Grace and favour
A cricketer, a colonel and The Prince of Wales are connected to these three grand estates
FOR all its negative connotations, 2021 has been a very good year for grand English country houses, the latest being classic, Grade Ii-listed Georgian The Hewletts, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, which has come to the market through Savills (020–7016 3825) with a guide price of £7.5 million.
Impeccably restored by its current owners, who purchased it when it was in a run-down state in 2006, the gracious 9,000sq ft Palladianstyle house stands in 45 acres of gardens, parkland, woodland and pasture, 700ft above sea level on Aggs Hill, close to the top of the dramatic Cotswold escarpment. The house boasts spectacular views towards Prestbury Park racecourse and over Cheltenham to the Malvern Hills and the Black Mountains of Wales.
Once part of the Southam estate owned by the De La Bere family of Herefordshire, The Hewletts was probably built around an earlier 17th-century farmhouse by William Baghot, who inherited the estate from his uncle, Kynard de la Bere, in 1734. Baghot left the house to his nephew, Thomas, who sold it in 1797 to Maj James Agg of the Bengal Army, one of many former Indian Army officers and administrators who settled in and around the spa town of Cheltenham in the 1800s.
Agg’s eldest son, William, was educated as a gentleman at Pembroke College, Oxford, and inherited The Hewletts in 1827. His only son, also William, was a career soldier who retired with the rank of colonel in 1869. Soon afterwards, he took over the management of The Hewletts estate and was much involved in public and business affairs in the Cheltenham area. He died suddenly at home, in April 1901, after which The Hewletts and its 892 acres were sold to provide for the colonel’s seven surviving children. The estate was later subdivided and sold a number of times; in the mid 20th century, The Hewletts was run as a country-house hotel.
The present owners have painstakingly restored and renovated the building, retaining much of its essential Georgian features and
character; constructed of Cotswold stone, it has an impressive ashlar entrance front arranged as a five-bay, three-storey central section with two-storey wings to either side. Stone steps lead up to the front door and the reception hall with its fine 18th-century staircase, to either side of which are the drawing room and dining room, both elegant, light-filled rooms with good ceiling heights, sash windows, hardwood floors and imposing fireplaces. The study/library and family room are smaller and more intimate.
The kitchen/breakfast/garden room is a splendid new addition, with steps opening onto the lawns on the south side of the house. The rear hall leads to the north wing and a vast games room and bar where family and friends can be entertained in style. Upstairs are seven spacious bedrooms, four bath/shower rooms and a selfcontained, two-bedroom staff/guest flat. The sale includes a charming, Cotswoldstone coach house with a first-floor flat, various outbuildings and a modern agricultural barn with potential for a number of alternative uses.
Across the county border in Oxfordshire, Knight Frank (020–7861 1078) are handling the sale of Grade Ii-listed Poundon House near Bicester, at a guide price of £6m. The charming Edwardian country house, set in more than 10 acres of gardens and grounds in unspoilt open countryside, was built in 1908 by Eton-educated gentleman cricketer John Heywood-lonsdale. The large and impressive formal gardens, which include a lime-tree avenue, parterre, ornamental pond and walled garden, were designed by Thomas H. Mawson, widely regarded as the leading landscape architect of his day.
Poundon House remained the Heywoodlonsdale family home until the outbreak of the Second World War, when it was requisitioned by the government to house evacuees from London and as a base for Sir Winston Churchill’s crack espionage unit, the Special Operations Executive. It continued to be
used by the intelligence services until the late 1970s. The property changed hands a couple of times before the Roscoe family acquired it a decade later and lovingly restored it to its original splendour.
Built by local firm Lewis Penn of golden Eydon stone in the classical Queen Anne style, Poundon House offers 13,263sq ft of grand living space on three floors, including three fine reception rooms, a library, study, family room and kitchen on the ground floor; a master-bedroom suite, seven further bedrooms and three bathrooms on the first floor; plus four more bedrooms, a family bathroom and kitchen on the second floor. Further accommodation is available in the three-bedroom garden wing and the twobedroom garden cottage; sporting amenities include a large, Roman-style swimming pool within a hedged garden, a hard tennis court, former croquet lawn, paddock, and traditional red-brick stable yard with 12 stables, four flats and extensive garages.
Down in deepest Devon, Knight Frank (020–7861 1717) are selling the beautifully renovated Brimptsmead estate in the heart of the Dartmoor National Park, four miles from Widecombe-in-the-moor and 29 miles from Exeter. Agents quote a guide price of £4.95m for the exquisite Arts-and-crafts house set in more than nine acres of terraced gardens, ancient woodland and wildflower meadows at the confluence of the East and West Rivers Dart, surrounded by lands owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.
The construction of Brimptsmead started in 1893, when permission was granted to build a hunting lodge and summer home on the magical riverside site. The building was completed in 1906 and the house, which is unlisted, was leased from the then Prince of Wales. Some 27 years ago, the present owners were given the opportunity to buy the freehold from the current Prince of Wales, which they did with alacrity—given that freeholds are rarely available in this part of the world. In fact, a quirk remaining from the previous ownership is The Prince of Wales’s right to fish on Brimptsmead’s river bank at 24 hours’ notice.
During their tenure, the owners have carried out a massive programme of works, including the installation of a new 26,000tile roof, 120 leaded-light windows handmade by Lamplite of Ashburton, polished pink-granite floors with underfloor heating, 100 new cast-iron radiators and bespoke oak panelling in the principal rooms. In all, Brimptsmead offers 5,984sq ft of stylish, uncluttered accommodation including a reception hall/library, a delightful turret room, two formal reception rooms, a study, gun-room, kitchen/breakfast room, sitting room, six bedrooms, five bathrooms, hydropool and a shower room.
Estate cottages once used to house the family gardener and chauffeur have been restored and upgraded. A novel addition is ‘the shed’, a cleverly designed building built into the side of the hill with space for six vehicles on the lower level and a splendid party barn on the upper level. A gate from the paddock on the northern boundary gives direct access to the moor, over which there is right to roam.
The owners were given the opportunity to buy the freehold from The Prince of Wales