Hugh’s River Cottage on sale for £7m ( manor house included)

IT IS just a small gamekeeper’s lodge in Dorset, but the River Cottage, where chef Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall pursued his ambitions of becoming a self-sufficient farmer, has been put on the market for a whopping £7million.

For that sum, you will, though, also own the historic 17th century Slape Manor, top right, as well as three other cottages and a stables block in the 83-acre grounds near Netherbury.

Hugh, inset, rented the cottage, far right, from the estate’s owner, Antony Hichens, while filming Channel 4’s Escape To River Cottage before buying a farm in the area.