Kent, £925,000

The former home of Royal portraitist Bernard Hailstone—whom The Prince of Wales has dubbed ‘the fastest brush alive’ and who painted the last officially commissioned portrait of Sir Winston Churchill—georgian Bourne Mill Cottage enjoys a pleasingly semirural position, just half a mile from Hadlow village, about four miles from Tonbridge. Grade Ii-listed, with three/ four bedrooms, the cottage has been beautifully renovated. Humberts (01732 741212)