Situated within the Cotswolds National Landscape some two miles north-east of Stroud, the village of Whiteshill overlooks the peaceful and secluded Ruscombe Valley, one of a series of steep-sided, wooded river valleys in this scenic part of Gloucestershire immortalised by Laurie Lee in his 1959 classic Cider with Rosie. Here, Ashley Harwood of Strutt & Parker in Cirencester seeks ‘offers in excess of £2 million’ for The Old Vicarage.

This gem — which, somehow, remains unlisted — stands in almost an acre of terraced, west-facing gardens on high ground on the edge of the village, with unfettered open views over Ruscombe Brook.

Approached along a private driveway screened by mature trees, the handsome stone house offers a high degree of privacy, while still having wonderful views across the Cotswolds.

It's a house that also has space — lots of space. There is 6,767sq ft of elegant accommodation on three floors, including three main reception rooms which all make the most of the location; who hasn't dreamed of situating their grand piano next to bifold doors that look out across one of England's most celebrated rural landscapes?

Upstairs, the bedroom arrangements are fairly fluid. As things stand, the floorplan shows three bedrooms and three bathrooms on the first floor — but it could easily be arranged as four or even five bedrooms.

The master bedroom is presently set up with a huge dressing room (around 16'x16') which could easily be a room of its own, while the bedroom at the far side of the house is laid out as a space, with its own bathroom and sitting room. It's ideal as a granny annexe, or even staff accommodation.

There is a second floor above as well, and it's dedicated entirely to work and play: there is a games room, cinema room and an office, as well as plenty of storage space.

Speaking of work and play, there is also a lower ground floor with a fully-equipped gym, steam room and sauna.

No expense has been spared in upgrading the interior, where traditional features such as stone mullioned windows, original fireplaces and exposed beams sit comfortably alongside contemporary details and some unashamedly stylish flourishes.

The modern touches are superb: Crittall-style doors, underfloor heating, and bespoke cabinetry are all here, while there is a dramatic oak-and-glass extension that floods the open-plan kitchen/dining/family room with natural light.

The Old Vicarage, Whitell, is for sale with Strutt & Parker — see more details.

Just last week we took a look at homes for sale which have been used in big-budget television series — and already there's another to add to the list. the sale of idyllic, Grade II-listed Bakers Mill at Frampton Mansell, which has been used as a film location for drama serials such as The House of Eliott and The Durrells. Part of that has been for its own beauty, and part for the former owner, the actress Daphne Neville, whose tame otters born and bred at this enchanted spot have played several starring roles. Daphne and her otter Rudi were even featured in Country Life in 2019.

Today, Bakers Mill is up for sale. Situated five miles east of Stroud and eight miles west of Cirencester, it's being sold by Knight Frank’s Cirencester team, who quote a guide price of £1.85 million for this magical Cotswold mill house.

As fine a place as the house is, what really makes this property is its setting. It stands amid just under 12 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, grounds and paddocks in a wonderfully private spot within the sheltered Golden Valley — named thus in 1909 by Queen Victoria due to the way the trees there keep their autumn leaves.

The property is for sale for the first time in more than 60 years, and in places it shows: a few updates are probably in order, though nothing drastic to upset the classic beamed ceilings, timber floors and stone fireplaces you'll find here.

Bakers Mill and its adjacent Twissels Mill, were actually working mills until around 1927, set below the charming villages of Frampton Mansell and Oakridge. The closure of the Thames & Severn Canal changed things, and the mills' working life came to an end.

Sympathetically converted thereafter, the main house offers 2,507 square feet of atmospheric accommodation over three floors, including two principal reception rooms, a kitchen/diner, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Twissels Mill, a former Georgian silk mill, was converted into a self-contained studio flat and a second one-bedroom flat on two floors, which was linked to the main house via a covered yard with a stable, workshop and stores in 1965.

The sun rises over the lake at Bakers Mill, a private stretch of water that could be restocked for double-bank fishing. A haven for wildlife, with resident mallard and kingfishers, there is potential to explore the use of the lake as an energy source, with historic infrastructure already in place.

Should you wish to follow the outgoing owners in keeping tame otters here, they'll be lucky animals to live in a spot like this. Sweeping gardens on three sides of the house include a waterfall, whereas to the west two good paddocks are currently grazed by sheep on either side of a quiet lane. The land follows the natural contours of the valley, with the River Frome running alongside the meadow and the glorious beech woods that line the hillside.

Bakers Mill is for sale through Knight Frank — see more details.

The romantic lure of a classic Cotswolds cottage is hard to beat — but it does come with compromises. Gorgeous as they may be, these golden stone homes often feature low ceilings, very modestly-sized rooms (by which we mean pokey), tiny windows that admit little light, and a lack of modern comforts. That's part of the charm, for many of us, but it's not the right fit for everyone.

Opting for a converted barn instead offers all the space and light you could ever need, while retaining the charming settings and that all-important coloured stone. One such barn currently on the market ticks all these boxes, and is also an easy commute to London: Goose Farm, in the village of Fritwell.

For sale via Knight Frank at £3.25 million, Goose Farm was converted in 2006, and has since been updated by the current owners — hence the pristine condition you'll find it in today.

At the heart of the 13-acre property is the main house, with five bedrooms and over 4,000sq ft of space. It's arranged in a U-shape with a courtyard terrace and formal garden at the centre.

Upon entering, a huge family room/games room is off to the right, while straight ahead you come to a kitchen, with bifold doors opening onto the terrace, and then a large, double-aspect drawing room that's big enough to swallow a large dining table, a grand piano and a lounge area arranged around the wonderful fireplace at one end.

The bedrooms are all on the other side of the layout, ideal for those times when half of your household want to get some sleep, while the other half are determined to stay up late to watch the football.

Beyond the main house, Goose Farm has several more spaces to offer. One of the other buildings has been turned into a party barn, right next to the wonderful outdoor pool, and equipped with its own kitchen and bathroom.

Above that 48ft party space — which could be turned to pretty much any use — you'll find a home office and a studio.

There's also The Gosling, a small, two-bedroom place within the grounds that's ideal as staff accommodation, multi-generational living, or perhaps for use as a holiday rental.

Beyond that, dotted throughout the open landscape and the lake, are more outbuildings and barns, brining the total space on offer to just under 9,000 sq ft. That's quite a find for a home that's on the edge of a village big enough to have a primary school, shop and pub.

Goose Farm has one further string to its bow: situated between Bicester and Oxford, it also has easy access to the M40 down to London, while trains from Bicester to London Marylebone take three-quarters of an hour. This is a Cotswolds home that is genuinely commutable.

Goose Farm is for sale through Knight Frank — see more details.

The King visited Kirtlington Park frequently during his polo-playing days and he no doubt liked what he saw when he stepped inside the glorious Grade I-listed, Palladian house. The same could be said of ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell, who held her 1997 wedding reception in the great hall. Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor is said to have once tried to purchase the place, but was turned away.

Set in 29 acres of glorious gardens and parkland on the edge of the Oxfordshire village of Kirtlington, six miles from Woodstock and 11 miles from Oxford, Kirtlington Park House enjoys spectacular views over the surrounding estate towards the Chiltern Hills. Now, following a comprehensive programme of restoration and enhancement, it is for sale for the first time in 54 years, at a guide price of £12 million through Crispin Holborow of Savills Private Office and Charles Elsmore-Wickens of Savills in Oxford.

The Dashwood family were large-scale landowners in Oxfordshire for more than two centuries from 1682, when Robert Dashwood acquired the manor of Kirtlington on his marriage to the heiress Penelope Chamberlayne; the creation of the Kirtlington baronetcy followed in 1684.

Kirtlington House was built for Robert’s grandson, Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet, between 1742 and 1746 by master-builder William Smith of Warwick, with interiors by the architect John Sanderson, who finalised plans originally put forward by James Gibbs, the designer of Oxford’s Radcliffe Camera and nearby Ditchley Park. Kirtlington’s famous parkland was probably laid out by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown in the early 1750s.

Sir James and his family moved into Kirtlington Park House in 1745, although some parts of the building were still unfinished when he died in 1779, because he had been forced to settle huge debts run up by his son, Sir Henry Dashwood, a compulsive gambler. The saloon and the main staircase were eventually completed in the 1820s by Sir Henry’s son, Sir George Dashwood, 4th Baronet.

The Dashwood family lived at Kirtlington Park until 1909, when the 3,000-acre estate was sold twice in two decades, firstly to the Earl of Leven and Melville and then, in 1921, to Hubert Budgett. It was he who, in 1926, founded the Kirtlington Park Polo Club, which is still run by the family today.

In 1931, Budgett sold Kirtlington Park’s entire Rococo dining room to the Metro-politan Museum of Art in New York, where it remains one of the American museum’s most important English period rooms. The money raised by the sale helped the Budgett family tackle dry rot, which had been found in the house at the time.

In 1972, property developer Christopher Buxton acquired Kirtlington Park House, gardens and the immediate Capability Brown parkland, and he converted the east and west wings into separate residential units, which were sold on 99-year leases. Buxton lived at Kirtlington Park House until his death in 2017, when it passed to his kinsman, Peter Buxton, and his wife, Eleanor.

During their tenure, they have improved and redecorated the house and enjoyed it as a much-loved family home at the same time as building an exclusive wedding and events business to help fund the renovation works. These included repairs to the roof, stonework, windows and interiors, with upgrades to plumbing, electrical and wifi systems, and the installation of new kitchens and bathrooms.

Approached via a long, sweeping drive from the edge of the village, Kirtlington Park House comprises a central block of four floors flanked by two wings, and entered via a grand external staircase that leads to the piano nobile — the principal floor centred around an impressive hall with plasterwork by Thomas Roberts of Oxford.

Over the great fireplace carved by John Cheere is a magnificent Grinling Gibbons carving of 1695, acquired by the Dashwood family long before they built the main house.

The saloon to the rear of the house is a ball-room with a 36ft-high ceiling. Radiating from this is a series of elegant reception rooms, including the drawing room, the original dining room (the marble fireplace of which is a skilful copy of the original by John Cheere, now in the Metropolitan Museum), the library, with its splendid Rococo interior and exquisite plasterwork ceiling, the dining room and the morning room.

Perhaps the most charming of all, however, is the celebrated monkey room with its decorative ceiling, painted in 1760 by the French artist Andien de Clermont and depicting monkeys engaged in human sporting pursuits in the mid-18th-century style known as singerie.

The ground floor offers secondary and leisure accommodation, including a billiards room, gym, butler’s pantry, wine cellars, stores, plant rooms and a catering kitchen, with the arched former servants hall serving as a games room and cinema.

In all, Kirtlington Park House offers some 37,000sq ft of elegant accommodation, including 17 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, which are laid out across the two top floors.

In recent years, parts of the gardens have been thoughtfully refined with guidance from Tom Stuart-Smith, always respecting the original vision of Capability Brown. Meanwhile, a defining feature of the landscape is Brown’s lake in the far distance, which creates a masterful sense of perspective from the house and gardens.

Kirtlington Park House is for sale through Savills — see more details.

A version of this feature originally appeared in the June 17, 2026, print edition of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.

Condicote — £21.65 million

There are half a million acres in the Cotswolds AONB, and the new owners of Hinchwick Manor Estate will own just under a quarter of a percent of the whole lot — at over 900 acres, this is a vast stretch of land. As you'd expect, there are several properties included (including a five-bedroom barn conversion) , but the Grade II-listed manor house at the centre of it all is utterly magnificent.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Just outside Bath — £13.95 million

Just a short drive from Bath — and also within easy reach of Bristol — the incongrously-named Beach House is a joy, with a mix of Georgian architecture and Clive Christian-designed interiors.

It's a wonderful blend, from the grand and ornate reception rooms to a playroom that looks like a private soft play centre, and its own private pub. Six more properties within the 57 acres come as part of the deal.

For sale via Knight Frank — see more details and pictures.

Also just outside Bath — £12.5 million

A former monastery, St Catherine's Court is no stranger to A-list superstars: it was for many years the home of actress (and iconic Bond girl) Jane Seymour. There's not a huge amount of land (14 acres) but it's delightful as far as the eye can see — and the main house is genuinely spectacular inside and out.

And yes, there is indeed a tennis court should you wish to indulge in some Rivals-style naked racquet sports.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Malmesbury — £9.5 million

Imagine a Cotswolds mansion crossed with an Arts-and-Crafts house, all designed by a tech billionaire... and the result would probably be something along the lines of Ladyswood, a country house that tears up the rulebook in fine style.

It's bold, for sure, but is all done with a vast amount of style and panache — and the stables are the sort of thing that would bring out the Rupert Campbell-Black in anyone.

For sale via Strutt & Parker — see more details and pictures.

Badminton — £9.5 million

This ivy-clad home is so beautiful it could bring a tear to the eye, but it's more than just charming and quaint. It's a 15,000sq ft mansion with a vastly impressive leisure suite, grand reception rooms and eight bedrooms. As for the gardens? They're a joy, laid out beautifully with all sorts of secret corners for illicit trysts. Jilly Cooper would definitely approve.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Cirencster — £9 million

You'd never think it at first glance, but this house is actually only 12 years old: it's a conversion of a 19th century, stone-built series of barns. The owners have really leant in to the olde-worlde style, though, with exposed beams, open fires, medieval-style chandeliers and even some folly-style ancient ruins in the gardens.

For sale via Knight Frank — see more details and pictures.

Despite the vagaries of the current ‘hit-and-miss’ marketplace, Seb Hipwood of Blue Book (07535 150888) has been heartened by the early response to the recent launch onto the market of Grade II-listed Hilmarton Manor, set in 4½ acres of enchanting gardens near Calne, Wiltshire, for which he quotes a guide price of £3 million.

Originally built in the mid 19th century as a shooting lodge on the Poynder family’s Hilmarton estate and later enlarged in about 1910, the manor was the principal house on the estate before being sold in 1936, following the death of John Dickson-Poynder, 1st and last Lord Islington.

Renovated and refurbished to an exacting standard by the current owners, the house, which boasts some fine late-Georgian features, provides more than 7,400sq ft of versatile family living space.

Downstairs, there's a sprawling floorplan with so many rooms you might need to keep the sat nav on for the first few weeks after moving in.

The reception hall is at the heart of things, leading off to a dining room, study, library and a separate dining hall which attaches to the kitchen, plus a grand stone staircase that takes you to the seven bedrooms, all but two of which have en-suite bathrooms.

It's not just the list of spaces that's impressive, though: it's the style with which everything has been done. It's a delightful mix of old and new, pretty much everywhere you look.

Beyond the hallway, however, there is far more to come. Several more rooms are arranged around a pair of courtyards, with kitchen, butler’s pantry, utility, boot room and cellar all accessible.

A separate wing contains both a cinema room and one of the most extravagant home gyms we've seen in a long time.

The gardens include the owners’ pride and joy: a colourful walled garden with a cutting garden and a kitchen garden. A huge gardener's store (it's almost 70ft long) can hold every plant and tool you could think of, while there is also a generously-sized greenhouse.

Also in the grounds you'll find a delightful swimming lake, which is a new addition to the house — or at least, it definitely wasn't there when it came up for sale in Country Life in 1955.

Natural swimming pools can be chilly, but the good news is that the owners have also installed a sauna house close by, to warm you up after your dip. There's also a rare and original shell house.

Hilmarton Manor is for sale through Blue Book — see more details.

Dame Mary Berry's daughter Belles Berry clearly has cooking in her DNA. She trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and not long ago co-authored a bestselling cookbook, Menolicious.

But it turns out that the daughter of the national treasure and former Great British Bake Off judge is just as talented with art and design as she is with food. We know this because her Oxfordshire home, Blenheim Farm, is up for sale — and it is an absolute feast for the eyes.

The words 'Oxfordshire farmhouse' usually refer to a crumbling-round-the-edges Georgian home, but not in this case. Instead, it's a wildly colourful, contemporary family home near Ewelme that throws a joyful challenge at the idea of what a country home could and should be.

The agent, Stephen Christie-Miller, describes it as ‘one of the most spectacular contemporary homes I’ve seen.’ And that pretty much covers it for us as well.

Approached from afar there are clues to its modern take in the abundance of glazing and its low profile within the charming gardens and the 10 acres of land that it sits in.

It's inside, however, where the fun really starts. The open-plan kitchen/dining/family room is vast — 46ft by 23ft — and takes up an entire quarter of the ground floor of the 4,100 sq ft main house.

