TV’s Tim has a find for you
Bargain hunter Wonnacott is leaving his amazing home for Australia, DEBORAH STONE reveals
AT £2.75MILLION his immaculate West Sussex home is hardly cheap but former Bargain Hunt presenter Tim Wonnacott – who is selling up to go to Australia – pronounces it “a fascinating and unique property”. The popular daytime TV presenter and 2014 Strictly Come Dancing competitor will be heading Down Under for a secret TV project that he says “will tell the story of Australia from the Aborigines to bang up to date, using objects old and contemporary”. Not that he is intending to abandon Britain: “We’re definitely not bailing out on the UK,” he says. “This project will take probably three years. We would keep something in Britain, perhaps a little house in Sussex. Something you can turn the key on and walk away, and a flat in London or Europe. I don’t know.”
First, there’s the little matter of selling the home he and his wife Helen bought seven years ago – Whitefoots House – when it was just a “humble 17th-century timber-framed worker’s cottage”.
Now it’s a four-bedroom, four-bathroom immaculate family home with under-floor heating, a spacious sitting room with a minstrels’ gallery and a separate chef’s kitchen in addition to the kitchen/family room.
“We could have knocked it down but I rather loved it so we added a modern oak-framed building on the south side, doubling it in size, so you have got the contrast of old and new and it has all got under-floor heating and modern insulation,” says Tim
Next to Whitefoots House the Wonnacotts built Blackfoots Cottage, a detached “highly insulated cottage with three bedrooms and three bathrooms” that is included in the sale price.
“We use it as a place where the children can come and stay, or other guests. It is a completely detached, separate house so if the buyer had elderly parents you could have them living on the property with you but not attached, so there is a degree of independence.”
And in addition to the 10 acres of land there is also Greyfoots, an insulated agricultural building and store that could be converted to a gym or home cinema, and there are a coach house and stables in the grounds. “Greyfoots has been very handy for keeping my collections in. There’s enough space for three or four Ferraris!” Tim jokes.
He is in the process of auctioning off much of his collection of furniture and decorative arts treasures, some of which he found while filming his 1,300 or so editions of Bargain Hunt.
“On every programme I would appear in the fair or auction with a ‘Tim’s Find’. I would have to walk for miles to find something – there were no BBC researchers who could do it because they didn’t know what they were looking for.”
The first sale of his “surplus collections” took place at Sworders auction house near Stansted in Essex last week, with more to come in January, February and March.
Renovating and extending Whitefoots House was an “interesting experience”, says Tim:
“To find a priests’ hole tucked away beside the fireplace that had been hidden for hundreds of years was a thrill.
“There are bits of restoring that are exciting because they take you to a historical moment. Imagine the generations of people who were born in that house.”
Whitefoots House and the other properties included in the sale through Strutt & Parker (01403 887332; struttandparker.com) are also special because of their unique location, he says. “There are no public roads for a mile so if you have got children or horses you can walk out over 5,000 acres on private roads or footpaths and bridleways and not be on public roads with traffic or anything.
“If you want to be private and you like to be outdoors, this is for you.”