) describes the parish of Bramdean

as ‘a resort of sportsmen’ and the land at Woodcote Manor, currently farmed under a farm business tenancy that expires in 2025, lends itself well to equestrian and country sports and, in the past, has been the setting for a small family shoot.

The chalkstreams of Hampshire are renowned for the quality of their trout fishing and fishermen from around the world will be galvanised by the chance to acquire idyllic, Grade II-listed Bransbury Mill in the hamlet of Bransbury, near Barton Stacey, halfway between Winchester and Andover, which comes with 1¼ miles of double-bank trout fishing on the River Dever, one of the main tributaries of the iconic River Test.

George Clarendon of Knight Frank in Winchester (01962 677234) is handling the sale, at a guide price of £5.95m, of the substantial, red-brick former grain mill first mentioned in Domesday, the earliest part of which dates from the 18th century. The house was extended in the 1900s to create a charming, five-bedroom family home set in more than 22 acres of gardens, orchard

Outside, exquisite mature gardens, partially laid out by Gertrude Jekyll in the 1920s, envelop Woodcote Manor

Property market

and water meadows, with further accommodation available in the nearby four-bedroom Stable Cottage.

Mark Merison of Merison Sporting in Devizes (07720 078253), which has access to some of the finest salmon and trout fishing in the UK, is overseeing the sale of his late parents’ house, where he has been closely involved with the fishing operation run for the past 31 years by river-keeper Chris de Cani, a local legend. The Bransbury beat enjoys a substantial stock of wild brown trout with no restocking needed, thanks to judicious and sensible over-winter feeding. There is also a small pond with four hides for flighting duck, predominantly mallard, but also gadwall and teal.

The adjoining meadows have been sympathetically managed to maximise biodiversity and are a riot of colour from native wildflowers from spring through to autumn. More than 40 different species of tree provide spectacular colour in both the woodland and meadows, which are a haven for a rich variety of wildlife.

Enthusiastic sailors will be whizzing down the motorways to Lymington in Hampshire, where Toby Turnage of Knight Frank (01590 630591) and Lindsay Cuthill of Blue Book (07967 555545) quote a guide price of £8m for the beautifully restored St Leonard’s Grange, which stands in almost 11 acres of immaculate gardens and grounds on the banks of the Beaulieu River, 3¾ miles southeast of Beaulieu.

Above: Historic St Leonard’s Grange stands in 11 acres of immaculate gardens and grounds near Beaulieu in Hampshire.

£8m. Right: An impressive backdrop to the property is formed by the Grade I-listed ruin of a 13thcentury chapel

The Grange was historically part of a network of outlying farms created to help support the monks of the Cistercian Beaulieu Abbey, founded by King John in 1204 and demolished by Henry VIII’s men at the Dissolution in 1537. All that can now be seen of the original St Leonard’s Grange is the romantic, Grade I-listed ruin of the 13th-century chapel that forms an impressive backdrop to the Grade II-listed main house, which dates from about 1700 and incorporates the remains of the medieval grange and its 16th-century successor, which was remodelled in the 19th century. The house was built during the

reconstruction of 1900 of part ashlar stone and mellow red brick from the kilns in Beaulieu, with all the windows at the front having a sunny morning aspect with delightful views looking down to the Beaulieu River, where the current owners can see their yacht on her mooring. The house is a superbly comfortable family home, offering more than 6,000sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including five good reception rooms, a splendid family kitchen with exposed timbers (probably brought up from the Beaulieu shipyards), a spacious master suite, five further bedrooms and five bathrooms.

The price of buying in a conservation area, such as Bath, continues to rise

Paying a premium

THE premium for living among England’s architectural conservation areas has risen in the past three years, with buyers now expecting to pay 31% more than average to live in one, the latest research from Savills has revealed.

Defined as places ‘of special architectural or historic interest as deserving of careful management to protect their character’, conservation areas make up 2.2% of England, encompassing about 10,000 properties. Savills’s analysis has shown that properties in these areas are worth about £400,000 on average, compared with an average price of £305,730 in non-conservation areas. Perhaps unsurprisingly, London has the largest premium for its conservation areas, with Savills concluding that you are likely to pay 48% more to live in one. This is more than twice that of the second-placed region, the North-East, where the supplement stands at 20.3%.

When analysing the data at a more local level, the differences are even greater, with the local authority of Trafford in Manchester seeing a whopping 152.9% extra for living in a conservation area when compared with a nonconservation area. The key areas for Trafford are Altrincham, Hale and Bowden, with Altrincham having recently topped the list for ‘best places to live’ in the UK and Bowden being dubbed ‘Manchester’s millionaire village’. Another example would be Bath and its environs, which has 35 conservation areas and sees a local conservation premium of 47.5%.

