Property market
Amid a surge in demand for fine country houses, three examples hit the market in time for Easter
OF remarkable distinction’ is the description in Murray’s Berkshire Architectural Guide 1949 (edited by John Betjeman and John Piper) of the classic, early-georgian West Hanney House in the quaint Oxfordshire village of West Hanney, five miles north of Wantage, 13 miles from Oxford and 70 miles from central London. For sale through Savills (020–7409 8885) at a guide price of £4.5 million, the exquisitely symmetrical former rectory, listed Grade II*, sits elegantly in the middle of its walled three-acre garden, its flamboyant skyline, high gates and wall dominating the green and village cross in the heart of the settlement ‘whose beauty lies in the balanced variety of its buildings’ (Country Life, 1943).
According to local records, West Hanney House was so dilapidated at the death in 1718 of its long-term tenant, Elizabeth Bowles, who, according to a tablet in the local church, died aged 124, that the Church Commissioners had the house rebuilt in 1722. It is one of a select group of Baroque country houses, including Kingston Bagpuize House, near Abingdon, and Ardington House, near Wantage, that were built by a local school of skilled masons influenced by the Baroque designs of Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor at nearby Blenheim Palace.
Launched onto the market earlier this month, the path to the door of West Hanney House is already ‘well trodden’ by prospective purchasers, says selling agent Ed Sugden, who reports a ‘phenomenal amount of interest in this wonderfully unspoilt house, which combines the benefits of a grand country house with the flexibility and manageability of a smaller property’. Owned by the same family since 1976, the house has been lovingly maintained, but little altered, apart from the kitchen, which has been extended and upgraded during their tenure.
A grand first impression is immediately created on entering the light-filled reception hall, flanked as it is by the main entertaining rooms—drawing room, panelled sitting room and dining room—all arranged in perfect symmetry. A fine central staircase, three turned and carved balusters to each step, leads to the first-floor landing, the gracious master suite and two large bedrooms with associated bathrooms. Panelled double doors lead off the landing to four further bedrooms and a bathroom.
To the north of the main house, an impressive courtyard of traditional stone buildings, currently arranged as stables, stores and garages, could easily be adapted to a wide range of uses. Opposite the main house in the centre of the courtyard is The Pigeon House, a three-bedroom cottage that could make excellent staff or guest accommodation, and the east garden wall creates a delightful suntrap for the swimming pool and a formal garden ‘room’.
To the south, lawns and gravel pathways lead through large white gates onto a row of pleached limes, with a further gate and the
To the west, a glade comes alive with snowdrops in spring
church beyond. To the west, a glade comes alive with snowdrops in spring, before the next ‘room’ reveals the tennis court, paddock and adjoining woodland.
Across the county border in Hampshire, Edward Cunningham of Knight Frank’s country department (020–7861 1080) is overseeing this week’s launch onto the market, at a guide price of £5.75m, of Grade Ii-listed Sparsholt Manor in the popular village of Sparsholt, 3½ miles from Winchester and seven miles from Stockbridge. An outstanding example of an early-20th-century Arts-and-crafts house, the manor was designed and built in 1922–23 for local dignitary, Samuel Bostock, the former owner of Lainston House (now the Lainston House Hotel), by the architect Harry Inigo Triggs, in partnership, firstly, with William Unsworth, and then with his son, Gerald.
Triggs and Unsworth designed a prodigious number of houses in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, mostly vernacular in style and often reminiscent of Lutyens. Triggs also took on the task of designing the gardens, which he saw as a form of architecture, in which craftsmanship and local materials combined to create a garden of structure. The formal treatment of his gardens was often softened and complemented by cottage-garden informality in the style of Gertrude Jekyll. Triggs was fascinated by the use of water and the sunken garden was a typical feature, often with a lily pond in the centre.
In keeping with many other houses designed by Triggs and Unsworth, Sparsholt Manor stands on high ground and enjoys breathtaking southerly views. Here again, symmetry is key to the design of the E-shaped manor house, which stands in almost 13 acres of formal landscaped gardens and grounds, flanked by a pair of matching garden loggias—the whole facing south onto the main terrace of Yorkstone paving and herbaceous borders.
Inside, the house abounds in features typical of the Arts-and-crafts period, including polished oak floorboards, impressive fireplaces with stone surrounds and some fine panelled reception rooms. The present owners, who have lived at the manor since 1997,
have created a charming kitchen/breakfast room with doors opening onto the terrace.
In all, Sparsholt Manor offers more than 6,800sq ft of elegant accommodation on three floors, including a reception hall, four reception rooms, a study, a family kitchen/ breakfast room, various domestic offices on the ground floor; a spacious principal bedroom suite, four further bedrooms and two bath/shower rooms on the first floor, with two more bedrooms, a large bath/shower room and storage rooms on the second floor.
To the west of the house is a walled kitchen garden, and beyond that is an office, a onebedroom cottage and various outbuildings. Also within the grounds is an Astroturf tennis court, and a swimming pool heated by an air-source heat pump.
Mr Cunningham is also handling the sale of one of north-east Hampshire’s most charming period pieces, Grade Ii-listed The Malt House at Greywell, a picturesque small village within a conservation area that boasts a fine range of historic houses along the sparkling River Whitewater. He quotes a guide price of £2.6m for the beautifully restored and extended family house set in almost eight acres of delightful gardens and pasture in the heart of the village, two miles from Odiham and 7½ miles from the commuter hub of Basingstoke.
During their 20-year tenure, the present owners have transformed the 6,029sq ft house, the oldest part of which dates from 1495, with 19th- and 20th-century additions. Built around a timber frame under a tiled roof, the red-brick house is approached from the village street through an oak front door framed by a magnificent 200-year-old wisteria.
An oak-floored entrance hall leads through to the drawing, sitting and dining rooms, where original oak beams, wood panelling, exposed brick walls and large open fireplaces create a magical setting for entertaining or relaxing. A modern, open-plan kitchen is full of light, with French doors leading to the garden. An oak staircase leads to the galleried landing and the dramatic principal bedroom suite with its vaulted and timber ceiling. There are five further double bedrooms, two with adjoining bathrooms.
The range of traditional outbuildings includes a period barn/garage, a summerhouse, two stables and a greenhouse. Located within the grounds are a well-hidden hard tennis court, a summerhouse overlooking a levelled croquet lawn and a swimming pool securely set within a walled garden.