Go wild up north
Estates in Lancashire, Cumbria and Northumberland, including the home of interior designer Robert Kime, are well worth the trip
On the edge of the Forest of Bowland AONB—A rugged upland area of gritstone fells and vast tracts of heather-covered moorland—immaculate Hay Carr, in 54 acres of formal gardens, parkland, paddocks and woodland near the hamlet of Bay Horse, six miles from Lancaster, offers grandeur, comfort and splendid isolation in equal measure. Last seen on the market in 2014, the imposing stone house, impressively reconfigured and extended by its previous owner, is now for sale through Strutt & Parker (020–7629 7282) and Knight Frank (020–7861 1114) at a guide price of £3.95 million.
Once part of a large estate that included most of the surrounding farmland, the main house was reputedly built in 1750 by the agricultural pioneer Thomas Lamb and extended by William Lamb in about 1850. Subsequent owners of Hay Carr include the Sandeman family of Port and sherry fame and Lt-col Michael Birtwistle of the 7th Gurkha Rifles, later High Sheriff of Lancashire, who bought the house in the 1950s for about £5,000. From 1997 to 2014, Hay Carr was the family home of businessman Martin Higginson,
who not only renovated the house, but also bought in additional land, the original gate lodge and a cottage alongside the Lancaster Canal, which runs through the grounds.
Its long drive meanders through mature parkland, passing over the canal via a charming, Grade Ii-listed bridge (Hay Carr itself is unlisted) before arriving at a gravel turning circle in front of the house, where the front porch opens into a grand reception hall, with a limestone fireplace and a solid-oak floor. The hall leads through to the southfacing drawing room, a snug and a beautifully proportioned dining room with a deep bay window. From there, a library linked by a glazed walkway to the main library leads to a magnificent palm house, whose multiple French windows give access to outer terraces and the walled rose garden.
The kitchen/breakfast room is a designer’s dream, with cabinetry by Edwin Loxley of Nottingham, and a splendid cantilevered staircase leads to a sumptuous master suite, four further bedrooms and four bath/shower rooms on the first floor, with a cinema room on the second floor.
The professionally landscaped gardens and grounds include a pristine stableyard built next to a beautifully laid out kitchen garden and, beyond it, an all-weather tennis court. Sleek white estate fencing forms the boundary with the paddocks and parkland, where a cross-country circuit provides a test of equestrian expertise; a lake and boathouse within the parkland allow for lazy afternoons on the water.
Despite its enviably private and peaceful location, this rural idyll remains closely connected to the outside world, thanks to the nearby M6 motorway, which provides easy access south to Preston and Manchester
and north to Lancaster, the Lake District and Scotland.
If total seclusion is the dream, then Savills (01904 617800) have the answer in the shape of the Longsleddale estate, a beautifully situated Lakeland property in one of the most accessible yet totally unspoilt dales within the Lake District National Park, five miles north of Kendal, with the M6 less than 15 miles to the east.
The wonderfully picturesque estate, which incorporates two small hydro-electric schemes producing an annual income of some £35,000, lies mainly within a ring fence on the west side of the valley, served only by a no-through road that protects it from encroachment by the annual influx of Lakeland tourists.
The estate, which is being sold in four lots at a guide price of £2.4 million for the whole, comprises Lot 1 at £1.5 million—including the hydro-electric scheme and 576 acres of meadow and pasture land bordering the River Mint, rising through woodland to Dockernook Cragg, a spectacular viewpoint from where the moorland rises to 1,310ft above sea level; Lot 2, with Docker Nook House, barn and paddock, for sale at a guide of £850,000; and Lots 3 and 4 with 211 acres of sporting rights at a guide price of £50,000, including trout fishing on the Mint and the potential to re-create a mixed family shoot on the moor, where, in the past, up to 100 grouse have been shot and eight deer culled in a season.
At the heart of the estate is Grade Ii-listed Docker Nook House, a late-17th- or early18th-century former stone farmhouse with outbuildings under one roof—‘probably originally a cow-house under a granary’, according to its listing. Owned by a local farming family from the 18th to the mid 19th century, Docker Nook has been the secret Cumbrian retreat of interior designer Robert Kime, who bought it in 2008 and has since restored it to its authentic rustic state, while adding modern facilities and his own uniquely timeless touch.
Accommodation on two floors includes a kitchen, a dining hall, a snug, a sitting room, a large master bedroom, two double bedrooms and two bathrooms. Next to the house, a traditional stone barn has been transformed into a library, which could be converted to further accommodation, subject to planning consent.
As Will Douglas of Savills explains, ‘given that the sale involves more than one vendor, offers will need to be submitted for each lot individually’. With enquiries already flooding in from near and far, he expects to see a final deal emerging by mid January.
Across the county border in Northumberland, where the call of the wild is as powerful as ever, Sam Gibson of Strutt & Parker’s Morpeth office (01670 516123) seeks ‘offers over £950,000’ for Grade Ii-listed Old Ridley Hall in the affluent village of Stocksfield, 11 miles from Hexham and 19½ miles from busy Newcastle-upon-tyne.
For sale following the death last year of its long-term owner, Josephine Aldridge, the popular former master and lifelong supporter of the Braes of Derwent Hunt, the origins of Old Ridley Hall can be traced to the late 17th century, with additions in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. With its many classic architectural features largely untouched by time, the house retains ‘the grandeur of a bygone era’ throughout its 6,380sq ft of living space, which includes a large entrance hall, two fine main reception rooms, a play room, a large kitchen in need of modernisation, six bedrooms, two bathrooms, four attic rooms and a two-bedroom annexe.
The house stands in nine acres of private, well-maintained gardens, mature woodland and paddocks. The formal garden is partially walled, with striking views west across rolling open countryside.