Beyond being a place to cook, eat and cook, it's also a hub for the ground flooor, connecting to the imposing entrance hall — with its aquamarine tiles and a water feature — as well a study and the wonderful office-slash-library (pictured at the top of the page), where bookshelves reach from floor to ceiling and brightly-coloured furniture and fittings are illuminated from above by the skylight.

There's more of that to come: the sitting room is tucked away off a different corner of the hall, and it's astonishing. The walls are decked in startling hues of yellow, pink, blue and more — and once your eyes focus, you realise that the whole space is decorated with floor-to-ceiling pop-art, where Warhol's tins of soup sit alongside James Bond, Wonderwoman and JFK.

The five bedrooms and bathrooms: over here, a polished copper bath; over there, an armoire so charmingly stylised that you half-expect it to burst into song like its counterpart Beauty and the Beast-style.

The entire house is built on one storey, with all the living spaces on one side and all the accommodation on the other, making a logical split between the sides of the house — and thanks to what look like double-thickness walls between the halves, soundproofing on this six-year-old building appears good enough that you can throw a party without worrying about waking up the kids.

For make no mistake: this is a party house on a grand scale, where even an ordinary light fitting has been replaced with a disco ball.

And beyond the main house, there's more for those looking to have fun: a swimming pool, tennis court and a fantastic gym/party barn/games room are within the grounds. There's even a separate cottage.

The space around the buildings grounds are a mix of formal areas and fields, including a rose garden that is full of Dame Mary's favourite bloom, ‘Chandos Beauty’, which produces Hybrid Tea flowers in Champagne and pale-apricot hues.

Blenheim Farm is for sale through Savills — see more details.

The Cotswolds seems to be popping up everywhere you look at the moment — Badminton Horse Trials last week, the new series of Disney+'s adaptation of Rivals this week — so, quite naturally, anyone who's ever toyed with the idea of moving to his beautiful part of England will be looking for a great country home. And they don't come much greater than the historic, Grade II*-listed Ashley Manor, fresh to the market, with Ed Sugden of Savills quoting a guide price of £6.5 million.

That puts it towards the very top end of the Cotswolds market, but with good reason: this is an exquisitely renovated manor house which, according to David Verey’s Buildings of England: Gloucestershire, The Cotswolds (1970), is built around a 15th-century core, with east and west wings added in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

And the house is just the start: Ashley Manor comes with 17 acres of gardens and pasture land, including stabling and outbuildings, in a dream location. For Ashley itself is the sort of place you'd imagine when thinking of the Cotswolds: it's a timeless Cotswold hamlet of honey-coloured houses, barns and cottages set within the Cotswolds National Landscape, four miles north-east of Tetbury, eight miles south-west of Cirencester and 14 miles from Badminton.

Secluded Ashley Manor offers more than 6,500sq ft of characterful accommodation on three floors, including on the ground floor, where there is an entrance lobby, dining hall, library, drawing room, sitting room, kitchen/breakfast room, utility and larder, with extensive cellars below.

The first floor houses the principal bedroom suite in the west wing, with two further suites in the east wing.

The second floor provides two bedrooms and a bathroom in the west wing, with two further bedrooms, a shower room and store room in the east wing.

Further accommodation is available in the one-bedroom stable cottage and the triple-aspect barn with its vaulted ceiling. Outbuildings include garaging, a pool house, and a stable block with three boxes, a tackroom, workshop and garden office.

The gardens, designed and created by the present owners, form a series of ‘rooms’ separated by mature yew hedging and Cotswold stone walls. Far-reaching views take the eye down an avenue of oriental plane trees to the open countryside beyond.

Nearby, the topiary and summerhouse garden boasts a south-facing stone summerhouse, currently used as an art studio. On the southern boundary, the enclosed swimming pool garden is a wonderfully private spot in which to while away the hours.

In the late 16th century, the manor of Ashley was given by Elizabeth I to a maid of honour, Helena Snakenborg, whose husband, Sir Thomas Gorges, was ambassador to Sweden in 1582. It was he who arrested Mary, Queen of Scots in 1586 and he held various influential posts at Court until his death in 1610. On Helena’s death in 1635, the manor passed to her son, Sir Theobald Gorges, who almost certainly built the earlier part of the present house. He died in 1647, leaving the estate to his nephew Richard, later Baron Gorges.

In 1709, having no direct heirs, Lord Gorges settled the estate on a distant cousin, Ferdinando Gorges, on the occasion of his marriage, at which point the house was extended and altered, as date stones of 1712 and 1715 clearly show. On Ferdinando’s death in 1738, the estate passed to a cousin, John Beresford, who died four years later. The manor was then acquired by Onesiphorus Paul, a wealthy clothier, whose son, Sir George Onesiphorus Paul, sold it to neighbouring landowner Thomas Estcourt of Estcourt Park in 1790.

In 1920, it was acquired by a Mr Hoskins and it remained in his family until, in 2004, the present owners bought the estate and commissioned the well-known conservation architects Watson Bertram & Fell of Bath to carry out a meticulous, two-year-long renovation of the atmospheric manor house.

Ashley Manor is for sale via Savills — see more details.

You'll have seen Bridge House before. We can pretty much guarantee it.

If you Google the Cotswolds, it's usually the first picture that comes up. Take a look at the Wikipedia page for The Cotswolds, and it's their lead image. And if Lonely Planet ever publish The Cotswolds on a Shoestring, it'll almost certainly be the picture on the front cover. We say this with some certainty since it's the featured photo on their things to see in the Cotswolds story online.

The reason for this is that it's the house right in the middle of Castle Combe, the village that's repeatedly been called The Prettiest Village in England. Set amid the gently rolling hills of Wiltshire, this is the undisputed gem of the south Cotswolds, an impossibly charming place of 17th century cottages, meandering streams and charming bridges built from honey-hued stone. It's been used for the filming of countless films and TV shows: everything from Dr Dolittle to War Horse has been shot here.

In short, Castle Combe is the Platonic ideal of the Cotswolds village — and Bridge House is right at the very heart of the place. And now it's come up for sale, with an asking price of £1.395 million.

Bridge House, on the right-hand side of all those pictures, is unarguably the most photographed house in what is arguably the prettiest village in Britain — but you can't live in a photograph. The good news, then, is that it's just as charming inside as it is out.

At its heart this isn't actually one cottage, but several that have been brought together as one home over the years (its Grade II listing at Historic England details those changes). That's very much a good thing: a cottage that's four centuries old isn't necessarily a good family house if there's no room to swing the proverbial cat, but Bridge House as it stands today has over 2,700 sq ft of space. There's a huge drawing room as you enter the house, with a vaulted ceiling and mezzanine gallery, plus a family room just beyond.

The period features are everything you'd hope to find: a striking oak staircase, an inglenook fireplace, stone mullion windows, exposed stonework, delightfully gnarled beams and more.

Move through the house into the newer rear section, though, and you'll find a different kind of charm and grandeur: the dining room, kitchen (complete with bottle green Aga) and garden room are beautifully done.

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms, one of which is en-suite, plus a family bathroom. It's currently set out as a lovely family home. The twin beds in one of the rooms give a clue as to why the current vendors are moving on — the search for a bit more space comes to us all — but so long as this set-up meets your needs, the rooms themselves are delightful.

And while the key to the house's appeal lies in the honey-coloured village outside the front door, there's a huge amount of good news outside the back door as well. There are gardens of almost half an acre, plus workshop, studio, loggia and garage, plus more parking. You'll never have to battle with the day trippers over a place to leave your car.

All in all, then, every box is ticked here. 'Bridge House is a quintessential Cotswold home in one of my favourite villages,' says the agent, Matthew Pegler of Savills. 'The property blends refined contemporary comforts with an abundance of 17th-century charm.' But if you take the plunge, just don't be surprised if you one day find your home on the front cover of the latest Lonely Planet... or maybe the occasional copy of Country Life.

Bridge House is for sale via Savills — see more details.

Back in 2015, when the poet and broadcaster Pam Ayres and her husband, Dudley Russell, were selling handsome Georgian, Grade II-listed Norcote House, their cherished Cotswold home of 30 years set in 20 acres of pasture, paddocks and woodland on the outskirts of Cirencester, Pam wondered what advice she should give the next owners and wrote: ‘Shall I tell them there are bulbs already peeping? Shall I ask them to tread lightly where my faithful dogs are sleeping? Shall I point to little saplings which to mighty trees have grown? Or slip away in silence; let them make this place their own.’ So many questions; it makes you wonder why Pam didn't just ask her husband.

The conversation with the buyers at the time probably never took place, although, a decade later, as a beautifully refurbished Norcote House comes back to the market at a guide price of £3.5 million through joint agents Savills and Cirencester-based Sharvell Property, it is clear that the vendors have indeed made this very special place their own.

Approached along a private driveway less than two miles east of the lively market town of Cirencester, Norcote House combines classic proportions with a calm, design-led interior that provides more than 8,000sq ft of easy family living space on three floors.

Accommodation includes entrance and inner halls, a large kitchen/breakfast room, dining and drawing rooms, a study, cellar, sitting room, boot room, office, cinema room and gym, six bedrooms and six bathrooms.

The charming, wisteria-clad coach house provides two additional self-contained units: a one-bedroom, ground-floor apartment with a two-bedroom apartment above.

The house sits well within its own land, which lies predominantly to the rear, creating a strong sense of space and seclusion with open views over the surrounding countryside.

‘Whether maintained as parkland, put to equestrian use, or reimagined as a rewilding or conservation project, Norcote House offers a combination of scale, quality and land that is increasingly rare in the Cotswolds,’ says selling agent Plum Fenton of Savills.

Norcote House is for sale through Savills and Sharvell Property at £3.5 million — see more details.

'Even when the village was closed and the residents couldn't park their cars, they never complained,' Downton Abbey's executive producer Gareth Neame said a few years ago of the people of the Oxfordshire village of Bampton.

That says a lot of the 2,994 residents of this postcard-perfect Cotswolds village, for ever since the ITV show first came to television screens in 2010, their lives have been somewhat upended. First came a succession of camera crews, actors, catering vans and the like; and then, not too long after, came the coachloads of tourists desperate to visit the place that stood in for the fictional Yorkshire village of Downton.

Look over here and you'll see Downton hospital, and the village pub; over there, the former home of Matthew Crawley. And round the corner, just past the village green, you'll see the church where [spoiler alert] the butler, Mr Carson, married the housekeeper, Mrs Hughes.

Why merely pass through on a coach tour, though, when you could live here full time? An opportunity has arisen to do just that. And even if it weren't in a much-storied village then The Old Forge — for sale at £925,000 via Strutt & Parker — would still be a wonderful country home with a great story to tell.

As the name gives away, this house didn't start life as a family home. Four hundred years ago, The Old Forge would have been frenetic, filled with flame, molten metal and perhaps a horse or two.

The incumbents then would struggle to recognise what it has become: a quiet and elegant Grade II-listed home designed for comfortable living.

While it looks quaint, it's deceptively large at around 2,500 sq ft. Five cosy bedrooms (with the option of a sixth) fill the first and second floors, with two reception rooms on the ground floor made up of a spacious sitting room and a smaller snug perfect for quiet contemplation.

French-grey cabinetry, wood work surfaces and a deep Belfast sink make for an attractive kitchen and there is space for a dining table, too.

The Old Forge even has a fine little garden at the back, away from the streets. It really is a perfect little idyll.

The Old Forge in Bampton is for sale via Strutt & Parker — see more details.

The Cotswolds is easy on the eye, with its gently rolling landscape and homes of honey-coloured stone. There is, too, plenty to do in this neck of the woods, thanks to the bustling market towns with their alluring shops, plus, of course, nearby Cheltenham racecourse, which hosts 16 fixtures a year, including the famous Festival.

Amid all this charm, one of the grandest estates in the Cotswolds has come on to the open the market: the Asquith family’s secluded, 1,334-acre Hinchwick Manor estate at Condicote, Gloucestershire. Crispin Holborow of Savills Private Office is handling the sale, with an asking price of £26 million for the the whole.

The family are also happy to split the sale into lots, with the main Hinchwick Manor house plus 76 acres priced at £9 million.

‘It’s a real privilege to be involved in the sale. Hinchwick Manor estate is in the absolute sweet spot for anyone looking to live in the north Cotswolds,' says Holbrow.

'The manor, with its remarkable courtyard, offers exceptional versatility and the surrounding landscape, with its wonderful rolling hills and belts of mature woodland, provides a timeless backdrop in a prime location that has changed little over the centuries.’

Located some five miles equidistant from Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold, and 16-odd miles from Cheltenham (and in an area that has produced a few Festival winners), Hinchwick comes to the open market following the death in May 2024 of Stephen Asquith — a great-grandson of H. H. Asquith, the Liberal statesman and prime minister — who inherited the historic farming estate in the 1980s.

One of the most intriguing and unspoilt country estates in the Cotswolds, Hinchwick comprises the imposing Grade II-listed manor house, with its picturesque octagonal courtyard of traditional farm barns, set amid well-managed gardens, pasture and woodland, together with a portfolio of estate cottages and two independent farms. These are Hinchwick Hill, with 699 acres of arable, pasture, woodland and valleys with evident sporting potential, and Alders Farm, a 558-acre commercial operation with grain, livestock and storage facilities.

As mentioned earlier, this great estate is offered either as a whole, at a guide price of £26 million, or in four lots. The £9 million Lot 1 is the manor house with its courtyard, a delightful converted barn known as Scarlet Sub Edge and its surrounding fields, some 77 acres in all.

Living in such a grand place might seem a daunting prospect, but the reality is a little different: this is no dusty-museum of a property, but a very liveable home. Behind Hinchwick’s grand country-house exterior the main house offers more than 8,000sq ft of living space on three floors, much of which was reconfigured and adapted for easy family living over the years and now presents a blank canvas for a future custodian.

The drawing room and dining room, which flank the flag-stoned central hall, provide the main entertaining spaces and a network of smaller family and services rooms was rearranged in the early noughties to create a much larger kitchen and breakfast room.

The first floor houses the principal bedroom suite, two further en-suite bedrooms and a family sitting room, with seven bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor.

The octagon of buildings to the east of the house incorporates two sensitively converted barns — the aforementioned Scarlet Sub Edge to the south and a former threshing barn to the north.

Hinchwick's origins can be traced to a small sub-manor estate granted in the 12th century to Oxfordshire’s Bruern Abbey, which developed it as a productive farming unit until the Dissolution in 1536. Since then, the estate, situated in the remote upper Dikler valley to the north-west of Stow, has remained largely agricultural in character, with the focus on sheep and corn production from the 16th century onwards, before the introduction of mixed arable and livestock rearing in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the late 18th century, Hinchwick was already a well-defined small farming estate, which was unaffected by the enclosure, in 1778, of the open fields of southern Condicote, when much of that land was divided among four major local estates. This happy state remained until, in 1826, John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne, sold Hinchwick to Sir Charles Cockerell of the adjoining Sezincote estate, where Sir Charles’s elder brother, the architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell, designed the Grade I-listed Sezincote House in 1805, having previously designed nearby Daylesford in 1790.

In 1826, Pepys Cockerell’s architect son, Charles Robert Cockerell, designed the present Hinchwick Manor to replace an earlier manor farmhouse. Hinchwick remained part of the Sezincote estate until the 1920s, being acquired in 1927 by Roger Pilkington of the eponymous glass-making family, who, in 1937, significantly enlarged the house in the Cotswold manor-house style.

He also expanded the landholding to some 700 acres by integrating it with the nearby Manor Farm for sheep, corn, beef and dairy production. By the mid 20th century, however, the estate had shifted largely to grassland, although the Second World War brought increased arable cultivation before there was a reversion to pastoral use.

Stephen Asquith’s early experience of life at Hinchwick Manor was as a boy during the Second World War, when he and his mother went to live there with his mother’s great-aunt, Helen Pilkington. Later, after a spell in the merchant navy, he returned to live and farm on part of the estate, eventually moving to the manor with his family as its new owner in 1988.

Hinchwick Manor and the Hinchwick Estate are for sale through Savills — see more details.

Launching in Country Life this week, at a guide price of £5m through Anthony Coaker of Savills in Cirencester, is Grade II-listed Aycote House at Rendcomb. This fine Cotswolds country house looks like it could have been here for centuries; in fact, it's much newer, having been designed by the eminent Arts-and-Crafts architect Norman Jewson and built between 1929 and 1932. That relative newness gives it a crucial advantage over many country houses in the area — of which more later.

