Tag Archives: Savills

SUSSEX

FAIRCROUCH

The house of McCall: a house of heartbreak, but one likely to net a healthy profit

Faircrouch 2 (Savills)
Image: Savills.

There were a few eyebrows raised when Davina McCall, the darling of noughties British TV, paid a modest £3.2 million for Faircrouch back in 2009. A year before, the country house near Wadhurst, had been put on the market by Rosaleen Corfe with a guide price of £4.3 million. It was bad timing for Corfe; according to Land Registry records the estate lost 14 per cent of its value in 2008 as the recession started to affect the property market. Nine years later, following the break-up of her marriage to Matthew Robertson, Faircrouch House is on sale at Savills with a guide price of £6.25 million.

Faircrouch is a substantial and elegantly-proportioned Grade II listed country house, probably dating from the 17th century with a later 18th century front portion, set within nearly 38 acres of private gardens and grounds and with substantial secondary accommodation, including a detached Lodge house at the main gate, a Cottage, Barn and Coach House. The house itself has a porticoed entrance porch, entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, study/library, family room, boot room, kitchen/breakfast room, wine cellar, cellar boiler room, and six bedrooms.

Davina McCall (Garnier)
Davina Lucy Pascale McCall, (born 16 October 1967), the English television presenter and model. She was the presenter of ‘Big Brother’ during its run on Channel 4 between 2000 and 2010. She has also hosted Channel 4’s ‘The Million Pound Drop’, ‘Five Minutes to a Fortune’ and ‘The Jump’ as well as ITV’s ‘Long Lost Family’ and ‘This Time Next Year’. Image: Garnier.
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Faircrouch House. Oil on canvas. Painted by Julian Barrow (1939-2013). Image: The Saleroom.

According to Country Life, the house was originally a medieval nunnery that was suppressed during the Dissolution. It was later owned by a succession of wealthy ironmasters, starting with John Barham, who bought the property in 1560, and including William Benge, the builder of the Gloucester Furnace at Lamberhurst in 1695. At some point, the remains of the nunnery buildings, including those of the monastic cells, were incorporated into the main house, which has been extended several times since.

The back elevation of the stuccoed house shows the oldest 17th century work, and is three storeys high and five casement windows in length. The front is 18th century, two storeys, with six sash windows. All this sit under a hipped slate roof complete with parapet.

Unusually for the area, Faircrouch is built with local stone quarried nearby. Some historians believe it was stone from an earlier medieval building taken from this property that helped in the building of Wadhurst Castle.

The area grew in the 1850s with the arrival of the railway, linking Wadhurst to the City of London. The then owners of Faircrouch were granted a permanent set of steps linking the house, via a woodland path, to Wadhurst Station ‘in perpetuity, in exchange for the sale of the cutting where the railway now runs.

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Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser. 25 July 1807. Image: British Newspaper Archive.

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During the latter part of the 19th century, Faircrouch was home to Mr Walter Prideaux (1806-1889), with links to the famous Prideaux family, a poet and solicitor, who rose to Clerk at Goldsmith’s Hall in London. Born at Bearscombe, he was one of six sons of Walter Prideaux (d. 1832) of Kingsbridge and Plymouth, a Quaker and partner in the Devon and Cornwall Bank.

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Walter Prideaux (left) was featured in ‘A Consultation of the Aerial Voyage to Wellburgh’, painted in 1836 by John Hollins.

After he died in 1889, Faircrouch was let to Mr and Mrs Philip B. Petrie before being put up for sale in 1893. When a sale couldn’t be reached, it was re-advertised by the Trustees in 1894, and eventually sold to Mr E. Symes, famous in the area for removing a small iron church in the grounds of Wick House and re-erecting it at Faircrouch in 1898.

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Kent and Sussex Courier. 25 April 1894. Image: British Newspaper Archive.

