Rory Bremner: Why I’m quitting Scotland and my £2m sanctuary
COMEDIAN Rory Bremner is to leave Scotland after putting his A-listed mansion up for sale at £1.7million.
The Edinburgh-born impressionist was splitting his time between Crailing House in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, and a family home in the Cotswolds.
Now the 58-year-old and wife Tessa Campbell Fraser, 52, plan to up sticks and move south where their children attend school and have show-jumping commitments.
The entertainer began a hunt for a home in the south of Scotland ten years ago.
His wife grew up in the Borders and as a child had visited Crailing House, four miles from Jedburgh. When the couple saw that the property was for sale, they felt they had to view it. They fell in love with the Regencystyle mansion, designed by the architect William Elliot for James Paton, a captain in the East India Company.
The Paton family owned the estate from 1802 to 1948, when it was bought by the Twelfth Marquis of Lothian. The remains of a 12thcentury chapel are still in the grounds, as well as an expanse of parkland with 300-year-old oak trees.
Miss Campbell Fraser said: ‘We wanted to move back to Scotland from Oxfordshire and were looking for a family home.’ She said the property was not in perfect condition but the couple saw an opportunity to restore a grand rural house.
Since moving in they have rewired, replumbed, reroofed and installed a biomass boiler, which earns about £5,000 a year through the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.
The chimney was restored and damaged stonework repaired.
The couple also had a ha-ha – a sunken wall – created in the grounds. Crailing House is on
‘Very hard decision to sell’
sale with Knight Frank for offers of more than £1.695million.
The former dining room was converted into a kitchen with a central island and Aga. On the first and second floors are seven bedrooms and five bathrooms.
And guests are greeted in the entrance hall by a Highland cow sculpture made by Miss Campbell Fraser.
The couple explained their reasons for leaving Scotland to move permanently to their Oxfordshire home. They said: ‘It is our sanctuary but we weren’t getting enough time in it. Half of the decor we want to bring to Oxfordshire to recreate Crailing.’
Miss Campbell Fraser said Crailing House was a ‘magical place and it has been a very hard decision to sell’.
She is a successful sculptor who specialises in bronzes of animals.