Prominently located on the high ground of the scenic Churn valley some six miles north of the Roman market town, Aycote House, set in 13¾ acres of gardens and pasture, boasts spectacular views over four surrounding counties — Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire.

Built of local stone, much of it quarried on site, Aycote House is laid out on an L-plan, with a steeply pitched stone slate roof and a striking, south-east-facing garden front with projecting gabled wings and a central, five-sided, two-storey bay window.

The interior has many notable features, including tall ceilings, stone mullioned windows, a beautifully crafted staircase, beamed ceilings and open fireplaces. The layout is versatile, with a selection of reception rooms that cater for both formal and informal entertaining.

In all, the elegant main house offers 7,685sq ft of living space on three floors, including three principal reception rooms, a study, kitchen/breakfast and sitting areas, eight double bedrooms and five bathrooms.

According to British History Online, the high ground — also once owned by Bruern Abbey — was originally cultivated as open fields, with the valley below providing rich meadow land, although most of the hillsides appear to have been wooded from ancient times. In 1837, the Rendcomb Park estate, which was owned by the Guise family for more than 200 years from the 1600s, boasted 285 acres of woodland.

Rendcomb remained in the Guise family until 1864 when Sir John Wright Guise sold the estate to Sir Francis Goldsmid, MP for Reading, who rebuilt the manor house and gentrified the village. In 1883, Goldsmid’s nephew sold Rendcomb to James Taylor, a Bradford cotton manufacturer, whose executors sold off much of the land in 1914.

The post-war years brought the break-up of the once-proud 1,000-acre farming estate, which saw Frederick Noel Wills acquire the manor house and village, where he founded Rendcomb College in 1920. Later in the decade, Jewson would oversee the building of Aycote House on a lofty wooded site overlooking Rendcomb Park on the west side of the valley, one of only two country houses designed by him in the Cotswold style that remained true to his Arts-and-Crafts principles.

For owner Philip Dinkel, a retired international architect of considerable distinction, ‘the great feature of Aycote House is that it has a damp-proof course, which, unlike the usual Cotswold historic houses, keeps it warm and dry’.

Having acquired the classic Cotswolds house from a German shipping broker in 1996, Mr Dinkel has painstakingly maintained and upgraded the building to modern standards of efficiency and comfort.

Not only that, in 2007, inspired by Jewson’s design principles, he added The Tallet (old English for a loft, in this instance a charming three-car coach house with a guest suite above).

This extra building stands away from the main house and is built in the Cotswold vernacular, using natural stone and incorporating enhanced thermal insulation.

Aycote House is for sale through Savills at £5 million — see more details.

Impeccably situated six miles from Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, seven miles from Broadway, Worcestershire, and nine miles from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, the pretty village of Pebworth, in Worcestershire’s south-east corner, is one of the north Cotswolds’ best-kept secrets.

Dominated by 13th century church of St Peter — a Grade I-listed landmark — and reputedly once a haunt of William Shakespeare, much of the village was owned in the 19th century by the Shekell family, one of whom built the Victorian Pebworth Manor in 1849 — and it is this house that is now up for sale at £2.25 million.

Unseen from any road, it enjoys magnificent distant views over the Malvern Hills, yet benefits from easy access to the capital, via regular services to London Paddington from Honeybourne mainline station two miles away.

Now for sale through Rupert Wakley of Jackson-Stops in Chipping Campden, the exquisite small manor house, which is unlisted, sits tucked away within the village conservation area surrounded by some magnificent specimen trees, among them a towering Wellingtonia.

The house was not in great shape when, in the early 2000s, it was bought by Anne Corstorphine and her late husband, John, a dynamic Scottish architect who came south to co-found the well-known Birmingham- based firm of Corstorphine & Wright with his friend Tom Wright.

The couple had already fallen in love with Pebworth, having owned a holiday home there for several years, and they lost no time in restoring and upgrading the manor, which stands in mature landscaped gardens with ample parking, a vegetable garden and three-acre paddock, just under six acres in all.

It now offers about 5,000sq ft of stylish accommodation on three floors, including a reception hall, four reception rooms, a remodelled kitchen/breakfast/family room, utilities and a gym on the ground floor.

The upper two floors contained the bedrooms — consisting of a principal bedroom suite and six further bedrooms — while there are two further bathrooms and a music-slash-cinema room.

Pebworth Manor is for sale via Jackson-Stops — see more details.

I’d never heard of Ford before this week. I mean, I’d heard of Ford, the car company, of course. And I once caught a train from Ford station, in West Sussex. But I’d never heard of the Gloucestershire hamlet of Ford. And now I can’t think about much else.

The reason for me coming across this charming spot — full of beautiful cottages built from golden Cotswolds stone, with an award-winning pub and a proper red telephone box — is that one of the best houses in the village has come on to the market. It’s called Ford Manor — and it’s enchanting. It’s the sort of place they’d put on the cover of Lonely Planet: The Cotswolds, should that book ever come to exist. Savills are the agents, and they list it for sale at £2 million.

It’s name suggests that this home has been the local manor house for centuries, but that’s not actually the case. Dating to the 18^th century, it was originally three separate cottages, but in the 1930s they were combined in to one to make a single, larger home that is now Grade II-listed.

Far from being an issue, the conversion from three homes into one actually seems to have helped the flow. Take the gorgeous, vaulted kitchen-diner as an example: it's effectively a separate building that’s flooded with light from Velux windows, and linked to the rest of the house via a passageway. French doors open directly onto a south-facing terrace. It’s bliss.

In the main part of the house, you’re in a classic Cotswolds cottage. Built in local stone under a traditional pitched roof, there are period features throughout: flagstone floors, ancient beams, mullioned windows with leaded panes, and original fireplaces in the living room, dining room and study.

There are three bedrooms and a family bathroom on the first floor, and another bathroom and bedroom on the second floor. The master bedroom has an en-suite bathroom, and also a feature I don't ever recall seeing in a Cotswolds cottage before: it's own separate staircase leading up to a second-floor dressing room.

The gardens — as the pictures here show — aren’t huge (two-thirds of an acre) but they just as idyllic as the rest of the place: terraces, lawns, and flower beds, ringed by mature trees to give you plenty of privacy.

And there’s another bonus within the grounds: an entirely separate garden room that’s set up as a self-contained annexe, with its own kitchen and shower room. It’s perfect for guests, multi-generational living, or use as a very fine home office.

In short, there’s a lot of property here — almost 4,000sq ft, once you take into account that garden annexe and a couple of storage areas in an outbuilding that the owners have dubbed ‘The Pavilion’.

But it’s not the space, the suite with upstairs dressing room or the garden bolt-hole that’s the big draw here: it’s the prospect of living in a home with an ‘atmosphere of understated character and gentle refinement’, as the agents put it. What a joy.

Ford Manor is for sale via Savills at £2 million — see more pictures and details.

Many houses on the banks of the River Thames seem almost shy about their location. They might be set back a bit from the water, for example; or hidden among the trees, seeking out privacy while retaining the views that make them so special.

Sagamore — for sale at £5.25 million in a spot near the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames, and on one of the prettiest stretches of the entire river — is the exact opposite. It stands tall, bold and proud within yards of the water's edge, positioned just-so in an elbow of the river, as if it's an actor stretching its arms our to soak up the applause. Small wonder, then, that this was for many years the home of a real-life showman: the singer Vince Hill, a pop star of the 1960s who had a huge hit with the definitive recording of Edelweiss.

Hill and his wife Annie lived happily at this beautiful spot on the river for many years. Annie died in 2016, and Hill lived here until he passed away in 2023.

This is a true family home: six bedrooms, six reception rooms and three floors, with plenty of outdoor space, a huge kitchen-diner and two separate 'wet' boathouses, the type which let you get in and out of your boat under cover and away from the main flow of the stream. It's nice to know that there's no need to take your chances on a rickety jetty here — and as someone who ended up falling in the River Severn at Ironbridge a couple of years ago, I know of what I speak.

As well as the main accommodation in the house there are also extensive cellars, whose walls still bear graffiti daubed during the Second World War, presumably by bored children awaiting the all-clear siren following an air raid.

There are a few upgrades needed here and there — not least in the gardens, terraces and patios — but this is a fine home, from the hallway with its stained glass window, to the dining room with its stone fireplace, to the high spec kitchen whose appliances are, we understand from the agents, included in the sale.

As nice as all that is, though, the real draw here is, of course, the river. Views of the water are there from most of the rooms, the terraces offer places to sit out by the water's edge, and there's even a dual-aspect 'river room' above one of the boat houses.

No wonder the agents are marketing this as 'one of the most iconic and substantial riverside mansions on this superb reach of the river Thames'.

Sagamore is for sale via Knight Frank at £5.25 million — see more details.

'It takes quite a lot to make me stop and say wow, but every once in a while there is a home that achieves the feat.' So wrote Country Life's James Fisher last summer in his piece on Middleton House, simultaneously discussing one of England's great country houses, and one of the little downsides of a job which involves an awful lot of looking at those country houses.

This is, as you'd expect from James's words, quite a house — if that's even a word you can use when describing a vast, Grade I-listed Oxfordshire masterpiece property that comes with 86 acres of land, a string of lodges (like the main house, designed by Edwin Lutyens) as well as several cottages, an 18th century ice house, outbuildings, and even a cricket pavilion. With cricket pitch, naturally.

The asking price for this beauty and glory was originally £18 million — but it's since been reduced by £3 million to £15 million. The vendors are also happy to split up the wider estate, with the main house plus 'only' 38 acres available at £9.75 million.

No prospective buyer should be worried about that cut. Pricing great country houses — and castles, and estates, and properties that haven't changed hands for centuries — is as much art and science, as Lucy Denton brilliantly explained last November. Even then, things change; we live in a rapidly changing, globalised world now means that the old rules of who can and can't afford Amount x for House y are changing all the time. An Nvidia executive could probably fly over from Taiwan and drop the asking price for Middleton House with his or her last quarterly bonus.

So what lies in store for whoever takes on Middleton House? This is no medieval pile with centuries of history, but instead the creation of the aforementioned Lutyens, one of the 20th century's great architects, who worked alongside his son Robert to create this home of 27 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, and almost 30,000 sq ft of living space.

Lutyens was commissioned by the 9th Earl of Jersey, and the house was completed in 1938. As if to prove the earlier point about an ever-changing world, just a generation later in the 1970s, the main house was converted into 18 very tasteful flats. If you — or the Nvidia executive you're bidding against — wish to turn Middleton back into a single home, significant work will need to be done, and given the listing status all that will need to be done in consultation with Historic England.

Wrinkles such as these aren't insurmountable, but they'll take a lot of work. This is a home that'll need patience, tenacity, good solicitors and deep pockets.

There's no question that the work will be worthwhile. This is one of the finest privately-owned buildings in Oxfordshire — and since that £3 million price cut, is now only the second most expensive on the open market in the county at the moment. It's £1 million less than Newington House, which is a smaller but prettier, less grand but perhaps a little more charming — Middleton is like an Oxfordshire Versailles, whereas Newington is more of a Tuscan palazzo. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Middleton House is for sale via Savills at £15 million for the whole estate — see more details.

The search for the perfect country cottage is the property market's answer to the quest for the Holy Grail. Should it be thatched or tiled? Is it okay to be spacious so long as it's charming, or does it need to be a dinky little two or three-bedroom place? And how about the garden; a picture of perfection, or slightly overgrown?

There's no one size fits all, but perhaps the closest is the cottage featured in the 2006 film The Holiday, a movie almost universally panned by serious critics, and seemingly beloved by pretty much everyone else. The film's plot is as flimsy as the celluloid it was filmed on — Cameron Diaz goes to stay in Kate Winslet's cottage, and falls in love with Jude Law — but the true star of the show is the cottage itself, which is the very picture of country charm.

The only problem is that the cottage doesn't exist, and never did. Like the cardboard cut-out towns of Golden Era cowboy films, it was purely a façade built in a field in the village of Shere, not far from Guildford, and the whole thing was torn down after filming finished. And as they dismantled it, the closest we'll ever get to a perfect cottage went with it.

Or so we thought, because Chantry Cottage, in a Cotswolds village half-way between Cheltenham and Cirencester looks, if anything, even more perfect.

And so you'd hope, with an asking price of £1.7 million for a three-bedroom home set in a third of an acre of land.

For context, a few miles away, for the same sort of price, you could buy this four-bedroom house which comes with a separate three-bedroom cottage, and a swimming pool, plus three acres, a barn and several more outbuildings. Or this 11-bedroom home in two acres of land, and almost 6,000sq ft — which is three and a half times more space than you'd get at Chantry Cottage.

And while Chantry Cottage does have three bedrooms, one is very tiny indeed (around 9ft 3in by 7ft 1in). On a price-per-square foot basis, and excluding shells with planning permission such as this beach hut, it's the most expensive cottage we could find on the market in Britain today.

So what's the story here?

Quite simply, Chantry Cottage isn't so much being sold as a home, as a destination. So perfect is it that it's been a hugely popular (and profitable) holiday home that's been let out via the Unique Homestays website, where it was marketed as 'Under The Yew Tree'. With similarly-sized cottages in the area being rented out for £2,000-a-week and more, the potential income is huge; £70,000-£75,000 a year, according to Unique Homestays. With mortgage rates now dipping below 4% for the first time in years, all the sums begin to add up.

Crunching numbers is so unromantic though, unlike this 14th century home itself, which lies in a setting that looks like it's been torn straight from the pages of Cider With Rosie. Chantry Cottage is ringed by a dry stone wall, partially covered by hopelessly romantic creepers, and surrounded by secluded gardens.

Inside, it has been decorated very simply but stylishly, kitted out with classic mid-to-late 20th century furniture that gives it a dose of retro chic. There's a bathroom with a sink carved from a single piece of stone, next to a free-standing bathtub and a glass-box shower cubicle. And outside, the simple garden furniture beneath the centuries-old trees looks like a set from an EM Forster TV adaptation.

It's beautiful and charming, and looks every inch the sort of escape from the world where Cameron Diaz could indeed fall in love with Jude Law. And that's just as well, since you'd most likely have to be a Hollywood A-lister to be able to justify spending £1.7 million on a house that's cute as a button.

Chantry Cottage is for sale at £1.7 million via Savills — see more details.

One of the great challenges — but also the great joys — of owning a traditional country house is deciding where to draw the line between old and new. We love historic homes because they're beautiful (a point made beautifully by Adrian Tinniswood on the Country Life Podcast last week) but they are not museums. Living and working in a period home means doing what you can to respect and preserve the past while also making sure that you don't live in a place with damp walls, ruinous energy bills and an unwieldy layout.

So what goes out and what stays put? There are as many ways of striking that balance as there are houses, and in recent weeks we happen to have focused in on several. Last month Arabella Youens looked at unlisted houses, and the huge flexibility owners have when Historic England isn't looking down their necks. Then, not long after, a gorgeous house refurbished with the lightest touch imaginable came under the spotlight. All the quirks, cracks and crumbles were only fixed where absolutely necessary to the structural integrity of the buildings — and the rest left alone to add vast amounts of character.

Most owners fall somewhere between these two extremes, but the house we look at today takes a completely different approach: take a picture-perfect country cottage, keep it as original as possible, and then build a wildly original, fantastical and exotic extra building within the grounds. The result is an extraordinary home called The Gasworks, where even the name is a like a twisted punk-era inversion of the usual tropes of Cotswolds charm.

The bare facts of the house — which is now for sale with Savills at £1.85 million — are that it's a 3,000 sq ft home with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a deliciously secluded location within wraparound gardens, tucked away in the famously beautiful village of Upper Slaughter.

As you'll already have seen in the pictures, it's a home that — appropriately enough, in the week that ex-England captain David Beckham is our guest editor — is a game of two halves. One the one side you have a pretty cottage built from the traditional golden stone of the Cotswolds; on the other, a metal box with a deep, rust-red hue, boasting a circular tower, glass walls, corrugated iron and state of the art internals. It's certainly a jarring juxtaposition at first, one that gave us a 'do not adjust your set' moment — but somehow, against expectations, it works.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing is that the different parts of this home — which are linked via a covered, glazed walkway section — have been this way for 150 years. They might look like they belong not so much to different eras as different planets, but The Gasworks really was a gasworks, constructed in 1877 to provide acetylene for a nearby estate; the industrial half was on one side of the plot, the workers' cottage next door on the other.