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During the 20th century, Faircrouch was occupied by successive people, including L.P. Kekewich, Colonel Foster, Geoffrey Grindling, who installed an art-deco music room in the 1930s, and Lady Schuster. During the 1970s it was occupied by Mr Arthur Collwyn Sturge (1912-1986), awarded the Military Cross in 1945, an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London.

By the time the Corfe family arrived in the 1980s, the house was being used as a weekend retreat and in a considerable state of disrepair. At the time, the estate agent described Faircrouch as being ‘in the Eridge hunt country, 400 feet above sea level, keeping free from fog and enjoying the high sunshine statistics associated with Tunbridge Wells, England’s sunniest inland resort’.

Having a background in interior design, Rosaleen Corfe was responsible for the restoration, including a listed barn destroyed by a fallen oak tree in the great storm of 1987. Having lost her husband, and with her sons mainly working overseas, she reflected on ‘a happy family home’ of 26 years, but felt compelled to put Faircrouch on the open market.

Faircrouch 1 (Savills)
Image: Savills.

Davina McCall moved from her home at Woldingham, Surrey, after snapping up Faircrouch ‘for a song’. Since then the house has been further updated, the main house presented with a stylish contemporary finish which complements the many character features. The many period features include generous high ceilings and large sash windows which enhance the natural light, decorative mouldings and architraves, deep skirting boards, exposed floorboards, wood panel doors and feature fireplaces.

The landscaped area around the house provides interesting colour and structure with well-stocked borders and planting designed to frame the lovely views from the principal rooms.

A south-facing terrace to the side leads to a part-covered loggia whilst a further sheltered terrace is situated to the rear, fringed by scented planting and with a more formal walled garden beyond, incorporating an ornamental pond, clipped evergreen hedging, a level lawn and a swimming pool with a paved surround.

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SHROPSHIRE

COTON HALL

A Georgian mansion with Victorian additions. Not much remains of the house that General Robert E. Lee’s family once knew

Coton Hall 13 (Savills)
Image: Savills.

The selling-point or Coton Hall is inevitably its connection with the de la Lee family, probably of Norman descent, who owned a sizeable chunk of Shropshire for about 500 years. This was their ancestral home, and in 1636, Richard Lee emigrated to Virginia, where he prospered in tobacco. Another descendant, Richard Henry Lee, was one of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, and Robert E. Lee was commander of the Confederate States Army.

The present house was built about 1800 for Harry Lancelot Lee, the last of the family to live at Coton Hall, in the Parish of Alveley. In his book In Search of the Perfect Home, Marcus Binney says “the elegant simplicity of the house is pure Regency, but to Victorian tastes it was a little too plain, and a picturesque Italianate tower and wing was added about 1860.”

With attention drawn to the American link, Coton Hall was on the market for £2.2 million back in January 2017. Eighteen months later, still unsold, the guide price has been quietly dropped to £1.85 million.

Coton Hall 1 (Savills)
Image: Savills.

According to Marcus Binney, the house is hidden until the last moment, and it is the ruined chapel on the grass circle in front that first comes into view. With its fine interiors, the cellars are of interest, being two-storeys deep, and on the lower level is an entrance to a tunnel which leads to the chapel.

There is another side to Coton Hall’s history, one that is often overlooked. The Lee relationship might have ended with Harry Lancelot Lee, but by the time he died in 1821, he had already let the estate to a local curate.

Coton Hall (Share History)
Image: Share History.

Coton Hall was bought by James Foster (1786 -1853), an iron-master and coal-master of Stourbridge. In 1831 he sat in Parliament for the Liberals, became High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1840, and became the head of the firm of iron-masters, John Bradley and Company. Foster’s wealth was immense and later allowed him to buy Stourton Castle. When he died in 1853, he left his fortune to his nephew, William Orme Foster of nearby Apley Park.

Coton Hall came into the possession of Edward Lloyd Gatacre (1806 -1891), head of one of Shropshire’s most ancient families, having settled at Gatacre Hall in the reign of Henry III. Educated at Rugby and Christ Church, Oxford, he became one of the oldest magistrates in the county and filled the office of High Sheriff in 1856.

