Rivers of gold
Sea-trout, chalk-stream and wild, a collection of dream fishing estates has come to the market, including one that was home to the Bank of England during the Second World War
WHETHER you’re an expert fisherman keen to hone your nightfishing skills on one of the UK’S finest rivers or a casual angler who just wants to relax on a riverbank at the end of a hard day’s work, four recently launched country estates appear to cover all the options. And you won’t have to drive through the night to get to any of them.
On the contrary, you’ll be well met by moonlight at Sir Edward Dashwood’s idyllic, 659-acre Golden Grove estate, near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, which not only boasts the finest sea-trout fishery in Britain, if not in Europe, but also the sporting rights over 3,366 acres of its own and neighbouring land. For sale through joint agents Knight Frank (020–7861 1069) and Pembroke-based Owen & Owen (01646 621500), at a guide price of £5 million for the whole, the estate includes some 10½ miles of sea-trout fishing on the River Towy, where the traditional method is with a fly at night.
The Golden Grove estate was established in the 16th century by the Vaughans, one of Carmarthenshire’s most illustrious families, before passing to the Cawdor family in 1804. For many years, Golden Grove was one of the two most important estates in west Wales, before the greater part of it was sold off in the 1970s, although the fishery and most of the sportings remained intact. Aptly named for its beauty, the estate offers some of the best and most picturesque fishing to be found in the British Isles, says Knight Frank’s Atty Beor-roberts.
Handily located a mere 12 miles beyond the end of the M4 and little more than a threehour drive from the City with a following wind, the estate is overlooked by the impressive ruins of Dryslwyn Castle, which probably dates from the 1220s and was owned by the Princes of Deheubarth before falling to the English Crown in 1287. It is currently leased and maintained by CADW; another estate landmark, Dinefwr Castle, once the seat of the Lords Dinefwr, a prominent Welsh landowning family, is now owned by the National Trust.
‘There’s been nothing like this on the market since it was last sold in 2008’, says Alex Lawson of Savills (020–7409 8882) of Hampshire’s glorious, 177-acre Longparish estate on the banks of the legendary River Test, Britain’s most famous chalk stream, in the North Wessex Downs AONB. He quotes a guide price of ‘in excess of £15 million’ for the historic estate with its elegant, Grade Ii*-listed main house, five miles from Andover, four miles from Whitchurch and an hour by rail from London Waterloo.
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Longparish House, which, according to its listing, dates from the ‘late 17th or early 18th century, with alterations and additions of the late 19th century’, was owned by the Hawker family, whose best known member was Col Peter Hawker, born in 1786, who served under Wellington in the Peninsular War. His book Advice to Young Sportsmen, first published in 1814, is still the traditional bible of young people taking up shooting or fishing.
In 1919, Maj-gen Guy Payan Dawnay bought Longparish House, the sporting estate and the farms that went with it. The estate remained with the Dawnay family until 1989, except during the Second World War, when Longparish House was occupied by the Bank of England. Built in the style of a French châ
teau, the house has accommodation on three floors, including four fine reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, five bedroom suites, four further bedrooms and a family bathroom. Although well maintained and structurally sound, it could do with ‘some cosmetic refurbishment’, the agents suggest.
The sparkling River Test, which runs through the gardens and grounds, provides a wonderfully serene setting and some of the best chalk-stream fishing in the world, with 644m (2,113ft) of single bank and 2,067m (6,782ft) of double bank on the main stream of the Test, accessible directly from the lawn or the well-tended paths and bridges. Much improved sport in recent years can be attributed to the present owner’s ‘purist’ approach to estate and river management, which has seen the sporting environment transformed into something much more akin to wild fishing, Mr Lawson concludes.
Across the county border in Wiltshire, Mr Lawson is also handling the sale of the delightful, 237-acre Chicksgrove Manor Farm, 12 miles west of Salisbury and two miles from Tisbury station—an hour and 48 minutes by rail from London Waterloo. Savills quote a guide price of £4.5 million for this enchanting, small estate in the Cranborne Chase AONB, the focal point of which is a charming, four-bedroom stone manor house, listed Grade II*. The 3,975sq ft house faces south over its formal gardens, water meadows and the River Nadder,
‘There’s been nothing like this on the market since it was sold in 2008
‘The manor is thought to have been built in Henry VIII’S time
a chalk stream much prized by fly fishermen, the rights to 1,090m (3,576ft) of which are included in the sale.
The manor is thought to have been built in Henry VIII’S time by John Davies, of the Earl of Pembroke’s household, whose grandson, Sir John Davies, was a lawyer and adviser to Elizabeth I. The present owners bought the property in 1988 and extensively restored the main house, in the course of which they acquired the surrounding farm and the Grade Ii-listed, four-bedroom Park House, which they also renovated.
Meanwhile, back in Hampshire, Strutt & Parker’s Estate and Farm Agency (020– 7318 5166) has launched the 368-acre Coldpiece Farm near Mattingley, 11 miles from Basingstoke, onto the market at a guide price of £9 million. Thought to have historic links to the Duke of Wellington’s Stratfield Saye estate, Coldpiece Farm has been owned by the Guinness family for almost 60 years. During this time, the farm has been considerably improved by investment in new tracks, fencing and planting under a Woodland Grant Scheme in place since 2009. Flowing through the farm is the River Whitewater, a tributary of the Blackwater, which provides more than 3,200ft of double-bank fishing, currently let to a local club on an annual basis.
The Grade Ii-listed farmhouse, which dates from the early 18th century with later alterations, was impressively gentrified in the 1980s with the addition of an imposing new front façade, with large bay windows accentuating the splendid views. The spacious, 6,892sq ft interior, currently arranged as a large airy entrance hall, three main reception rooms, 10 bedrooms and six bathrooms on three floors, now needs updating and represents an ‘interesting project’, suggests Chris Evans of Strutt & Parker.