Needless to say it's a long time since acetylene was produced in this postcode, and the property has been 'lovingly transformed over time', in the agents' words, with the original industrial buildings gone, and today's metal part being a more recently constructed CorTen steel replacement, with its deep red hue coming from intentional rusting that protects the metal beneath. The cottage is still the original from 1877, though its stone façade has been meticulously restored, and the insides refurbished gently, with a huge open living space, a kitchen, snug and a bedroom with en-suite.

Other than that bedroom, the cottage is the living space, while the metal edifice it's attached to has three more bedrooms plus two tower rooms — one of which can be used as a fifth bedroom.

It won't appeal to everyone, but it really does hold together after the initial shock, with Savills calling it 'a bold, modern twist... harmonising beautifully with the natural tones of the surrounding landscape' and 'a remarkable fusion of history, craftsmanship, and contemporary design'.

'The Gasworks is a fabulous marriage of industrial and domestic – a remarkable piece of design while also being a wonderfully comfortable home that makes the most of its idyllic surroundings,' adds 'Kay McCluskey of Savills. 'Its architectural provenance will likely attract those with an appreciation for design, or who are in search of a creative retreat.'

The Gasworks if for sale at £1.85 million — see more details.

‘We have a big problem in Japan,' Country Life's editor Mark Hedges was once asked while having lunch at the Japanese Embassy. 'We cannot get our people to live in the countryside. Everyone wants to live in Tokyo or Osaka. What does your government do to make people move out of towns?’

'I explained that it was the opposite in the UK, where people aspire to live in the countryside,' Mark wrote in 2017, as he told the story. 'A move to the provinces is seen as a mark of success. This desire for rural life is a defining part of our nation.'

Those words seem even more apt today than they did eight years ago — as does Mark's prediction, even pre-Covid, that 'as super-fast broadband is eventually rolled out, village life will undergo a renaissance, these settlements transformed from dormitories to workplaces.'

But it's not just the Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday commuters who are more and more likely to live in the British countryside these days. There are billionaires and Hollywood A-listers buying huge country piles at an amazing rate, and next week Sir David Beckham is editing Country Life magazine's October 22 issue to share his love of the countryside, and why he loves living in the Cotswolds.

Why is it? You'll have to wait until next Wednesday for Beckham's own explanation (spoiler alert: it's worth waiting for). For his part, Mark talked about the unique variety and beauty of the nation's geology, and on the Country Life podcast earlier this week the historian and writer Adrian Tinniswood made the point that the reason we love country houses is that they're quite simply wonderfully beautiful places.

Beckham and Beyoncé aren't blazing a new trail, because Britain's A-listers have long appreciated everything that a home in the countryside has to offer — and rock stars have been at the top of the list. From George Harrison's house (and amazing garden) at Friar's Park to Bob Monkhouse's Bedfordshire home, a long line of actors, musicians and more have taken up residence. Brian Ferry's Roxy Music even released an album called 'Country Life' in the 1970s, while in the 1980s Shakin' Stevens swapped the city for a thatched cottage, and in the 1990s one of Britpop's most successful hits was Blur's Country House.

Even Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis have been hit with the country house bug. Noel actually lived for a while in the same Hampshire village as Mark Hedges; and just recently, the huge Gloucestershire house that Liam Gallagher had been living in has come to the market: Stanley Park, in the village of Selsey, near Stroud. The rock star was reported to have been renting the house with fiancée Debbie Gwyther at around £17,000 a month, making house here before going off on Oasis's reunion tour. That tour is under way, and the Savills are now selling Stanley Park for £5.895 million.

It's quite a place: a Grade II-listed house whose oldest parts date to the 16th century, but which was given a Gothic-influenced rebuild in the 1850s.

Completely renovated throughout, it's a home which blends new and old with real grace: original Tudor walls are preserved here and there, as are Victorian plasterwork ceilings, 20th century chandeliers and huge fireplaces — yet they sit in a house with underfloor heating, a sauna and a cinema room.

Wood panelled walls and ceilings give huge character to the ballroom and billiard room; a vast cellar has room for 4,0000 wine bottles, there are 11 bedrooms for all your friends, family and a decently-sized entourage.

And the garden, Savills add with a nod to the former resident, is an 'oasis for relaxation and outdoor activities'.

Savills are handling the sale of Stanley Park for £5.895 million — see mode details.

Newington House might be in Oxfordshire, but this Grade II*-listed home is an that has raised the stakes for prime country property. It's for sale for the first time in a couple of generations, with Crispin Holborow of Savills Private Office quoting a guide price of £16 million.

According to the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, a large estate at Newington in the Thame valley, six miles north of Wallingford and 10 miles south-east of Oxford, was granted by Emma, Queen Consort of King Canute, to the priory of Canterbury Cathedral between 1017 and 1035. Following the Dissolution in 1542, Newington was sold to landowner John Oglethorpe of Newington, whose son, Owen, twice sheriff of the county, divided the estate in 1600, selling Britwell Prior to John Simeon and the rest, known as Newington Manor, to Edmund Dunch of nearby Little Wittenham.

Edmund was succeeded by his son, Walter, who built himself a new manor house in 1635. Walter was followed by his nephew, another Edmund Dunch, whose own son, Henry, inherited the estate in 1678 and, in about 1679, built a new Classical manor house, known by the early 18th century as Newington House, either on or near the site of its predecessor. Its design was reputedly inspired by the Palazzo Pallavicini in Genoa, Italy, one of many grand palaces described and illustrated by Peter Paul Rubens in his book Palazzi di Genova (1622), and today a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Henry Dunch’s daughter, Elizabeth, married Cecil Bisshopp, the son of Sir Cecil Bisshopp of Parham, West Sussex, who inherited his father’s title and estates in 1705. In 1751, Newington Manor passed to their son, another Sir Cecil Bisshopp, who sold Newington House to George White, a principal clerk at the House of Commons, in 1776.

A year later, White remodelled the house, adding a second floor under a hipped Welsh-slated roof, a Corinthian porch and a low service wing. Much of the interior, including the fine marble fireplaces and cornicing in the main reception rooms, dates from this period, although chamfered beams and the remains of a large fireplace in the basement hail from the 17th century.

Newington House stands in 43 acres of landscaped gardens, meadows and woodland on the banks of the River Thame, which forms the western boundary. Flooded throughout with light from full-height sash windows, the imposing main house offers more than 13,000sq ft of elegant accommodation on four floors.

On the ground floor there is an impressive entrance hall, three grand reception rooms, a study, kitchen, boot room and adjoining three-bedroom courtyard flat.

The lower ground floor has a kitchenette, reception room, gym, games room and gun room.

Above, the principal bedroom suite and two guest suites are on the first floor; while four further bedrooms and two bathrooms are on the second floor.

The grounds contain a stable block built in 1679 and a kitchen garden of similar date. The stone griffins on the Grade II*-listed gate piers represent the Bisshopps and the stone cartouches their successors, the Whites. Lead rainwater heads on the main range are inscribed ‘GW 1777’. The roof dates from the addition of the second floor in 1777, but retains timbers from the roof of 1680, the tie-beams of which survive in situ.

In the early 1900s, Newington House was first leased and then acquired by the American artist and hostess Ethel Sands. The house became a hub for artists, writers and members of England’s cultural elite: writers Henry James and Arnold Bennett and members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, were regular visitors. In 1920, Sands sold Newington House to Capt Alex Wallace Gilmour of the Royal Artillery, who lived there until his death in 1946. There followed a handful of short-term owner-occupiers, until the Nettleton family, the current vendors, acquired Newington House in 1991.

They immediately embarked on a painstaking, decade-long programme of renovations, employing a team of top-class stonemasons to repair or replace defective stonework, converting the coach house and stables to residential use and buying in the nearby Grade II-listed, 17th-century Manor House (formerly listed as Newington Cottage) the walls of which abut the churchyard of Newington’s Grade I-listed St Giles Church. They also created the lake, added the tennis court and swimming pool and planted a large area of woodland.

Newington House is for sale with a guide price of £16 million via Savills — see more details.

In the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, Damian Gray of Knight Frank quotes a guide price of £3m for historic, Grade II-listed The Old Rectory in the vibrant market town of Charlbury. This property is nestled in the scenic Evenlode valley, hidden away down winding B-roads and yet with its own railway station that provides regular fast services to London Paddington. Now ‘a global destination for international buyers,’ according to Mr Gray, it may well be that Charlbury’s location, five miles from Estelle Manor, eight miles from Daylesford, 8½ miles from Soho Farmhouse and 17 miles from Oxford’s many excellent schools, will continue to make the town a magnet for some of Oxfordshire’s wealthiest and most demanding purchasers.

Last sold in 1991, The Old Rectory was originally the vicarage house to Charlbury’s Grade I-listed parish church of St Mary, and, according to the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, ‘was a sizeable house, even in 1635’. It was remodelled in the 18th century, perhaps by William Seward (vicar from 1771–90), ‘who found it necessary to rebuild the vicarage-house before he could live in the parish’.

In 1853, however, the house was declared inadequate, due to ‘the imperfect, fanciful, and inconvenient repairs of the former incumbent, Thomas Silver’, whose additions included a ‘Saxon’ tower, which still survives. It was decided to replace the old vicarage with the present large Gothic Revival house designed by the Oxford-born architect Samuel Seckham. In the end, the new house was built alongside the old and given the name The Old Rectory, which was later sold, and a new vicarage house built in the garden.

Today’s former rectory combines the enduring charm of a historic house with the modern amenities required for family living in the country. It offers more than 4,700 sq ft of well-presented accommodation on three floors.

On the ground floor you'll find a reception hall, three fine main reception rooms, a study, and a large kitchen/breakfast room with a vast wine cellar below.

Above, on the first floor, are five bedrooms — one in each corner of the house, plus a huge principal bedroom with the bay window — and three bathrooms.

The house stands in almost two acres of beautifully landscaped gardens and grounds, with many established specimen trees, shrubs, impressive topiary, raised beds and glorious views over the Evenlode valley.

And did we mention the pool? There's a pool.

The owners have also created superb equestrian facilities, which include a stable yard with four loose boxes, a paddock and a full-size all-weather manège.

They also have an annual grazing licence from the neighbouring Cornbury estate on a further five acres, which may also be available to the new owner.

The Old Rectory in Charlbury is for sale at £3 million — see more pictures and details.

Northamptonshire — £1,350,000

This six-bedroom Georgian home has over 5,000sq ft of space, is immaculate within and has a lovely, secluded feel amongst mature trees and rolling grounds.

For sale via Michael Graham — see more details and pictures.

Kingswear, Devon — Offers over £6 million

A wonderful home perched right above the water in a prime spot in Kingswear, on the spectacular Dart Estuary in Devon. There are seven bedrooms, views from every window, several sun-drenched, west-facing terraces, and a private jetty from which you can hop in your boat and cross over to the charming town of Dartmouth.

For sale via Knight Frank — see more details and pictures.

Oxfordshire — £16 million

A palazzo in the heart of Oxfordshire sounds unlikely, but this magnificent country home is just that, having been built as a gift for an Italian princess, modelled on Rubens' Palaces of Genoa.

There are seven bedrooms, a separate coach house, 43 acres and an almost endless list of other things, from a history which include Henry James and Virginia Woolf to a snooker table that once belonged to Winston Churchill.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Somerset — £3.5 million

The Grade II*-listed Maunsel House is set in 11 acres of charming grounds in the countryside between Bridgwater and Taunton, and dates back to the 14th century. There are 13 bedrooms, a couple of cottages and room after room bursting with Regency character — not least the fine ballroom and dining room.

For sale via Strutt & Parker — see more details and pictures.

Dorset — £3.75 million

From the pool in the walled garden to the cosy country bedrooms, this lovely property — with seven bedrooms and eight reception rooms — is a true sanctuary from the world.

For sale via Blue Book — see more details and pictures.

Cornwall — £4 million

One of the most renowned houses in Cornwall, built in the 1930s by a visionary architect, and on the market for the first time in nearly 40 years.

For sale via Lillicrap Chilcott — see more details and pictures.

What's more impressive to you: a gleaming skyscraper, or an ancient cathedral? A state-of-the-art F1 car, or the sort of 1950s era racer that Fangio or Jim Clark once drove? The latest Marvel extravaganza on a huge screen at a multiplex, or an independent cinema that's found a print of a classic 1960s film?

There are no right or wrong answers here, but where you stand on all of the above probably informs what you'll think of the beautiful Leafield House, a former vicarage hewn from golden Cotswold stone to a design by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the Gothic Revival architect who was a huge favourite of Queen Victoria, and the man behind everything from St Pancras Station to the Albert Memorial. The chance to live in a house designed by a man who is buried in Westminster Abbey doesn't come around often, and for the privilege on this occasion Strutt & Parker quote £2.35 million.

Architecture aside, what marks Leafield House out is the interiors which are a — to our eyes — simple, sensitive and absolutely right for the building. Refurbishing a house involves endless decisions and choices, much of which comes down to personal taste. That leads some country houses to look like Cotswolds dreams on the outside, but five-star hotels within; others wear their history, even their flaws, on their sleeves, and when it's done right it's intoxicating.

The rough stone marks on the windows, the battered original floors, the odd crack in a fireplace here, and the faded glory of the plaster there, even the scratches on the Aga. It's like walking into a Victorian picture book.

Leafield House was once the Victorian vicarage to the Grade II*-listed village church of St Michael and All Angels — also designed by George Gilbert Scott — and was built from Cotswold stone in 1851 as part of what at the time was a visionary Gothic development.

This beautifully proportioned Grade II-listed house, set in 1¼ acres of lawns and mature trees at the end of a long private driveway, stands next to the church at the heart of the village, with delightful views over the surrounding countryside.

The owners have been here for decades, and they refurbished the whole place back in 1989, keeping everything as original as possible while dealing with anything that went beyond the cosmetic. That gives it a wonderful feeling of authenticity, in some rooms almost like visiting a National Trust property, but there shouldn't be any headaches: Strutt & Parker's agent, Giles Lawton Lawton describes it as ‘solid as a rock’.

And the light touch shown means that Leafield House retains its original Victorian elements — stone mullion windows with internal shutters, flagstone floors and high ceilings, to name but a few. So characterful is it that the BBC used it as one of the settings for the drama series Jonathan Creek, which made comedian Alan Davies a household name at the time.

The house offers more than 5,300sq ft of elegant accommodation over three floors, including four grand reception rooms, a large family kitchen and adjoining scullery and substantial cellars for wine and storage, with seven bedrooms and two bathrooms laid out over the first and second floors.

The village of Leafield itself is located within the former limits of the Wychwood Forest, some four miles north-west of Witney, and, at 635ft above sea level, was the highest point in Oxfordshire until the 1974 boundary changes enlarged the county. Its location also puts it just 17 miles from Oxford city centre — and within easy driving distance of Soho Farmhouse, Estelle Manor, Diddly Squat Farm Shop and Daylesford — destinations known locally as ‘Celebrity Central’. Whether that's one for the plus column or the minus column, we'll leave to you.

Strutt & Parker quote £2.35 million for Leafield House — see more details.

The small village of Beverston, two miles west of the ancient market town of Tetbury, is dominated by the Grade I-listed, semi-ruined Beverston Castle, its manor house and its Grade II*-listed, Norman Church of St Mary the Virgin. The castle and manor house are really quite something: they came up for sale a few years ago, together with 615 acres of land, at £10 million.

For those who missed out last time, who have pockets not quite so deep, or aren't looking to get involved with restoration of ancient buildings and large-scale land management, a better option in the village is now on the market: The Old Rectory in Beverston, Grade II-listed house which stands right next to the church and in the lee of the castle, in a private setting on the edge of the village. Knight Frank quote £3 million for the house and its four acres of grounds.

According to its Historic England listing, the former rectory was built by one Thomas Savage in 1729 on the site of an older house and enlarged in the 19th century, as confirmed by the initials TS and date 1729 carved on a date stone above the central 20th-century door on the east front.

For the past 57 years, The Old Rectory, set in four acres of beautifully maintained gardens and grounds, has been the cherished family home of the present owner, whose parents acquired the house in 1968.

Approached along a sweeping gravel drive flanked by horse-chestnut trees, the house offers 5,200sq ft of well-proportioned accommodation on three floors, including, on the ground floor, a reception hall, two main reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room with a glazed garden room, plus utilities and boot room.

On the first floor are the principal bedroom suite, three further double bedrooms and a family bathroom; and, on the second floor, a large play/study area leading to two/three bedrooms, a large bathroom and a storage attic.

