The Highgrove life!
Yours for £7.5m, Cotswolds estate with 117 acres... and Charles and Camilla for next door neighbours
IT is perhaps the ultimate address for anyone with designs on living like a king.
For buyers of this 11-bedroom country mansion will find themselves with the heir to the throne as their next-door neighbour.
The 117-acre Elmestree House Estate, right next to Prince Charles’s Highgrove country retreat in Gloucestershire, is on the market for the first time in more than 70 years... for offers in excess of £7.5million.
The Grade II-listed house boasts a ballroom among its six reception rooms, while a three-bedroom annexe, a four-bedroom farmhouse and a two-bedroom lodge cottage are also included in the sale price.
A stable block, coach house, courtyard, farm buildings and a walled garden set among parkland and ponds contribute to the rural idyll.
Princess Diana often walked and jogged through the estate before her marriage to the prince soured – she was once pictured listening to her Sony Walkman as she strolled through a meadow there.
Elmestree’s close proximity to Highgrove has left locals in nearby Tetbury speculating whether the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge could even put in a bid.
William and Kate, who split their time between Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall, Norfolk, are reported to be ‘seriously considering’ relocating to be nearer the Queen. The couple might welcome a rural base within commuting distance of Windsor in which to raise their three children.
One Tetbury resident, who didn’t want to be named, said: ‘Although the property is on the market for £7.5million, from what I hear it really needs a lot of work doing to it. I think it has become a bit dated. It’s a lovely house, but in its current condition probably not ideal for a young family.’
Sheep and cattle farmer David Wilson and his wife Betty raised their four children at Elmestree, having bought it in 1947. Mr Wilson farmed there until his death in 2013 aged 87, three years after his wife’s passing.
Elmestree is being sold by the executors of his estate, who include two of his sons, Clive, 54, and 60-year-old Tim, who said: ‘[My parents] lived and worked at Elmestree for more than 50 happy years. It was a wonderful home where we all grew up.’
The marketing literature for the estate, which dates from the 12th century, describes the manor house as ‘fine’ and ‘handsome’ but agrees it offers an opportunity for a ‘truly fabulous restoration project’.
Matthew Sudlow, at agents Strutt & Parker, said: ‘To find a house that is as architecturally pure as Elmestree in this part of the world is remarkable.’
‘Really needs a lot of work doing’