The home with a view that’s Sheer poetry
Its Gothic windows look great – and gaze out over the magnificent family home of a literary giant
WHEN the sun sets behind the lake of Newstead Abbey, the stone facade of the stately home glows burnished gold. Colin Bontoft will miss this stunning sight when he sells his Grade II listed home opposite. That and the abbey’s peacocks visiting him each morning and eating grapes off his coffee table.
‘I love watching the sun cast its rays on the red stone of the abbey,’ muses the 61-year-old owner of Gable End, a Gothic-style property that stands in the grounds of Lord Byron’s ancestral estate – and just 100 yards from Newstead Abbey itself, the romantic poet’s former home.
‘I love architecture and antiques and spent two years renovating the house – it was the most beautiful canvas to work on,’ says Colin.
A retired sales executive, he bought three-bedroom Gable End in 2005 and has spent £250,000 restoring it. ‘I took the roof off, put in a bespoke oak staircase, replaced each window individually, and designed every room to make the most of the fabulous views of the lake, grounds and abbey.’
Gable End, which is for sale through Savills for £625,000, used to be a wooden stable block until William Frederick Webb, former high sheriff of Nottingham and friend of the explorer Dr Livingstone, outbid Queen Victoria to buy the abbey in 1861 and rebuilt the stables in stone with such elaborate additions as a clock tower and gargoyles.
Colin’s neighbour, who lives in the adjoining property, has the clock tower and Colin has the gargoyles.
Before Webb bought it, Newstead Abbey and its grounds – which lie between Nottingham and Mansfield – were in the Byron family and George Gordon Byron was just ten years old when he inherited the title the 6th Baron Byron, and Newstead Abbey, in 1798. Of course, he went on to become known, along with Keats and Shelley, as one of Britain’s great romantic poets.
He moved in properly when he was 20 and lived there on and off until 1814. Since 1931, the estate has been owned by Nottingham City Council and the house and grounds are open to the public. ‘I am just 100 yards from his house, the abbey, and can see his bedroom window from mine,’ says Colin of Byron. ‘So I feel very connected to him.
‘I can visit his Japanese garden and sit in the abbey library leafing through his diaries and poems and visit his office, which has his original desk.’ The lothario poet – who was famously called ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ – is said to have loved the halls and grounds at Newstead, which had been given to his family by Henry VIII.
‘Byron had the most amazing parties at Newstead,’ says Gillian Crawley, general manager there. ‘They dressed up as monks and drunk copious amounts of red wine.’ The profli- gate poet turned the main gallery into a firing range and had a pet wolf-dog and a bear called Bruin who used to roam the grounds. His uncle William – from whom Byron inherited Newstead – built forts installed with cannon by the lake for battle re-enactments, during which he would fire on scaled-down warships with his servants on board. The forts still exist but the lakes these days are filled with more peace-loving swans and geese.
When the abbey visitors leave, the park’s electronic gates are locked so Colin’s home and the others on the estate are totally secure.
HIS house – which he has redesigned as a three-bedroom hunting lodge, and which has a private garden and shared parking for 20 cars – is at the end of a milelong driveway. ‘I also gutted the kitchen and put Indian stone on the floor, which is thinner than York stone so more effective with underfloor heating,’ he says. He also installed hand-made timber beams and a bespoke timber kitchen, as well as a double-sided fireplace.
‘I was also spending £500 a year on plants at one stage, creating herbaceous borders and paths so the garden is easy to maintain,’ he adds.
‘And I’m surrounded by 300 acres of parkland. I can enjoy the local wildlife. I am even visited by two peacocks and peahens, who come and eat grapes off my coffee table for breakfast.’
Colin is selling to embark on another renovation adventure – he plans to build a modern flat-pack Scandinavian-style house in woodland.