Further accommodation is provided in a pretty, two-bedroom cottage and a charming one-bedroom bothy.

Outbuildings include a period building with two stables and a greenhouse. There is also a purpose-built, three-bay garage, with space for further development, subject to planning.

The gardens are arranged in compartments, from the front gardens around the drive and turning circle to the water garden, main lawn area and well-stocked herbaceous borders at the rear of the house.

The grounds include an orchard, tennis court and, to the front of the house, an area of pastureland fenced with parkland rail and bounded by dry-stone walling and mature trees.

Beverston is horse country par excellence; for 59 years from 1959, the Beverston Castle estate was owned by the late Maj Laurence Rook, winner of the first European Championships, at Badminton in 1953, and an Olympic gold medal in 1956, and then by his widow, Jane, until her death, aged 91, in 2018.

Both were stalwarts of the British eventing community and of the Duke of Beaufort’s hunt, dispensing legendary hospitality to eventing visitors from around the world, especially during Badminton week.

The Old Rectory, Beverston, is for sale at £3 million — see more details.

From September 26–28, Daylesford Farm in Gloucestershire will host the inaugural Cotswold Curated Craft Fair, bringing together the country’s leading artists, sculptors and designers — many of whom are alumni of The King’s Foundation at Highgrove (His Majesty The King's private residence).

The charity turns 35 this year and continues to deliver training in heritage skills, such as basketry, ceramics, embroidery and millinery, in partnership with the Snowdon School of Furniture and the Chanel Métiers d'Art Atelier. The Cotswold fair, which is taking place at Heritage House on Daylesford’s Organic Cotswold Farm, offers a rare opportunity to witness these skills being demonstrated live. 'These enduring skills remind us of the importance of patience, care, and connection,' says Lady Carole Bamford, the founder of the Daylesford and Bamford brands. 'To keep these traditions alive, we must actively support the people who practice them.'

Exhibitors include Nic Fiddian-Green (most well-known for his large-scale horse bronzes), Emily Young (once branded 'Britain's greatest living stone sculptor') and Carolyn Truss Bespoke Bridlework.

There will also be an accompanying programme of talks, moderated by the author and gallerist, Helen Chislett. 'I urge you to spend time not only looking, but talking,' she says. 'There are such wonderful stories to discover.'

The fair joins an impressive and ever-growing roster of Daylesford events, including regular gardening and seasonal supper clubs, an annual Dog Day celebration and crystal healing workshops.

Gloucestershire — £2.75 million

Dashes of modern flair meet delightful Cotswolds architecture in this seven-bedroom home.

It's close to the village of Amberley, and within reach of the station at Kemberley from where you can be in London in just over an hour.

For sale with Knight Frank. See more pictures and details for this property.

Oxfordshire — £2.45 million

'A country house in town' is how the agents describe this Chipping Norton home, woth five bedrooms and almost an acre despite its location right in this very sought-after spot.

It's a 17th century home that is just magnificent inside, with some breathtaking character features. Wonderful.

For sale with Savills. See more pictures and details for this property.

Gloucestershire — £4.95 million

A rare find on the open market is this picture-perfect old rectory in a village near Cheltenham.

Penny Churchill told the story of this beautiful house on the Country Life site this week — you can read it here.

For sale with Knight Frank. See more pictures and details for this property.

Oxfordshire — £8 million

There's work to be done, for sure, but if you don't mind that then this is a cracker of a home — a 'splendid rural idyll' of 92 acres.

There's a mill house, a pair of cottages, a string of other outbuildings and bridges that cross back and forth over the river that meanders through the plot. Totally irressistible.

For sale with Strutt & Parker. See more pictures and details for this property.

Bedfordshire — £2.95 million

If you're wondering what your budget could stretch to if you head an hour or so east from the Cotswolds, this is the answer: woodland, ponds and an orchard as part of this seven-bedroom, 17th century house.

There's over 8,000 sq ft of living space and 14 acres to enjoy.

For sale with Michael Graham. See more pictures and details for this property.

What's the collective noun for a group of men on a stag do in the Cotswolds? A brace of red trousers, or maybe a bevy of Barbours? Anyway, a bachelor of ruddy-faced stags was spotted this summer being transported from Michelin guide-pub to Michelin guide-pub hanging off the sides and back of a tractor. Only in the Cotswolds.

Or maybe not. There is a growing number of Cotswolds contenders — or pretenders — across England, places that have been crowned the 'new Cotswolds' . They range from entire counties, as in the case of the nearby 'Notswolds '(aka Northamptonshire), to tiny villages: Fittleworth, a few miles from Petworth in West Sussex, is one of the names being put forward.

The list is extensive; the research behind each claim less so. Various media outlets have announced that the villages lining the River Great Ouse in Bedfordshire are challenging for the title, along with parts of south Warwickshire (Shipston-on-Stour for example). The upmarket towns along both the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts are in the mix, as well as the foodie hotspot of Bruton in Somerset.

The articles are basically saying that there are places in England that are better at being the Cotswolds than the Cotswolds itself. Do they have a point?

The Cotswolds has been the jewel in the crown of rural England for centuries. New money may have settled there now, but old industrial wealth founded it. The area became rich in the Middle Ages off the wool trade, which led to the building of the manor houses, churches and mills that create the idyll today.

It was, however, the advent of the car and the construction of new roads that drove rich Londoners to the Cotswolds on the weekend. ‘There has always been a natural rhythm between West London and the Cotswolds,’ says Harry Gladwin, buying agent at The Buying Solution.

‘In the Post-War decades, London's financial and professional heartland moved west from the City. At the same time, the Westway and the M40 were built, creating a direct link from W8 and W11 to Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire,’ he explains.

‘Suddenly what had felt like a slightly inaccessible part of England became an easy weekend destination for those working in London's financial sector, but living in Notting Hill and Kensington.’

With the financiers came the 'it' crowd. Oxfordshire started becoming cool the moment the Rolling Stones played at Magdalen College; the flow of celebrities has been relentless ever since, from supermodels to musicians to politicians. And where they trod, the crowds followed. Now, holidaymakers driving along the winding lanes, who in other parts of the country might turn to the children in the back to chirp, 'first one to see the sea, gets an ice cream,' are more likely to say, 'first one to spot a celebrity gets an organic apricot nectar juice from Daylesford Organic.'

Tourism in the Cotswolds is big business, generating an economic impact of £1 billion — not a claim that could ever be made in Fittleworth or Oundle. It is that combination of tourism and the number of high net worth individuals in part- or full-time residence that has led to the more recent luxe ‘amenitisation’ of the Cotswolds.

There are seven Michelin-star restaurants across the area and, of course, Soho Farmhouse. Estelle Manor, the rival rural members' club, was the venue for Apple heiress Eve Jobs' £5m wedding to Team GB equestrian Harry Charles in July.

Just to the south of the Cotswolds is Lakes by Yoo, the luxurious lakeside holiday home resort where David Gandy and Kate Moss have attended breathwork sessions. Even cars get pampered in the Cotswolds, as owners can check them into one of the many of the supercar hotels in the area. And the festivals are a far cry from the mania of Glastonbury: Wilderness is a luxurious haven sponsored by Audi and Raymond Blanc was one of the headline attractions at the Big Feastival.

Lindsay Cuthill, former head of country for Savills and now founder of the Blue Book Agency, argues that there is also a quieter opulence behind the scenes which truly characterise the Cotswolds National Landscape, a world of alfresco dinners held in private woodlands carpeted by bluebells. ‘This approach is often preferred to restaurants as the hosts can create exclusivity and select their crowd,’ he explains.

Katrina Whittaker, private chef (and recipe writer for Dame Prue Leith), caters for customers with their own extensive vegetable gardens. ‘Many of my clients ask me to design menus for private events around what is growing in their garden and what's in season,’ she says.

Alex James — of Blur and Big Feastival fame — has owned his farm in Kingham since 2003 and produces artisan cheese and sparkling wine. Of course, Jeremy Clarkson has a farm too (in case you missed that), and Sir David Beckham makes his own honey in Burford. Arguably, there is nowhere else in the UK where rural agricultural authenticity and newcomers to this world co-habit so happily.

The pretenders to the Cotswolds Crown are charming in their own right, too. The Norfolk towns have their own collection of celebrities — Olivia Coleman and Stephen Fry are top of the list — and Burnham Market is considered the chi-chi place to be seen near the coast. Picture postcard villages with a Warwickshire or Coventry postcodes are becoming more popular, mixing proximity to the Cotswolds with significantly more affordable house prices.

Ahh, house prices. Therein lies the cause of all the fuss, as for the most part the places dubbed the 'New Cotswolds' are simply more affordable rural alternatives. The average house price in Northamptonshire, according to Savills, is £309,859 versus £382,104 in the Cotswolds, some 19% lower. It's the same story in Suffolk, where comparable houses are 16 per cent cheaper than the Cotswods. As for the Notswolds, a pretty, four-bedroom cottage in Oundle is currently on the market for £795,000. In Chipping Campden, a slightly smaller terraced townhouse is currently on the market at £1.3 million.

There are other motivations driving homebuyers to areas such as south Bedfordshire. These are not house buyers trying to judge the rise of the new Cotswolds, but families fanning out from the Home Counties in search of more space for their money, beautiful scenery and great schools, whether established independent schools or outstanding state schools. In short, they're simply seeking a better life.

All that really leaves the Cotswolds in its own league. Lucinda Eaton, a buyer at Property Vision, explains just why the Cotswolds cannot be imitated. ‘It is not just the honey stone cottages or the rolling valleys, it is the theatre of the Cotswolds,’ she says. ‘Here countryside eccentricity collides with international polish.’ Beautifully put.

The pretenders might be popular, but the Cotswolds brand just keeps on getting bigger, judging by the arrival of Kim Kardashian this summer. And if JD Vance goes on vacation near Milton Keynes next year I'll eat my tweed cap. Although maybe there is such a thing as becoming too popular.

For buyers seeking a permanent move to the Cotswolds, the chance of finding a Georgian old rectory in a good location is an almost impossible dream, not only because they are few and far between, but because those lucky enough to own one rarely want to leave.

Against the run of play, James Walker of Knight Frank now has a wonderful example on his books: Grade II-listed The Old Rectory at Coberley, four miles south of Cheltenham and 11 miles north of Cirencester, and fresh to the market in this week’s Country Life at a guide price of £4.95 million.

The Old Rectory at Coberley stands in five acres of secluded gardens and grounds overlooking the village church, and looks as if it has leapt off the screen of a glossy BBC costume drama: the immaculate golden stone architecture, the charming gardens and the elegant, generously-proportioned rooms are the stuff of daydreams.

Built of ashlar stone under a slate roof, The Old Rectory was comprehensively and sensitively restored by its previous owner, who acquired the house in 1996 and embarked on a major renovation project designed to emphasise the elegance and charm of the Georgian interior.

The present owner, who bought it 10 years later, has added modern touches and understated improvements that complement the Classical symmetry, high ceilings and abundant natural light of the original architecture.

In good order throughout, although perhaps in need of ‘some cosmetic updating’, The Old Rectory offers 7,736sq ft of manageable and comfortable accommodation, including a reception hall, three fine reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room and an integral one-bedroom flat on the ground floor.

Above, you'll find the principal bedroom suite, four further bedrooms and a playroom on the first floor.

Below ground level, there's a cleverly designed basement layout, comprising a sitting room, billiard room, wine cellar and two bedrooms, on the lower ground floor. Outbuildings house garden stores and garaging; the gardens and grounds provide a sheltered background for the tennis court and swimming pool.

This striking late-Georgian house, which enjoys wonderful southerly views over the valley of the Churn, arguably the main source of the Thames, was built in 1826 by Richard Pace of Lechlade for the Revd William Hicks, who was rector of Coberley for 51 years and died at the rectory, aged 91, in 1866.

He is buried in the churchyard of Coberley’s Grade II*-listed Church of St Giles, which, according to historian David Verey, dates from the 12th century, was rebuilt and extended by Thomas Berkeley in about 1340 and had the nave and chancel rebuilt by John Middleton in the Early English style in 1869–72.

The Old Rectory at Coberley has a guide price of £4.95 million via Knight Frank.

This week sees the launch in Country Life of Grade II-listed Kingcombe in Chipping Campden, a striking Arts-and-Crafts house for which joint agents Rupert Wakley of Jackson-Stops in Chipping Campden and David Henderson of Savills in Stow-on-the-Wold. This Gloucestershire gem has a guide price of £5.5m.

Chipping Campden is one of the most beautiful and unspoilt of all the Cotswold market towns, its High Street described by Pevsner as ‘the best piece of townscape in Gloucestershire, arguably one of the best in England’.

The town’s wealth, largely derived from the wool trade, is highlighted by the great, Grade I-listed, Perpendicular church of St James, which dates from the 13th century and is one of the finest ‘wool churches’ in the Cotswolds. In the early 20th century, Chipping Campden became known as a centre for the Cotswold Arts-and-Crafts Movement following the move to the town from London of the architect and designer Charles Robert Ashbee in 1902.

In 1925, Sir Gordon Russell, a modern furniture maker who was inspired by the movement to champion traditional skills over machine-made furniture, commissioned the architect Leslie Mansfield to build Kingcombe, with later additions by J. C. Shepherd.

Russell was a passionate gardener and, having built the large Cotswold-style house of traditional rubble with Cotswold-stone roofs, stone-mullioned windows, a garden front with two Cotswold gables and a gable end inscribed GTR 1925, he commissioned the distinguished landscape architects Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and Russell Page to design a garden in sympathy with the aesthetics of the time: clean lines, the use of modern materials and the separation of the garden into a series of rooms.

Located less than a mile from the centre of Chipping Campden, 3½ miles from Broad-way, Worcestershire, and 8½ from Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingcombe stands in more than 11 acres of enchanting gardens and grounds, which include a wild swimming pool, a tennis court and a quaint folly tower.

Lovingly maintained by its long-term owners, the substantial main house offers 8,398sq ft of pleasantly rambling, Arts-and-Crafts-inspired accommodation on two main floors, including a galleried reception hall, five impressive reception rooms and a kitchen/breakfast room.

Elsewhere in the house are six bedroom suites, a seventh bedroom, and a bathroom.

Unusually there is also a 'gardener’s room' with a separate kitchen, plant room and storage, as well as a home office/studio and two one-bedroom flats.

Kingcombe is for sale via Jackson-Stops and Savills at a guide price of £5.5m.

There’s not much about the Cotswolds that is ‘normal’. At least not in the so-called golden triangle, which takes in Kingham, Chipping Norton and Stow-on-the-Wold. This photogenic pocket of the countryside is renowned for its private members clubs, posh farm shops, and celebrity residents.

The Beckhams, Jeremy Clarkson, and American comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, the actress Portia de Rossi, are among the A-listers that call it ‘home’. And Vice President JD Vance famously descended on this star-studded neighbourhood this summer for his holiday.

So, it follows that many of the idyllic honey-coloured homes in this neck of the woods aren’t exactly run-of-the-mill either. And Fitts Barn is a good case in point.

Located on the doorstep of Soho Farmhouse and other Cotswolds hotspots, this six-bedroom home may have a distinctly unglitzy past as a tractor showroom in the 1950s. But today it’s a jaw-dropping property — a blend of traditional Cotswold stone, striking glazing, reclaimed timber beams, and luxe industrial interiors.

Joanna Cocking, head of private office country at Hamptons, which is selling Fitts Barn alongside Knight Frank, describes it as ‘a piece of architectural brilliance in one of the UK's most sought-after locations’.

The converted barn, on the market for in excess of £3,000,000, is brimming with eclectic features. Just take the main living area, a voluminous space with a vaulted ceiling. It boasts a cast iron staircase from a Spitfire machine gun factory, lights from a Dutch cargo ship, and a bespoke suspended wood burning stove.

This may all sound rather, well, heavy. But they’re softened by things like plants, comfy-looking sofas and a rug as well as clever lighting.

The layout of the property is also far from formulaic, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms on this floor too. Plus, a bedroom ‘suite’, which is housed in its own building and reached via a glazed walkway. All meticulously-styled, naturally.

The vintage theme continues in the galleried kitchen and dining room, where natural light floods in through a row of windows in the roof. There’s a laundry room tucked away discreetly here too.

Fitts Barn comes with a standalone stone building, which is billed as a versatile space that could be used as a guest annexe, home office, wellness space, gym, home cinema, or potential holiday let (if you can get planning permission).