Gatacre put the estate up for sale in 1851, and it was bought by the Reverend Edward Ward Wakeman (1801-1855), a man much esteemed for his great kindness to the poor, and his works for charity. He was the son of Sir Henry Wakeman, 1st Baronet, and Sarah Offley, and married Louisa Thompson in 1835. Wakeman also acquired the Hanley Court estate in 1855, under the will of the Rev. T. H. Newport, but died only months afterwards.

Coton Hall - Shrewsbury Chronicle - 25 Jul 1851 (BNA)
Shrewsbury Chronicle, 1851. Image: The British Newspaper Archive.

His eldest son and heir, Offley Francis Drake Wakeman (1836-1865) only came of age in 1857, and the affairs at Coton Hall were briefly managed by his uncle, Offley Penbury Wakeman (1799-1858), 2nd Baronet of Periswell Hall, in Worcestershire.

After over-exerting himself in a cricket match in 1865, Offley Wakeman was found lying in a pool of blood, his death caused by the rupture of a blood vessel. His brother, Henry Allan Wakeman-Newport (1841-1923), had inherited the Hanley Court estate, and Coton Hall was awarded to the youngest brother, Edward Maltby Wakeman (1846-1926).

Edward graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, with a Master of Arts, became a Chartered Accountant, a J.P., and was awarded Honourable Lieutenant-Colonel in the 3rd Battalion Shropshire Light Infantry. He married Edith Mary Buchanan in 1874, and had two children, Gladys Louisa Wakeman and Edward Offley Wakeman, an only son, who died within his first year.

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In 1878, the roof of the chapel collapsed, and all the Lee monuments were moved to Alveley Church.

Colonel Wakeman died in 1926, and left instructions that his funeral should be ‘the plainest possible description, and that all unnecessary expense should be avoided’. He was drawn in an open bier to the grave at Alveley Church by those whom he had employed. Edward left his property in trust for his daughter, with the request that the successors to the property assumed the name and arms of Wakeman. Gladys Louisa had married Captain Hugh Davenport Colville, Royal Navy, in 1906, and legally changed their name to Wakeman-Colville in 1927. They stayed at Coton Hall until the 1930s.

JMC4 - Church Explorer
Image: JMC4 – Church Explorer.
Coton Hall 3 (Savills)
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In the 1940s, Coton Hall was home to Mr and Mrs Howard Thompson.  The house, which had always maintained a modest degree of secrecy, was opened to the public for one-day in 1956, and was described in the Birmingham Daily Post:

“On show in the Hall – the ancestral home of Gen. Robert E. Lee – will be four of the main rooms. These contain many art treasures, including superb paintings of the Lee family, who owned the hall for more than 500 years.

“In front of the Hall stands the remains of a chapel built in 1275, which was at one time the private domestic chapel of the reigning monarch. It was used by King Alfred the Great and Edward the Confessor. The latter laid a rent charge on the manor which is still paid. A subterranean passage leads from the Hall to a crypt beneath the chapel

“The Hall, which stands on a hill, 550 feet above sea level, commands a wonderful view of the valley and the large trout lake.    

“The main feature of the four-acre grounds are the trees, which have plaques attached to indicate their variety. Behind the Hall, overlooking a valley, stands a magnificent cedar tree, planted 226 years ago. In the same year, Thomas Lee sent some seeds to Coton from Virginia. These seeds have now flourished into the tall red chestnut trees in Coton Park.”

Marcus Binney says the ruined chapel is no antiquity. “Local historians have claimed that this is the chapel of ancient Saxon kings, but it is a simple Palladian box with a pretty Strawberry Hill Gothic window in the east end. It is attributed to Shrewsbury architect, Thomas Farnolls Pritchard.”

Coton Hall, built in mellowed sawn grey stone, with a slate roof, is being marketed by Savills and offers excellent family accommodation. Particularly notable are the well-proportioned reception rooms, with their high ceilings and decorative architectural detail. The additional Victorian wing, with Italianate turret, blends admirably with the Georgian part of the house.

