FOUR SAILS!
...the stunning £9.5m home with its very own windmill
IT HAS everything you might wish for in a luxurious property: eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, a pool, gym and tennis court. But it also has one thing you might not expect: a Grade II listed windmill in the garden. The windmill, one of the oldest in southern England, was used for 100 years before it became part of the grounds of a newly built house in the early 20th Century. Now it is one of the main selling points of the appropriately named Windmill House, an Arts and Crafts-style property with six acres of parkland in the village of Arkley, on the northern edge of London.
Arkley, at 482ft above sea level, is one of the highest points in Greater London. ‘On a windy day the sails of the windmill turn and make a whooshing sound,’ says Pauline McNicholas, who is selling the property. ‘You can get to the top of the windmill via the ladders inside and there’s a lovely view.’
The windmill is known as both Barnet Gate Mill and Arkley Windmill, but Pauline just calls it ‘The Windmill’. She and her late husband Bernard have always used a windmill specialist to look after it.
‘Bernard felt very privileged to live here and felt the windmill should be looked after for other people and the nation,’ Pauline says. ‘The windmill has been struck by lightning twice, breaking off a sail each time, but we’ve always made sure the repairs have been done to the highest standard.’
Bernard, who died of cancer aged 74 in March, was the former owner of the construction company McNicholas plc. He took over at the age of 21, when his father died, and built it up from 50 employees to 2,000, before selling in 2006.
‘My husband loved this house and lived here for 41 years,’ says Pauline, who married Bernard in 2005 after he was widowed. ‘His four children were brought up here.’
She adds: ‘We’d always have Christmases here and there would be 18 or 19 of us. Bernard loved to see his grandchildren come to the house and they often come to stay.’
The property also has separate accommo- dation that can be used for staff: the McNicholases’ housekeeper has lived with the family for 37 years, and the family has had the same live-in chauffeur for 33 years.
Pauline, who works as dental surgeon, met Bernard through their golf club. ‘We played golf all over the world together,’ she says. ‘We got on so well. I adored him.’
Pauline is from Ireland and Bernard, although born in London, had Irish parents and went to school there. He was given a papal knighthood for his philanthropic work: he helped set up the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation and was its chairman for 30 years, raising millions of pounds for children in need across the world.
‘He was a very modest, understated man, and self-deprecating, really,’ Pauline says. ‘And this place is all down to him, his personality, and a little bit of me. He loved this house; he was permanently thinking what to do next with it. He wasn’t knocking down walls, just improving it, maintaining it.’
Bernard installed fountains in the property’s two lakes, and ducks and geese abound there. There is also a barn, landscaped gardens, lawns and a rose garden.
PAULINE says: ‘What you have by buying this house is quality of life – and, at the end of the day, we are all trying to make the quality of our lives better.’
It takes only 35 to 40 minutes to reach London’s West End. ‘So we have the best of both worlds here,’ Pauline says
The property has a recently installed stateof-the-art security system with cameras that can be viewed from anywhere in the world, and the tennis court was relaid only last summer. Pauline uses it regularly, and she also uses the pool and gym every day, getting up at 5.30am to do half an hour on the treadmill, followed by 40 to 50 lengths in the pool.
‘I feel very privileged to have a pool and gym complex, so why not use it?’ she says. The property also has a steam room, Jacuzzi and changing rooms. Pauline’s favourite is the drawing room, because it’s ‘very peaceful’. And she also adores the master bedroom because of its ‘lovely aspect’. But she says that with Bernard gone, the property, for her, is ‘not a home any more, just a house’.
So Pauline is moving somewhere locally that is more suited to one person.
‘This house has character and personality. For one person on their own, it’s a waste of what it’s got to give,’ she explains. ‘I want to sell to a family. I would love to see kids running around and enjoying it. I know any family living in this house couldn’t fail to have a wonderful life together here.’