In its current form, it comprises two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a living space, with plumbing in place for a kitchen island. Outside, there’s front and rear lawns, a courtyard with parking, and a detached double garage.

The location near Chipping Norton needs little introduction. Not only is Fitts Barn just a stone's throw from Soho Farmhouse, it’s also within easy reach of Daylesford Organic, Bamford Wellness Spa, The Bull in Charlbury, Estelle Manor, and Restoration Hardware.

The joint agents have gone all-in with their descriptions. Hamptons call it 'unquestionably one of the most distinctive and stylish homes in the Cotswolds', while Knight Frank talk of the 'landmark design in one of the Cotswolds’ most sought-after villages' of a barn that has been 'thrust into the 21st Century providing inspired vintage industrial interiors and versatile spaces.'

'The bespoke features, from the cast iron staircase to the suspended open fire, are what immediately set this home apart, with unique design elements creating a space that's striking but considered,' says Jamie Robson, partner at Knight Frank.

‘A bold aesthetic runs throughout and is something that you simply won't find in traditional Cotswolds properties.’

Joanna adds: ‘Unlike a traditional Cotswolds cottage, Fitts Barn offers generous proportions with voluminous, expansive spaces that make it exceptional for entertaining.’

She adds: ‘Fitts Barn presents an ideal “lock up and leave” home, offering a turnkey solution for those seeking a stylish countryside retreat that's ready to enjoy from day one.’

Fitts Barn is for sale for in excess of £3,000,000 — see more pictures and details via Hamptons and Knight Frank.

Have you been to Chipping Norton lately? Once little more than an agrarian backwater, the land of Jilly Cooper’s novels is now a billionaire playground: a smorgasbord of ex-politicos and A-listers drawn to luxury shopping (Bicester), luxury groceries (Daylesford) and private members’ clubs (Estelle Manor). Ever since the invention of Rupert Campbell-Black (below), the land of Burford and Cirencester has dazzled the collective imagination as a place of glamour, power and sex. Yet with Britain becoming a hotter travel destination in every sense of the word, that reputation has reached fever pitch — and the Cotswolds, where the American Vice President J. D. Vance rented a house this summer, is beginning to feel saturated.

A rivalry has emerged between several counties eager to capitalise on the region’s declining fortunes (read: clout). Suffolk, Somerset, West Sussex and the Notswolds, which covers much of the West Midlands, are all vying for the same crown. Their advocates would have you believe that each of them is ‘the new Cotswolds’. Not all pretendants are created equal, however.

Suffolk, which is largely flat, offers little in the way of Gloucestershire’s rolling hills; parts of West Sussex are essentially suburban; and Somerset, unlike Oxfordshire, is mostly tucked away from train lines. In each county, however, are pockets that offer the pastoral idyll that has been missing from the Cotswolds these past few years, ever since helicopters became some residents’ preferred mode of transportation.

More than that, they offer an edge. West Sussex has some of the finest coastlines in England, together with thriving wineries, such as Highweald and Nyetimber. Somerset has Bath — no doubt England’s most beautiful city — as well as The Newt, Babington House and Wells Cathedral. Over in Bruton, which this column has previously called the new Notting Hill, Merlin Labron-Johnson’s restaurant Osip offers a multi-course tasting menu experience for £125 — though factor in wine and it’s closer to £200 a head.

The Notswolds, meanwhile, boasts outstanding landscapes and a social scene to rival Charlbury’s. Suffolk, for its part, takes the biscuit when it comes to boutique hotels, among them The Suffolk, Aldeburgh (which was recently singled out by the New York Times as one of five European beach hotels to have on your radar) and The Peacock Inn, Chelsworth, which is currently serving some of the best food in Britain courtesy of chef Sam Clover. Think devilled duck-liver sausage in koji broth and bergamot oil. The wine selection there is also astounding (French, Italian, Georgian, South African), a world away from the cheap beers and undiluted spirits that were once lobbed around the inn in the 1980s, back when it was a popular jazz venue. Instead, you’ll now find an annexe of en-suite cabins with bicycles, Wellington boots and a Burberry trenchcoat on hand for anyone who packed a little too light for the English weather. Chic.

Suffolk is also a popular spot for smaller music festivals: private events held in sprawling estates and modelled after the Cotswolds’ very own Wilderness, which takes place every summer in Cornbury Park, home to Lord Rotherwick. Archie Dixon-Smith, whose family recently hosted the inaugural ‘Castlings Fest’ on the grounds of their Suffolk home, extols the appeal of more intimate live music events that have the feel of ‘a big family party’. ‘We sold 330 tickets this year,’ he explains. With Glastonbury taking a fallow year in 2026, is the time ripe to scale Castlings? A little, perhaps, but not much. ‘This isn’t a media event,’ Archie says. ‘We’ll aim for around 450 people. 500, tops.’

Other regions are instead being forced to change tack. Cornwall and Norfolk, which offer in St Mawes and Burnham Market two variants of Chelsea-On-Sea, have no interest in becoming the new Cotswolds, given how much tourism they already endure. They know this is a life cycle that begins with enterprising Londoners and ends in only one thing: Americanisation.

Don't forget your five a day

And the award for crop of the year goes to: the courgette. Allotment keepers across the country have been enjoying bounties of the vegetables thanks to this year’s freakish weather. They’d do well to make the most of the harvest before Angela Rayner clamps down on pastures of all kinds.

The courgette may be our most versatile fruit (yes, fruit): steamed, roasted or fried, it pairs beautifully with meat, fish and other verdures. Yet with such copious amounts going around, the best option may be to grind them into a soup, which can be frozen ahead of the autumn. Slow cook them with peas and basil and top the result with a drizzle of yoghurt and lemon zest, à l’Ottolenghi.

Andrea Palladio himself would have been proud to doff his bonnet to the remarkable Daisy Green, a 21st-century masterpiece designed by the late Martin Branston and built between 2009 and 2011 in an idyllic pastoral setting, two miles north of the historic market town of Wotton-under-Edge and 15 miles south of Stroud in Gloucestershire. It comes to the market with a guide price of £6m through Lindsay Cuthill’s Blue Book Agency.

Built by local craftsmen in Cotswold stone within a traditional, 116-acre Cotswold sheep farm, Daisy Green combines the harmony and proportion of an 18th-century exterior with a spectacular interior that reflects the exuberance and flair of its owners, John White and his wife, Susanna, the artist and designer behind the fast-growing Whiteworks wallpaper and fabric collection.

Set down a peaceful no-through country lane, the main house provides more than 6,000sq ft of inspirational living space, arranged over three floors in the classical style. The opulence of the double-height entrance with its polished stone floor and exquisite wrought metal staircase by Matt Livsey Hammond sets the scene.

The drawing room is an impressive formal space filled with light; the dining room lends itself to entertaining on a grand scale; and, in contrast to the period style of the rest of the house, the kitchen is unashamedly state of the art, with stainless-steel work surfaces and appliances.

Five first-floor bedrooms have either an en-suite or private bathroom; the master bedroom has in addition a charming mezzanine dressing room or ‘snoring room’, with a chinoiserie metal balustrade.

A staircase leads up to the roof, which has been partly decked and offers spectacular distant views. Further accommodation is provided in the working studio/annexe, the four-bedroom Daisy Farmhouse and the two-bedroom Daisy Barn.

The overall effect is of a home that feels like it's been here forever, despite its relative newness.. It's 'a Palladian masterpiece for the 21st century,' as Lindsay Cuthill puts it.

Daisy Green is for sale at £6m — see more pictures and details.

The American comedian Ellen DeGeneres bought a house in the Cotswolds last year: Kitesbridge Farm.

It's a spot so beautiful that it moved the great John Betjeman to pen a few lines:

How often memory brings me from Asthall up to Asthall Leigh:
The sound of cartwheels in the lane, the smell of wallflowers after rain.
The River Windrush winding back upon itself,
The grassy track to Kitesbridge Farm.

DeGeneres and her wife, the actress Portia de Rossi, fell so hard for the place that they paid £15 million — after a bidding process for a home which was being marketed by Savills at £12.5 million — and set about revitalising the place. While they initially bought it as a 'part-time' home, the couple have since decided to move full time to the UK, and quickly bought a new house as de Rossi needed more stabling for her horses. Thus Kitesbridge Farm is on the market once more, this time at £22.5 million.

It's not hard to see why they loved the place. Penny Churchill wrote about Kitesbridge in Country Life last year, noting that 'the reality is every bit as magical as the pastoral scene evoked by Betjeman', and praising a house that 'nestles gently on the slopes of a tucked-away and secluded part of the spectacular Windrush valley', according to the agent at the time, and which had been 'ingeniously transformed into an enchanting and secluded rural retreat’.

As ingenious and enchanting as it might have been, it is now even more so, because the new buyers set about spending months, and many millions, transforming it afresh.... and after moving in last November, they bought another house nearby in April, and put Kitesbridge Farm up for sale.

If the timeline seems extraordinarily quick, it probably shouldn't: DeGeneres and de Rossi have a well-earned reputation for 'flipping houses', having done so many times (reportedly as many as 50), mostly on the other side of the Atlantic. It's telling that the agent's Instagram post refers to it as their 'latest masterpiece':

Why the constant need to move? It seems somewhere between a hobby and a passion. 'I don't really travel a lot. So, house flipping is my version of travel,' DeGeneres told People. 'With house flipping, the scenery changes though I stay in the same general area. Only in a new place and from a new perspective.'

With the farm now being marketed for significantly more than it was bought for in June 2024, it's entirely fair to wonder whether £7.5m of value could have been added in the space of a just a few months.

That is, of course, a matter for any prospective buyer to ponder, but the timeline shouldn't put anyone off. Apparently, the architects originally estimated that this 'restoration of rare artistry and scale' (in the agent's words) would be a 12- to 18-month project, but DeGeneres and de Rossi expedited things by bringing in a team of 70 builders and craftspeople to do the work in a fraction of that. In doing so, they changed it from a place they felt was 'quite tired, with a quite basic finish' to a home that looks like it belongs 'in Malibu', as Sotheby's Andrew Barnes described to the Wall Street Journal.

The house, which sits centrally within its 43 acres, is loosely arranged as an L shape, with further buildings creating a sort of central courtyard garden, and pretty much every room linking directly to the outdoor spaces that surround the 14,400sq ft home.

At the apex of the home is a huge kitchen-diner, with — as you'd expect of a couple who made their fortunes on the small screen — a TV large enough to be measured in square feet, rather than diagonal inches.

The decoration and furniture is elegant, simple and neutral throughout, with flooring alternating between stone slabs and ancient timber, while exposed beams and brickwork add plenty of character.

There are a few dashes of flair with the wallpapers chosen in some of the rooms — notably a gorgeous green boot room, with floral paper on walls and ceiling.

For exercise and leisure, there's a fully-equipped gym and a pool, and the agents also suggest that a helicopter hangar on the site could be converted into a padel court. There's also a party barn with its own pub that sits above the heated five-car garage.

The gardens have been landscaped to keep a feel that is as natural and organic as possible, with a kitchen garden, lawns and paddocks as well as a series of outdoor spaces for al fresco dining and living.

And while the seclusion and privacy on offer is a key part of the appeal at Kitesbridge Farm, people aren't far away: the village of Asthall is a just a few minutes' away, while Soho Farmhouse, Estelle Manor and more of the highlights of this corner of Oxfordshire are within easy reach.

Kitesbridge Farm is for sale at £22.5 million — see more pictures and details.

Tim Burton, the American director behind quirky films such as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, is severing ties with his Grade II-Listed property in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. The Georgian home, ensconced in 17 acres of land, is for sale with Savills, for £4.5million.

Burton purchased Mill House, as it’s called, with his then-partner Helena Bonham Carter (Lady Jane, Les Misérables, The Crown), and it boasts its own wonderful backstory worthy of its own movie. The story begins in the 17th century with the original paper mill — a site of national significance because it was commissioned by the Bank of England, no less, to produce hard-to-forge paper for bank notes. In 1741, Mill House itself was built for the factory’s foreman, and paper was produced, even long after the Bank of England contract expired in 1724, until the end of the 19th century. In the years that followed, Paper Mill and its trademark chimney fell into a sad state of disrepair and was subsequently demolished.

However, the tale does not end quite there.

Second act; enter Prime Minister Henry Asquith (1852-1928), the only person in his position to take office on foreign soil (Biarritz to be exact). In 1913, Asquith and his wife moved to Sutton Courtenay and purchased The Wharf — a house that still exists to this day and which he much-preferred to Chequers. In 1914, Asquith signed the declaration that took Britain into the First World War inside its walls; in 1917, he acquired Mill House, which happens to be next door, for visiting guests. The Liberal politician died in February 1929, and is buried in the village churchyard.

And, well, we know what happens in the third act. Burton. Who bought the house in 2006 and held onto it — a quintessential British countryside idyll away from the bright lights of Hollywood — after his 2014 separation from Bonham Carter. His reasons for selling it are, so far, not public knowledge — and looking at the pictures and information it’s hard not to think he’s mad for doing so.

Mill House comes with eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and four reception rooms, a book-lined study and exquisite paned windows embellished with 19th century, cast iron window boxes. There’s also a dual aspect drawing room with striking marble fireplace surround, a four-door Aga in the kitchen and a good size boot-room. But it is the outside that really makes jaws drop.

The front door is approached through a rose courtyard; the gardens are scarred by a web of waterways which snake romantically around three islands — included with the property; paths trail off mysteriously through woodland which, come Spring, are blanketed in nodding bluebells. The list of other plants and trees includes wisteria and virginia creeper (smothering a pergola), horse chestnut, copper beech, yew and cherry, pleached hornbeam, plus endangered dawn redwoods.

Wood and rope bridge crisscross the mill streams and Thames tributaries; lilypads cluster elegantly around a picturesque jetty — oh, and there’s a rose parterre and a croquet lawn, shaded thoughtfully by two ancient Cedar of Lebanon trees. Put quite simply, Mill House is the filmic house of all our dreams.

Mill House is for sale at £4.5m — see more details and pictures

It is always an impressive feat, in my opinion, to take something that is quite old and make it quite new, without making the old thing look new or the new thing look old. Lots of people try, many people fail and I imagine that is because it is both expensive and difficult.

When presented with a property named Rectory Farm House, the mind naturally wanders to immaculate rosebushes, exposed beams and low ceilings, and sleepy vicars wobbling across lawns with trays of tea. From the outside, this Rectory Farm House does little to dispel such a notion. It is for sale with Savills for £10 million.

Now, you might rightly be thinking that £10 million is quite a lot for a trembling vicar and some rose bushes. But the exterior of Rectory Farm House is simply a façade. Inside, a home of voluptuous luxury reveals itself, but gradually, and then everything starts to make itself.

It’s best to start with the swimming pool, because where else would you have a party. The property is described by the agents as one for entertaining on a grand scale, after all. Swimming pools, while nice things to have, are mostly quite ugly. I have never seen a swimming pool such as this one before. I never want to see a swimming pool that is anything other than this one ever again. Elegant, modern, and adding character to the building. I never thought a pool could do that.

Inside, the six bedroom home is finished to an exceptionally high standard, and set over three floors. Entertaining rooms include, but are not limited to, a drawing room, a sitting room, a music room, ‘The Long Room’, a large kitchen, library, and study. The fitness suite, in which you will find the pool, also comes with a sauna, spa and gym.

The house has grown since its 17th century origins, with a previous owner going by the name of Sir Michael Caine having presided over a series of extensions. That might explain why there is an Oscar statue in the cinema room. Sir Michael is famous for many films, including Jaws 4: The Revenge. He once said: 'I have never seen Jaws 4, but by all accounts it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.' This might be that house.

The sheer tasteful decadence of Rectory Farm House continues throughout the 8.3 acres of Thames-side scenery in which it sits. Two further properties (a cottage and a lodge) offer further four bedrooms, while a garage with car lifts is also designed to be used as a party barn, with stairs leading to a mezzanine office.

The gardens themselves have been a source of inspiration for the owners, and feature waterways and three lakes, a croquet lawn, a tennis court and provide a haven for all manner of wildlife, including otters, swans, kingfishers and hedgehogs. The Georgian dovecote, which once housed Sir Michael’s port collection, still contains handwritten labels.

The property is bordered on one end by the Thames, with the village of North Stoke on the other. Rectory Farm House might be the very best of both worlds — a traditional English idyll, with all the tasteful modern trimmings that you could ever want.

Rectory Farm House is for sale with Savills for £10 million. For more information and pictures, click here.