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HEREFORDSHIRE

DINMORE MANOR HOUSE

An impeccable Grade II listed manor house with Gothic touches 

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This country house estate at Hope Under Dinmore is currently on the market and likely to cost potential buyers well over £30 million. At its centre is Dinmore Manor, a Grade II listed large country house in a well-wooded, hilly part of Herefordshire. It includes a substantial acreage of about 1,552 acres including productive arable land, pasture and woodland. The house was erected on the site of a Preceptory about the time of Queen Elizabeth and, according to records, altered around 1830 and extended about 1928.

Since 1732 it was in the possession of the Fleming and St. John families and has enjoyed remarkably few owners since.

By the turn of the 20th century it was in the possession of the Rev. Harris Fleming St. John (1833-1903), who, as an only son, inherited from his father, Fleming St. John. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, with a Master of Arts and in 1878 married Gertrude Margaret Ward, the eldest surviving daughter of Charles Ward of Clifton. He enjoyed an ecclesiastical career after being ordained as a Deacon in 1859 and a Priest from 1861. He became Chaplain of Dinmore Preceptory Chapel in 1879 having formerly filled curacies at Kempsford, Gloucestershire, and Leeds, and had acted as Domestic Chaplain to Bishop Wodford of Ely (1873-85). The chapel at Dinmore was fully restored by him in 1886. Being Lord of the Manor at Dinmore (and owning Henwick Grange, Worcestershire) meant he was also a considerable landowner.

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Following Harris St. John’s death, the Dinmore estate passed to his son, Oliver Stukely Fleming St. John (1881-1955), a man more akin to the land, who made his wealth as a fruit grower at Kipperknowle Farm.  He was educated at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and later gained the rank of Lieutenant between 1916 and 1919 in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. He married, firstly, Agnes Margaret Jane Jenkin in 1913 and, secondly, Elizabeth Sarah Ross in 1924.

In 1927 the estate was bought by Richard Hollins Murray (1882-1957) who was responsible for the house we see today. Murray was a Chartered Accountant and a Manchester-based Company Director, also owning a large house called Erlesdine, at Bowden, Cheshire. In 1927, the same year he bought Dinmore Manor, he patented the idea of reflective glass beads for advertising signs and road signage, a concept later developed by Percy Shaw to create ‘cat’s eyes’ in the road.

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Richard Hollins Murray (1882-1957) bought Dinmore in 1927. (Image: HollinsMurray/Ancestry).

Richard Hollins Murray spent a considerable sum on the house, including several ‘Gothic’ additions, and restored the 13th century chapel of the Knight Hospitallers of Jerusalem, as well as the cloisters leading from the chapel to the manor. (Murray was an Officer of the Order of St. John Jerusalem). The gardens were also re-landscaped with the creation of a new rock garden. They became his ‘pride and joy’ and were regularly opened to the public. He enhanced them with amplifying apparatus in the belfry of the chapel through which classical music concerts were broadcast while visitors walked around the grounds.

Following his death in 1957 the estate passed to his son, Charles Ian Murray (1911-1976) and remained with the family until the end of the century. In 1999 it was bought by Martin Dawes, ‘a serial entrepreneur’, who made his fortune renting television and radio sets in the North-West in the Sixties. He pocketed £70 million from the sale of his Martin Dawes Telecommunications business to Cellnet and probably used this windfall to buy Dinmore Manor. Later, in 2002, he made up to £29 million by selling his 35 per cent stake in Opal Telecom, which was bought by Carphone Warehouse, of which he became a director.

In addition to the Manor House, the wider estate now includes 21 other residential properties, a magnificent shoot, an outstanding cattle breeding facility and a world class equestrian complex set up by Dawes for a reputed £14 million.

All images courtesy of Savills, except where stated.

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This home-made 8mm movie was produced by the Murray family of Dinmore Manor, Herefordshire, in 1938. The sound was added some years later. Music; excerpts from Les Preludes, Liszt.