Property market
A ruined castle in Cumbria, a beautifully renovated manor house on Anglesey and a Hertfordshire vicarage in need of a makeover create waves
The spirit that has rebuilt 1,000 houses is alive and well in Brexit Britain, if the response received by Savills to the launch onto the market of ruined high head Castle, near Carlisle, Cumbria, is anything to go by. Offers over £250,000 were sought for the once grand Palladian mansion, which sits atop a 100ft gorge above the River Ire and was described by Pevsner in its heyday as ‘the finest 18thcentury house in the region’.
Despite the evident high cost of restoration, the response was ‘astounding’, reveals selling agent Melissa Lines, who was over- whelmed by enquiries from Cumbria, London and as far afield as Morocco and South Africa, resulting in some 50 viewings and the setting of a closing date of last Friday, November 16.
high head Castle comprises a fourstorey, mid-18th-century house known as The Classical house and a Tudor west wing dating from 1542, each separately listed Grade II*. The west wing abuts a medieval tower—the remains of an earlier medieval castle from 1272—and a servants’ wing added in 1903. The Classical house was built for the Brougham family in 1744–49, probably to designs by the architect James Gibbs.
high head Castle has escaped destruction on at least three occasions. The first was in 1902, when it was bought and extensively repaired by herbert hills (Country Life, October 15, 1921). The second was in 1956, when The Classical house and the Tudor wing were both gutted by fire. The third came in 1985, when the then owner’s application to have the castle demolished was refused and it was bought by the late Christopher Terry, who embarked on a lengthy restoration project, which his family has reluctantly decided to abandon. Will it be fourth time lucky for high head?
The owners of picturesque, Grade II*listed Ty Fry near Menai Bridge, Anglesey, weren’t looking for a restoration project when, in 2005, they walked up the drive and ‘completely fell in love’ with the house. Some previous structural renovations had already been carried out on the main dwelling, which was therefore sound, although the interior needed improvement and some basic repair, including painting and decorating, reinstating fireplaces and so on. The gardens were completely hidden, but it was clear on walking around the grounds that there were major landscaped gardens underneath.
Over the years, the rundown manor house and its two-bedroom cottage have been sympathetically restored, with only the Dower House still in need of full renovation, although it has already been re-roofed and some of the stonework repaired. The building, which conceals a beautifully intact dovecote built to accommodate more than 100 birds, could potentially provide additional four-bedroom accommodation, the cost and scope of which would depend on a new owner’s requirements.
For sale through the Chester office of Strutt & Parker (01244 354880) at a guide price of £1.5 million, for its owner, ‘Ty Fry is a magical place which has been much loved and will continue to win the hearts of all those lucky enough to live there’. Its Historic England listing describes it, less emotively, as ‘an excellent mid-17th-century house with good coherent exterior character, and a fine interior’. For Bells Lewers of Strutt & Parker, Ty Fry is all these things—and more.
Once part of a 600-acre estate, the Tudor house at Ty Fry was modified in 1679 by Owen Williams, scion of one of North Wales’s most illustrious families, to create the present manor house. This was extended in 1805 to provide an impressive drawing room, which was later redesigned by Sir Clough Williams-ellis of Portmeirion fame.
Among Ty Fry’s many fine historic features are the high-beamed ceilings, chamfered beams, moulded cornices, painted panelling, original oak staircase and magnificent arched stone fireplace in the entrance hall, which incorporates the Owen Williams coat of arms. In all, the house has six reception rooms, seven bedrooms and four bathrooms —the whole set in 34.4 acres of historic gardens, grounds and pasture.
The wonderful woodland gardens at Ty Fry, all listed Grade II* and entered on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special
Historic Interest in Wales, include large natural rock formations enhanced to create raised walkways and viewing platforms. Clearly of strategic military importance in ancient times, they guard the neck of the small valley running up to Ty Fry. From these vantage points can be seen the mountains of Snowdonia to the south and east and a vast tract of Anglesey to the west; the house nestles unobtrusively below.
The gardens have been cleared to show the structure of the walkways and viewing platforms, although the scope for further restoration is unlimited. The snowdrop gardens are among the most extensive to be found anywhere in the UK and, until relatively recently, the snowdrops were picked by hand and sent daily by mail train to be sold in the flower market at Covent Garden.
Standing at the front door of imposing Kimpton Grange, on the edge of the conservation village of Kimpton, four miles from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, it’s hard to believe that the red-brick Victorian exterior hides an elegant, early-18th-century house with mid-18th- and 19th-century additions, which now requires ‘extensive modernisation’ and, with remodelling in mind, is conveniently unlisted.
For sale through the country department of Strutt & Parker (020–7318 5025) and local agents Churchills (01992 500151) at a guide price of £6m, substantial Kimpton Grange, a former vicarage, stands at the end of a sweeping, tree-lined drive, surrounded by mature landscaped gardens, a lake, a walled garden, parkland and paddocks—22.6 acres in all.
The house currently offers some 13,000sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including three light and spacious reception rooms, a study, kitchen/breakfast room, six bedroom suites and an indoor leisure area with a swimming pool, changing rooms, gym and games room. Outdoor amenities include two cottages, a staff flat, an outdoor pool, a floodlit tennis court and a large barn.
In a bid to create a greater ‘sense of arrival’ at Kimpton Grange, drawings commissioned from a consultant architect propose a striking redesign of the Victorian east façade to match the more pleasing proportions of the south front, which overlooks the lake, and the replacement of the present, single-storey, indoor pool complex with a new kitchen/ dining area overlooking the gardens.