A long time ago, when I was a younger man with fewer commitments, my friend and I rowed down the River Thames in a Victorian skiff. You can read about it here. There was much to enjoy about the occasion, not least the very many good pubs you can find and stop in while rowing down a river, but a highlight was certainly looking at very nice houses on the bank.

It’s hard to imagine many things more bucolic than a Thames-side property in Oxfordshire, far removed from the horrors of central London. The water was crystal clear, the willow dancing in the breeze just so. Imaginations ran wild of who could live in these homes. One such person was Dick Southwood, who rowed for GB at two Olympics in the 1930s, and whose former home The Manor is currently for sale with Savills for £3.75 million.

The Manor is an absolute classic of the riverside genre. Listed Grade II, the property dates back to the 17th century, with further additions from the 18th, 19th and 21st centuries. Five bedrooms, four bathrooms and three reception rooms. Gardens that slope down to the Thames, with a central location in Long Wittenham. Many boxes ticked.

It’s important that if you have sloping gardens down to the Thames, that you can see them. No issues here, with one of the rear gables of the property made almost entirely out of glass, allowing for views from the master bedroom suite bathroom (first floor) or garden room (ground floor) year round.

This is a home that has been managed and upgraded sensitively, making the most of 21st century comforts, but with respect to the rich heritage of the structure. Nothing looks out of place in this red-brick and wooden house, and there is nothing I’d really want to change.

The ground floor also offers a spacious kitchen, dining room, reception hall and sitting room, as well as a private study, all of which ooze period charm. On the first floor, four bedrooms and two bathrooms, including the master suite, while the fifth bedroom can be found on the second floor. There is also a garage, with a self-contained one-bedroom flat above.

The gardens are some of the more magical that have graced the property pages of this website for some time. A sweeping driveway leads to manicured front lawns, where you’ll find a croquet pitch, because nothing is more English than The Manor. There is also a vegetable garden with a greenhouse, and some light woodland.

Of course, to the rear is the river, which cannot be ignored. Approached across lawns, the property also benefits from a private boathouse with a river boat included in the sale. In total, the grounds extend to more than three acres.

Sitting and watching the river flow by, you could be forgiven for thinking that anybody was within several miles of you. But The Manor is in the sought after village of Long Wittenham, which offers a pub, restaurant, primary school and church well within walking distance. Abingdon and Wallingford are also close by.

The Manor is for sale with Savills for £3.75 million. For more information and pictures, click here

Country Life has long had a healthy relationship to Royalty, but usually only the family in charge of these fair isles. But no longer. We are spreading our wings to other, more eastern, isles, by bringing you the glorious Old Rectory in Besselsleigh, Oxfordshire.

For sale with Knight Frank for £1.95 million, the property was the former home of Crown Prince Naruhito, now known as His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan. He wrote about the house in his book The Thames and I: A memoir of two years at Oxford. I never expected to have anything in common with the Emperor of Japan, but now we’ve both written about the Old Rectory. Always good to have something in your back pocket should I accidentally get sat next to him at a dinner.

To the house! As discussed, it is called The Old Rectory, it is in Oxfordshire, and comes with five bedrooms, five reception rooms and 2.5 acres of gardens and grounds. It is about as typical an old rectory as you would expect to find in this part of the world, with lots of spacious reception rooms, dry-stone walling and glorious gardens.

Set over two floors, the property is laid out in an L-plan, with the ground floor comprising a gym, study, sitting room, family room, kitchen and utility/boot room. The five bedrooms can be found on the first floor. There is also a wine cellar, because what self-respecting emperor doesn’t have a wine cellar.

The gardens are of exceptional quality, with lawned areas, well stocked borders and shrubs, and a selection of specimen trees. Further afield, the property benefits from tremendous views over the surrounding countryside, as well as privacy from the stone wall to the front of the home.

Oxford city centre is just a few miles to the north east, while London is accessible by train in under an hour. A home fit for a king? Who knows, but certainly one for a future emperor.

The Old Rectory is for sale with Knight Frank for £1.95 million. For more information and pictures, click here

If the Chelsea Flower Show has got you thinking about a house with a spectacular garden, The Manor House, Blockley, There are lawns, terraces, formal gardens and more, plus an ancient orchard with medlar, walnut, fig, quince, mulberry and various traditional pears — ideal for making up an unusual fruit salad.

The main house will also surely grow on you. Grade II*-listed and remodelled in the 18th century, the house, with its gabled projections, sash and mullioned windows and Tudor arched doorway, sits on the site of the medieval summer palace of the Bishops of Worcester (before 1539).

Inside, five reception rooms include an orangery and 10 bedrooms — three with superb suites.

For as lovely as the interiors are, the ‘very special’ gardens of almost an acre have been the particular project of the vendor, with an ornamental fish pond, rose garden fringed with lavender, potager and white gardens and a substantial pergola (with wonderful view) among the joys on show.

If you want even more outdoor space, the further Lower Garden of a little under an acre is for sale separately, for an additional £250,000. It's here that you'll find the aforementioned orchard, with a brook meandering through.

The Lower Garden is connected, but has a separate entrance, and would make a lovely place to build a new house — subject to the usual consents, of course. Within the Cotswold National Landscape between Chipping Campden and Moreton-in-Marsh, ‘you are in the middle of a buzzing village, but you wouldn’t know it,’ says agent David Henderson.

The Manor House in Blockley is for sale at £3.5 million via Savills — see more details and pictures.

It is the week to be thinking about gardens and the homes that are contained within them. As RHS Chelsea rages, property coverage on the website this week will have a focus on homes with fine gardens.

First up, Mark Smith of Strutt & Parker’s Banbury office is handling the sale — at a guide price of £2.25m — of the delightful, Grade II-listed Friars Well at Aynho, which stands in 17¼ acres of Capability Brown-designed parkland, once part of the Cartwright family’s Aynhoe Park estate.

Built by the Cartwrights in 1763 of stone under a Stonesfield-slate roof, the substantial nine-bedroom house, originally known as Aynhoe Park Cottage, has been extensively remodelled over the years and, in the 1950s, was renamed Friars Well after the natural spring in the grounds.

At about the same time, the Classical architect Raymond Erith, who did notable work in the popular Northamptonshire village dominated by Grade I-listed Aynhoe Park, was commissioned by the Cartwrights to remodel Friars Well. This he did by enhancing its Georgian proportions, re-ordering the interior and installing a fine curved staircase, one of his signature designs. He also raised the roof level and introduced a series of attics.

In the 1960s, Lady Ward moved from Aynhoe Park to Friars Well, where she retained John Fowler of Colefax & Fowler to advise on further alterations to the house, including ground- and first-floor extensions to the rear.

She also enlisted landscape architect Lanning Roper to design a series of garden ‘rooms’, which were imaginatively planted to counter the prevailing wind by creating private sheltered areas around the house.

Beautifully maintained by its current owners during their 11-year tenure, Friars Well offers 5,735sq ft of elegant accommodation, including five reception rooms, nine bedrooms and five bathrooms.

Friars Well is for sale with Strutt & Parker for £2.25 million. For more information and pictures, click here.

Cirencester — £3.25 million

This Grade II-listed vicarage has six bedrooms and 2.4 acres — but it's the grace and charm of the place rather than the space and facilities which will win you over.

Georgian architecture, Cotswold Stone, huge sash windows, an Aga in the kitchen and a slate roof... this is the sort of place we've all dreamed of.

For sale with Knight Frank. See more pictures and details for this property.

Chipping Norton — £4.25 million

We don't often use a garden image ahead of a picture of the actual house. For obvious reasons, we make no apology for doing so in the case of Finstock, near Chipping Norton.

The grounds are dreamy, but the rest of the property is also picture-perfect — and huge. Eight bedrooms, swimming pool with pool house, a summer house, granary (with lapsed planning permission to convert) and much more.

For sale with Strutt & Parker. See more pictures and details for this property.

Woodstock — £7.85 million

Almost 11,000sq ft of space in this mansion with views of the Blenheim Estate.

'Truly stunning' and an 'exceptional family home', in the words fof the agents, and we can't help but agree.

For sale with Savills. See more pictures and details for this property.

Edgeworth — £11 million

Overlooking a beautiful wooded valley in 56 acres of Gloucestershire, this utterly magnificent manor house is something to behold.

The house is full of period features and charming touches, while the setting is fantastically private while also being easily accessible.

For sale with Knight Frank. See more pictures and details for this property.

Oxfordshire — £18 million

'It takes quite a lot to make me stop and say wow,' writes James Fisher in his piece on Middleton Park in Oxfordshire, 'but every once in a while there is a home that achieves the feat.'

27 bedrooms, architecture by Edwin Lutyens and its own cricket pitch — yes, really — make this one of the finest properties we've seen in 2025 so far... and as you might have guessed, also one of the most expensive.

For sale with Savills. See more pictures and details for this property.

It takes quite a lot to make me stop and say wow, but every once in a while there is a home that achieves the feat. It’s one of the downsides of the job, leafing through this much property. You get desensitised to the joys of housebuilding, of architecture, chasing something more sublime and more ridiculous each week, like a junkie.

Well I’ve found this week’s hit, and it’s Middleton Park in Oxfordshire. There are sizable homes. There are big homes. There are mansions, castles, estates. And then there is Middleton Park. It’s for sale with Savills for offers in excess of £18 million.

It’s almost overwhelming. This home, one of Edwin Lutyens’s last, was built in 1938 and commissioned by the 9th Earl of Jersey. It was listed Grade II, but that’s clearly ridiculous, so it was soon upgraded to Grade I.

The word ‘home’ doesn’t feel quite right when describing Middleton Park. It’s got 27 bedrooms for goodness sake. I am not sure I have enough friends to fill it. It’s got a cricket pitch (and, crucially, a pavilion) within its 86 acres of gardens and listed parkland. It is surely one of the great houses of Britain. How would you even begin to decorate it?

One of the nice things about homes such as these (apart from living in them) is taking the listing down to the pub and chatting with your friends about how you might use it. Imagine the parties. If you had a home office on one side, and your bedroom on the other, you could very realistically describe the journey between the two as a proper commute. Trying to make sense of the floorplans instills something akin to a Lovecraftian madness.

The good news for those more sensible and architecturally curious is that much of the property’s period grandeur has been retained and restored, despite Middleton Park being converted into 18 apartments in the 1970s. The glorious neo-Georgian façade, the squared limestone and ashlar dressings all sparkle. The interiors are sublime and extremely well maintained.

The gardens and grounds are, of course, extensive. As mentioned, there is a functioning cricket pitch, outdoor tennis court, swimming pool and an icehouse, in case you need one of those.

There are also plenty of further properties within the estate, with various lodges, gardeners cottages and garages providing further accommodation. Lastly, a property known as Homewood is, all by itself, a five-bedroom home of some 4,000sq ft.

Bigger does not necessarily mean better, but it is always impressive to see the grand scale of Edwardian opulence when the shackles are removed. The options available to you with such a stately home are vast — something to think about over a beer and a packet of crisps for sure.

Middleton Park is for sale with Savills for offers in excess of £15 million. For more information and pictures, click here.

It's hard to say which of the counties of the Cotswolds is the finest, but Gloucestershire could certainly try to claim the crown.

It is there where Ed Sugden of Savills is handling the sale, at a guide price of £7.5m, of imposing Waterton House, a substantial country home set in some 25 acres of wooded grounds and parkland on the edge of Ampney Crucis village, three miles from Cirencester and 15 miles from Cheltenham.

Built in 1901 with Elizabethan-style stone quoins and large mullioned windows by the Cripps family, major local landowners and politicians who owned the nearby Ampney Park estate from the 19th century until the late 20th century, Waterton House, which is unlisted, has been renovated throughout by the current vendors in the course of their 25-year tenure.

Approached over a private tarmac driveway through a grand stone-pillared gateway with wrought-iron gates, followed by a second secure set of wrought-iron gates, the house and its well-timbered grounds provide a peaceful and secluded setting, bordered by a stone ha-ha, with a plantation and parkland beyond.

An entrance porch with double oak doors leads to the grand staircase hall and the principal reception rooms, which boast large open fireplaces, stone hearths, oak-panelled walls and south-facing bay windows.

Beyond the dining room is the inner hallway leading to the main kitchen with its essential Aga, to the side of which is the breakfast room with its original iron cooking range. The lower-ground floor comprises a wine cellar and storage area.

The house offers 11-12 bedrooms of varying sizes over two floors, the first floor reached via a large wooden staircase from the main hall. The master bedroom suite on the first floor comprises a sumptuous double-aspect bedroom with a large fireplace, a bay window seating area and a vast bathroom with a separate walk-in wardrobe.

There are four further bedrooms, two of which are en-suite, and two further family bathrooms. At the opposite end of the landing is a billiard room and a stylish cinema room, from which a staircase leads down to the breakfast room and main kitchen area. A staircase continues to the second floor landing and the sixth bedroom, and onto two separate, self-contained flats, which provide a further five/six bedrooms in all.

In addition to its impeccably maintained formal gardens, Waterton House offers an excellent range of leisure and sporting facilities, including a heated indoor swimming pool, hard tennis court, barbecue area, croquet lawn and stable yard with six loose boxes.

Existing planning consent allows for the construction of a 6,000–7,000sq ft, two-storey, Cotswold-stone building to provide further domestic offices and residential accommodation.

Waterton House is for sale with Savills for £7.5 million. For more information and pictures, click here.

Located within the Cotswold ‘golden triangle’ between Burford, Chipping Norton and Stow-on-the-Wold, dreamy Grade II*-listed Finstock Manor stands on high ground on the edge of the village it’s named for.

Finstock is bounded to the north-east by the River Evenlode on the southern edge of the ancient parish of Charlbury and overlooks the Cornbury Park estate of which it was, until recently, a part.

Nowadays, this much sought-after area of Oxfordshire boasts an even more exclusive ‘golden triangle’ — between Estelle Manor, at North Leigh near Witney, Soho Farmhouse at Great Tew, near Chipping Norton, and Daylesford Organic Farm Shop, near Moreton-in-Marsh — located respectively 4½ miles, 10½ miles and 12½ miles from Finstock Manor.

From at least 1135, the village of Finstock — the name means ‘a place of woodpeckers’ — was part of the manor of Charlbury, a vast episcopal estate held by the Bishop of Lincoln at the time of the Domesday survey. Charlbury was later owned by St John’s College, Oxford, from the late 16th century until 1857, when the lordship of the manor passed to Francis Spencer, 2nd Lord Churchill of Wychwood, the owner of Cornbury Park.

Acquired from Cornbury by the current owners in 2005, Finstock Manor is now for sale through the Oxford office of Strutt & Parker Selling agent Giles Lawton quotes a guide price of £4.25 million for the charmingly unspoilt, 17th-century manor house and its picturesque outbuildings set in almost five acres of west-facing formal gardens and grounds, which include a series of garden rooms, a paddock and a large outdoor heated swimming pool.

In the early 1900s, the manor was home to William Force Stead, who came to England as an American consul, but discovered literature and religion at Oxford University, where he was ordained and appointed chaplain of Worcester College, and, in June 1927, baptised fellow American T. S. Eliot in Finstock’s Gothic Revival parish church.

Previously listed as Manor Farm House, Finstock Manor dates from 1660 and is built on an L-plan of squared and coursed limestone under a stone slate roof. The main elevations have three gables surmounted by globe finials and unusual windows, two oval and one an oeil-de-boeuf.

The manor is described in Pevsner’s Buildings of England as being ‘essentially Elizabethan’, but with rusticated quoins and oval attic windows that presage the coming of the Classical era. It offers more than 7,000sq ft of comfortable accommodation on three floors, including a reception hall, original 17th-century staircase, four fine reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, various utilities, a principal bedroom suite, seven further bedrooms, six bathrooms, a large attic room and a study/playroom.

Outbuildings include a large barn/garage, a listed former thatched cart-shed in need of repair, summerhouse, two stables, tack and feed room, a Grade II-listed pool house and a granary with recently lapsed consent for conversion into a cottage.

Finstock Manor is for sale with Strutt & Parker for £4.25 million. For more information and pictures, click here

The Cotswolds was one area of the UK that more than held its own in 2024, due in no small measure to the return of American buyers, who remain captivated by its history, heritage and cosmopolitan lifestyle. All three are encapsulated in the picture-postcard stone village of Blockley, 3½ miles equidistant from Moreton-in-Marsh and Chipping Campden, a large part of which is designated a conservation area.

