Far from the madding crowd

THE sale of the 1,044-acre Stubhampton farming estate at Tarrant Gunville, within the Cranborne Chase AONB on the Dorset/wiltshire border, for which Savills (020–7409 8881) quote a guide price of ‘excess £13m’, offers a rare opportunity to build a brand-new, 15,000sq ft main house on a wonderfully private woodland site (top right) chosen to make the most of far-reaching views across the estate. Alternatively, a guide of £5.75m is quoted for the site at Furzey Down with a range of livestock buildings and 513 acres of arable land, pasture and woodland. The proposed new house (bottom right) has planning consent for three main floors, plus a lower ground floor and a service wing; luxurious accommodation will include large reception rooms, eight bedroom suites, a large kitchen/family room and a spa/gym, cinema and wine store on the lower-ground floor.

Tarrant Gunville is a sleepy backwater in the beautiful Tarrant Valley, to the north of the main Blandford-salisbury road. Stubhampton was originally part of the Tarrant Gunville Manor estate, which was briefly owned by Josiah Wedgwood II, before being restored in the 20th century by Maj Roger Humphreys. The other half of the present Stubhampton estate is Harbins Park Farm, on its western edge, which includes one of the oldest deer parks in the area, first mentioned in 1279; it comes with a traditional five-bedroom farmhouse, a substantial range of farm buildings and 527 acres of farmland.