Art Deco delight

REGARDED as one of the finest examples of Art Deco design in Europe, Devon’s Burgh Island Hotel (above) recently hit the market with Knight Frank at a guide price of £15 million. As well as inspiring two Agatha Christie novels, Evil Under the Sun and And Then There Were None, the property is rumoured to have hosted a meeting between Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower before D-Day and even played host to Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor and The Beatles. Accessible by foot or car at low tide, or by a unique sea tractor at high tide (as seen in the ITV adaptation of Evil Under the Sun, starring David Suchet, which was filmed at the island), the property features 25 rooms, spa facilities, helipad and tennis court. Originally built in 1929, the property was restored in the 1990s.

‘It is rare for a hotel of such character and heritage to come to the open market,’ says Knight Frank’s Matthew Smith, partner in the hotel agency team. ‘Burgh Island Hotel is a spectacular example of Art Deco architecture, it’s steeped in amazing history and provides guests with a sophisticated and distinctive experience. In recent years, the buildings have received considerable investment. It operates as a thriving business that generated in excess of £6 million turnover in its most recent financial year.’

We throw around the term ‘chocolate-box cottage’ a lot in the pages of this magazine, but here is a chance to own one of the original 12 Cadbury’s Chocolate Box Cottages that were featured by the confectioners in the late 19th century. Weavers, situated in Stradishall, Suffolk, is listed Grade II and lives up to the moniker, featuring a thatched roof, established front garden, timber frame and four bedrooms. £799,950 with Jackson-Stops (01638 662231)

Now solar panels are hot property

SOLAR panels have gone from ‘eyesore’ to adding kerb appeal, according to sustainable-energy website The Eco Experts, with new data suggesting that 69% of UK adults would like to purchase a home with solar panels installed. Unsurprisingly, millennials and Gen Z are the most enthusiastic, with 74% of respondents in those groups saying that they would be likely or very likely to buy a property with solar panels fitted. It makes sense from a financial point of view, too, it adds, with data suggesting a ‘solar-panel premium’ could increase the value of your home by 4.1%.

With energy prices having soared over the past year, homes that produce their own sustainable energy have become increasingly sought after, as they can save households £608 a year on average on their energy bills.

‘It’s magnificent to see solar panels swing from neighbourhood eyesore to desirable,’ says The Eco Experts editor Charlie Clissitt. ‘The energy crisis has had a big part to play in this, but solar panels have also come a long way aesthetically—most solar panels are sleek, black and modern looking. We regularly speak to consumers who have bought a property specifically because it has solar panels.’

Grounds for optimism

IDOUBT I am the only person who has found themselves thinking, when walking home from a football, rugby or cricket match: ‘Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to live next to the stadium?’ As the milelong queue at Twickenham station or Wembley Park confronts you, that urge can become almost overwhelming—plus, think of the money you could make by renting out your car-parking space.

Well, according to research by www.betting. com, although living close to a Premier League ground might be convenient, it could also have a negative effect on the price of your home. Those keen for an easy walk home from Liverpool’s Anfield or Everton’s Goodison Park, for example, might be shocked to find out that, on average, properties close to those grounds are worth more than £100,000 less than those in the surrounding city. Although they recently concluded a historic treble, Manchester City fans wishing to live close to the Etihad Stadium will have to accept that their home will be worth 44% less on average than those elsewhere in Manchester. Of course, a lot depends on which stadium you live next to. Living near Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge in London, for example, is a wise move, with

property prices 11% higher on average than the rest of London. Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in north London will also add some value to your home, as well as Nottingham Forest’s City Ground and the Brentford Community Stadium in west London. But it’s not only Premier League teams that can influence local house prices. Many football fans will have been following the success of Wrexham, which finally won promotion back into the Football League this year under the stewardship of Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. It seems that the Welsh club’s rise through the football pyramid is also providing a boost for property in the area, with research by estateagent comparison website GetAgent showing an 89% increase in searches for ‘properties in Wrexham’ compared with last year. Indeed, Mr Reynolds himself has recently bought a property in the neighbouring village of Marford.

‘Cultural events have an undeniable impact on us and how we live our lives, so it’s been really interesting to see exactly how big an effect Wrexham’s recent sporting win has had on the desirability of the town, for buyers and tourists alike,’ says Colby Short, CEO and co-founder of GetAgent.

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts begins today and will see some 200,000 people descend on the small Somerset village to watch hundreds of bands perform across four days. For those who might be keen to attend next year, but want to miss out on the horrors of camping, then perhaps Abbotts Sharpham, with its 270 acres, might be worth looking at. On the market with agents Carter Jonas Rural at a price of £8 million, the estate is the current home of Mulberry founder Roger Saul, dates from the Bronze Age and features a 15th-century manor house, cottages, a deer park, orchards, an organic farm and a mill.

With Carter Jonas (01823 428590)