Monday, June 14 2004 A former pig barn with planning permission to be developed into a four-bedroom house was sold at auction for an unprecedented £395,000 on Friday last week. The unusually inflated sum is accounted for by the fact that the plot is situated in the heart of the Newlands Valley in the Lake District, one of the most celebrated and carefully conserved areas of natural beauty in the world. The property was initially given a guide price of £275,000, but even the auctioneers, CSH Property Consultants, were apprehensive that it would command such a price. A spokesperson for the firm said before the sale on Friday: 'It is very difficult to predict how much it will fetch. It is an incredibly rare for a property to come up for sale in this locality, so there are no comparables.' The barn was subsequently bid up to a staggering £395,000, £120,000 above the initial guide price, and was finally sold to an unnamed local resident. The property is situated on a 2 acre site nestled into the North Lakeland foothills and the new owner will enjoy dramatic views across the Newlands Valley. Detailed consent has been secured to convert the current building, a tired ex-piggery, into a 139 square metre, 4-bedroomed house. It is reportedly the first residential development site in the Newlands Valley to be granted full planning consent in over thirty years. The purchase may yet prove to be a very shrewd investment. Neil Foster, Managing Director of CSH Residential, has valued the developed property at approximately £750,000. CSH Property Consultants
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Richard Rogers: 'Talking Buildings' is a fitting testament to the elegance of utilityA new exhibition at Sir John Soane's museum dissects the seminal works of Richard Rogers, one of Britain's greatest architects.
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'This is how the countryside looked to Gilbert White, to Thomas Hardy, even to Shakespeare and Chaucer': The forgotten corner of the world where King Charles has poured his energy into preserving an all-but-extinct way of lifeThe historic buildings of a Transylvanian settlement have been restored and preserved with the help of several foundations and backed by The King’s personal enthusiasm. Jeremy Musson reports on this remarkable place; photographs by Paul Highnam.
