Yours for just £4m, a place in the country... with Charles for a neighbour!
BUILT in the 16th century with wood-panelled walls, opulent rooms and extensive grounds, Doughton Manor is fit for a king.
It even has royal neighbours, standing just over the road from Prince Charles’s beloved Highgrove estate.
And the Grade I-listed Elizabethan pile in Gloucestershire, which is now for sale, might yet tempt the second in line to the throne – the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children have been looking to relocate from Anmer Hall in Norfolk.
Built from local honey-coloured limestone, Doughton Manor, which is one-and-a-half miles from Tetbury, is described as a ‘very liveable house’ despite its antiquity.
For the asking price of £4million, there are three reception rooms on the flagstone ground floor, including a 27ft-long dining hall and a drawing room, as well as a 31ft kitchen/breakfast room with an ornate open fireplace and a walk-in larder. The first floor has five main bedrooms and four bathrooms while the second floor has six rooms which act as ‘secondary bedrooms and attic rooms’.
Outside is a coach house, Grade II-listed stone barn and walled gardens at the front and back.
The 4.8-acre grounds also feature a summerhouse and swimming pool. Nearby facilities include ‘specialist shops’, a golf course, race courses at Cheltenham and Bath, and private schools including Cheltenham College.
It is currently owned by American Richard Carter, who is understood to be a yacht designer. His research of the house’s history has revealed it was built by John Seed, who leased the land from the Crown before buying it in 1588.
The house, which was built six years later, was restored in 1933.
Mr Carter did not want to talk about the sale but Amelia Davies of estate agents Strutt & Parker, who are marketing the property, said: ‘It is literally opposite Highgrove and it’s one of those cute, quaint Cotswold places. It requires some updating like general maintenance, plumbing and heating. But the owners live in it, so it’s easy to live in even if it needs some work.’ Another neighbouring property is the 117-acre Elmestree House estate with an 11-bedroom mansion that went on the market last year for £7.5million, sparking more gossip about William and Kate moving to the area.