How nice is this place? Well, the village was voted ‘the best place to live in the South-West’ by The Sunday Times in 2017. That said, it doesn’t even seem to be in the regional top five any more, nor indeed anywhere among the 72 places that get a nod across Britain. We’re going to go out on a limb and say that’s probably more to do with the caprices and arbitrary criteria which tend to shape such lists, rather than a vertiginous decline. And if you’re prepared to overlook the risk that it is the latter, then there’s great news: a beautiful house in Blockley has just come up on to the market.

Plum Fenton of Savills country department is overseeing the sale, for the first time in 30 years, of historic, Grade II*-listed The Manor House at a guide price of £4.25m for the main house set in almost an acre of enchanting gardens. If a measly almost-an-acre, doesn’t sound enough, you can buy a further four-fifths of an acre of lower garden — which has potential for residential development — for a very-reasonable sounding £250,000.

The Manor House stands on what was the site of the medieval summer palace of the Bishops of Worcester until the Dissolution of the Monasteries and, today, forms part of the boundary to the village churchyard.

Remodelled in the 18th century, it retains many period features, including gabled projections, sash and mullioned windows and a Tudor-arch doorway, and enjoys breathtaking views over the surrounding Cotswolds National Landscape.

Lovingly maintained by its long-term owners, the house offers 7,385sq ft of comfortable accommodation on three floors.

There are five charming reception rooms, a large kitchen/breakfast room, three bedroom suites, two further bedrooms, family bath and shower rooms. Most intriguingly of all, there are five attic rooms, which makes the whole place sound like the sort of delightful, quirky and rambling country house we’d all love to have grown up in.

The Manor House in Blockley, Gloucestershire, is for sale at £4.25 million — see more pictures and details.

Credit: Strutt and Parker

Best country houses for sale this week

An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for

Before the introduction of 20th-century boundary changes, the tiny rural parish of Broughton Poggs in west Oxfordshire occupied a thin sliver of land between Broadwell, Langford and the county border with Gloucestershire, stretching for three miles from the high downland of the Cotswolds in the north-west to the village beside the Broadwell brook in the south-east. From the 18th century, the village itself effectively merged with neighbouring Filkins and the two parishes were formally united in 1954.

Throughout that time, the only building of gentry status in Broughton Poggs was Broughton Hall, an imposing country house set in extensive grounds on the south-western edge of the village, which was adopted as the manor house in the 17th century and later enlarged. It is this home which is for sale right now, impeccably located 5½ miles from Burford and three miles from Lechlade, and on sale with Butler Sherborn offering it at a guide price of £3.75 million.

The house has a rather fantastic spot in British history, having been part of the divorce settlement for one of Henry VIII’s wives. British History Online traces its passage through the 1500s, showing that Lord Hastings — later Earl of Huntingdon — sold Broughton manor to Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s chancellor and right-hand man, in 1537. Following Cromwell’s downfall and execution in 1540, the manor reverted to the Crown; and in 1541, a ‘life interest’ in the property was granted to Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII as part of her divorce settlement (or, technically, her annulment settlement).

Much has changed since Tudor times, but the Grade II-listed Broughton Hall boasts an array of original features from its various incarnations and extensions, including the grand reception hall, the colourful high-ceilinged drawing room, the panelled library, open fireplaces, sash windows and the newly added garden room.

The hall offers more than 8,400sq ft of elegant living space on three floors, including five reception rooms and a high-spec kitchen/breakfast room on the ground floor.

Above there are five bedrooms and four bath/shower rooms on the first floor, and a guest bedroom suite, plus three further bedrooms and a family bathroom on the second floor.

Broughton Hall’s 4½ acres of beautifully maintained gardens and grounds include a terrace, tennis court, carports and garages, as well as a historic stone pavilion.

As for Anne of Cleves? She didn’t hang on to the manor for long, which is perhaps not surprising when you consider that it was just one part of one of the largest divorce settlements in English history, which also saw her given Hever Castle and Richmond Palace. In 1545, the reversion was sold to Sir Thomas Pope of Wroxton, who owned a large estate in Broadwell. Broughton then passed through the Godfrey, Mowse and West families, before being sold in 1670 to William Goodenough, scion of a prominent Broadwell family.

In 1747, Broughton Poggs manor was acquired by the distinguished naval officer William Burnaby, who was knighted in 1754 and served as High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1755. In 1824, Sir William’s grandson sold the estate to the Revd Bowen Thickens, after which it passed through the Thickens family to John Thickens, who was declared bankrupt in 1886. In 1902, Sir Charles Murray Marling sold the estate to Robert Trollope, who sold it in turn to John Norman Hardcastle; his executors offered Broughton Hall with a few acres of land for sale in 1950 and the rest of the estate was broken up.

The oldest part of Broughton Hall is the central section of the north-south range, which was extended and gentrified by the Goodenoughs, who added rooms to the west and created an access corridor between the old and new parts.

William Burnaby further remodelled the hall with the addition of a large, two-storeyed range to the south and, in 1748, diverted a road through the village in order to extend the grounds. Renovations from the 1970s included the rebuilding of the staircase, the creation of a mezzanine floor over the two-storey entrance hall, the addition of a new entrance porch and the re-roofing of the south range.

Broughton Hall is for sale at £3.75 million — see more details and pictures.

'You begin to suspect that Meyers isn't actually a movie director at all, but a features coordinator at World of Interiors.' So wrote the Independent's film critic Anthony Quinn back in 2006 about Nancy Meyers' film The Holiday.

Quinn might have been right about the film in comparison to the great works of cinematic art, but he was even righter that the point of the film wasn't its script, character or acting. What he didn't understand was that The Holiday really is all about how gorgeous the whole thing looks. Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Jude Law, of course, but primarily the utterly irresistible English country cottage that's at the heart of the film.

So while the critics moaned about the predictable storyline, banal script and wooden acting, everyone else simply soaked the whole thing up and did the 2006 equivalent of hitting the 'like' button.

The Holiday is, in essence, Instagram on film.

The big problem for those that loved the film, and want to buy into the lifestyle for real, is that Rosehill Cottage — the beautiful, stone-built, and very Instagrammable cottage featured in the film — doesn't actually exist. The interiors were sets, while the exterior was erected in a field in the Surrey village of Shere, not far from Guildford — and then hauled down afterwards, as Lydia Stangroom wrote a few years ago.

That leaves us all looking for the next best, nearest thing. James Fisher unearthed one just the other day in Cornwall, for example. Today, though, we have one which looks possibly even more like the real thing. By which we mean the real fake thing as created by Hollywood, of course.

It's called Southview House, located in the village of Hailey, on the north-eastern edge of the Cotswolds, commutable to Oxford and close to Blenheim Palace. It's is on the market with John D Wood & Co for £1,750,000... and it really does looks uncannily like the home of Kate Winslet’s character in the film.

There's a traditional stone façade, a chic alfresco dining space, open fires, stone floors, original beams and so on. But there are also touches which are definitely more Cotswolds 2024 than Surrey 2006, including an outdoor kitchen and a wood-fired hot tub that wouldn’t look entirely out of place in LA. More of which later…

The five-bedroom cottage dates back in part to the 1600s. It’s been refurbished and extended in recent years to offer that sought-after combination of period features and contemporary layout and interiors.

The heart of the home is the stylish open-plan kitchen with Aga (of course), island and living area, with views stretching out across the Oxfordshire countryside.

The sitting room looks wonderfully cosy, with an inglenook fireplace and exposed timbers.

At the far side of the house is a laundry room and a double bedroom with an ensuite, which can be accessed from outside. There are four further bedrooms upstairs.

So, back to Southview House’s smart set-up at the back of the house. There’s a terrace that features one of the more sophisticated outdoor kitchens we’ve ever come across. This is going to have foodies reaching for their BBQ tongs and skewers.

There’s also a ‘very generous’ games room with a home office at the rear, and a wood-fired tub that can accommodate up to 10 people! Who wouldn’t want to unwind at the end of a day at the ‘office’ with a game of pool and a dip in the hot tub?

Also included in the 2.1-acre parcel of land is a ‘magical’ woodland, with a treehouse (yes!) and a campfire area.

And let’s not forget the timber-framed garage and workshop. That wood store should keep the owners of Southview House toasty warm for a while…

Daniel Parrott, Head of John D Wood & Co in Oxford, says: ‘Southview House is a rare find, beautifully blending historic charm with contemporary amenities in an idyllic setting.’

Southview House is on the market for £1,750,000 via John D Wood & Co — see more details and pictures.

Credit: Strutt and Parker

Best country houses for sale this week

An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for

Credit: H Tiddy

12 stunning character properties for sale at under £400,000

Thatched homes in Cornwall and West Sussex are among the many highlights of these gorgeous character cottages for sale.

We have seen many different kinds of conversions come sliding across the Country Life Property Desk desk. Typically they are barns. I grew up in a barn conversion, so I have a soft spot for them, even though our great lord and saviour Nicky Haslam has now decided that they are common. He gets everyone eventually.

Churches, windmills, watermills, courthouses, old post offices, schoolhouses, water towers, lighthouses and so on. If it is a building, it can be converted. If you stand still long enough, it is very likely that Kevin McCloud and whichever hapless couple is on the brink of a divorce will come and convert you into a house. It seems odd, then, that it has taken so long for me to come across a converted bank. After all, they are on most high streets. And yet!

But now I have one. Or at least have seen one. It’s in Shipston-on-Stour, predictably on the High Street (where banks live), and offers four bedrooms. It is for sale with Hamptons for offers in excess of £900,000.

I like Shipston-on-Stour. I went there once, a few years ago. It’s pretty. It’s in the Cotswolds, but not the bit that everyone hates. It has lots of nice pubs and good shops. And a river. It’s about as English a town as you could hope to ever find. This house is bang in the middle of it.

As discussed, it used to be a bank. Banks come with vaults, traditionally, and this home is no different, except the vault is used for storing wine rather than gold or coins. The renovation of this home, the name of which I cannot find, was undertaken by the current owners, who have created a terrific blend of historic character and modern convenience.

That character shines through in the details of the interiors, and also their layout. The property, on the market for less than £1 million, offers a large kitchen/breakfast room with island, a ‘retail space’, a vault/wine store, utility room, office, home gym, library, family/garden room. All of which are on the ground floor. 

On the first floor, you’ll find two bedrooms, a vast bathroom, a drawing room, and a study, with two further bedrooms on the second floor. Outside, a coach house offers additional storage space in the walled garden. A reminder that this house is in the heart of one of the Cotswolds’ best towns. 

This bank, the first that I’ve seen, is very worthy of joining the pantheon of great conversions. May we endeavour to see more.

For sale with Hamptons for offers in excess of £900,000. For more information and pictures, click here

A country house which blends the best of England, Scotland, Italy and France, with 'views to die for', and an easy commute to Edinburgh

Grey Peel is the sort of country home which makes you wonder why anyone lives in the city. Penny Churchill

Woolly gardeners gobble down neck-high nettles to save church

It was a plague of deathwatch beetles, leading to a £150,000 restoration deficit, that prompted Phillip Bailey, the enterprising warden of St Wolfrida’s Church in Horton, Dorset, to enlist the help of a flock of North Ronaldsay sheep to save on gardening costs. 

The 18th-century church, with 12th- or 13th-century origins and a tower on the brink of collapse that may have been designed by Vanbrugh, has a churchyard of some 1½ acres that was so overgrown, ‘the nettles were up to your neck,’ explains parish secretary Ruth Marshall. 

A former shepherdess, she sourced four sheep from a local breeder in Ferndown; they moved in last month and made swift work of the brambles, clearing four Commonwealth war graves in time for Remembrance Sunday: ‘We had two goats as well, but they were too good at escaping, so they’ve gone home.’

The rare breed, originally from the Orkney Islands, is ideal for the task, as it can withstand the cold, with no need for shelter. ‘Back in Orkney, they would have eaten the seaweed off the beaches and worked their way inland eating absolutely everything,’ says Ms Marshall. ‘This project wouldn’t have worked with any other breed. They are very intelligent — and super cute.’ Verger Jackie Lydford feeds and checks on them twice a day and many other volunteers pitch in, with their own congregational ‘flockwatch’ WhatsApp group.

‘With the deathwatch beetle eating two of our [Wimborne Minster] village churches at Horton and Chalbury from the inside out, we’re faced with a massive restoration project in the region of £300,000 and the full extent of the damage is not yet known,’ adds Ms Marshall. ‘It’s a fight for survival. Gardening in the graveyard at St Wolfrida’s costs £8,000 a year — a cost they couldn’t justify any more.

‘The sheep have been so good at bringing the community together, giving a focal point for people of all ages,’ she continues. ‘Volunteers strim areas that sheep can’t reach, such as under the yew tree. Children walk to the bus through the graveyard now, instead of along the road, to say hello to the sheep every morning. Rather than a temporary fix, we’d like to make the animals a permanent feature at Horton. We are hoping to raise money to improve our fencing and enable the livestock to stay longer, as well as for restoration.’ There are organisations that help fund restorations, explains the shepherdess, but they’ll only help if a church can prove its future and community, so the sheep at Horton are helping in more ways than one.

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ruth-marshall and comment ‘beetle’ if you wish to donate to the restoration instead. Annunciata Elwes

Quiz of the day

1) What does a copoclephilist collect?

2) Sungold, Alicante and Gardener’s Delight are all varieties of what?

3) What is the name of Sherlock Holmes’s landlady?

4) Which country has the longest coastline?

5) What nationality was the artist Edvard Munch?

From the Farmers' March

The mood was by turns jovial and sombre, as nearly 20,000 people thronged Whitehall to protest against the Government’s plans to impose an inheritance tax that would jeopardise the backbone of the British countryside, the family farm. The plans to gather for speeches and then march to Parliament had to be adjusted when the sheer number of people meant the crowd stretched almost to Parliament Square before moving a step. Instead, children rode toy tractors to the gates of Westminster as a succession of farmers and politicians spoke of the generations past, present and - hopefully - future who have nurtured the land, livestock and the natural world. 

A minute’s silence remembered the Yorkshire farmer who recently took his own life, as well as all those who died in the World Wars commemorated in the nearby monuments. When one woman, a sixth-generation farmer, struggled to carry on with her speech, a spontaneous ripple of good-hearted applause gave her the time she needed to compose herself. Others emphasised farming’s role as the solution to climate change and biodiversity loss; one talked of those ‘scruffy little corners of the farm, havens for wildlife, that we have known for generations [that] would be swept away by a faceless corporation’.

One speaker urged us to make ourselves known to Rachel Reeves in No 11 Downing Street, a few yards away, and the resultant cheer rattled the windows. Labour peer Baroness Mallalieu spoke of her shame in her own party and of the cross-party support for farmers in the Lords, Liberal Democrat Ed Davey said farmers deserved better and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pledged to reverse the tax at the first opportunity. 

In a brief, but heartfelt speech, Jeremy Clarkson emphasised the hard graft for little reward that characterises farming, saying that the Budget was like a ‘knee in the nuts’, with not only inheritance tax, but the reclassification of farm trucks and a carbon tax on fertiliser clobbering farmers. Finally, Tom Bradshaw of the NFU raised a cheer with a pledge to keep fighting and make our voices heard. 

Afterwards, not a scrap of litter was left, but a cornucopia of food was donated to City Harvest, from leeks to fruit cakes, apples to sides of bacon. The food bank van receiving the donations was full before even half the marchers had arrived and every scrap will go to support those in need across the capital. The generosity underlined the central wish of the farmer: to feed the nation. May there always be more where that came from. Octavia Pollock

Property of the day

Welcome to the Notswolds. Otherwise known as Rutland. England's smallest county comes with all the 'ambience of the Cotswolds without the price tag', claims our writer. Feast your eyes on not just one property, but several. Don't say we don't spoil you.

Good news at last for olive oil lovers

I hate olives, but I love olive oil. This is one of life’s funny little games. What is not one of life’s funny little games is just how expensive olive oil has become. A bottle of the good extra-virgin stuff seemed to be endlessly creeping up in price, and one of the biggest fights I ever had with a former housemate was when I found out he was using my Italian olive oil for cooking. I maintain that I showed great restraint for not actively attacking him.

So good news for me, as this year’s Spanish olive harvest appears to be a bumper crop, driving down wholesale olive oil prices. According to Javier Blas, energy and commodities columnist at Bloomberg, this should filter through to retail olive oil prices very soon. Rejoice.

That's all for today, we'll be back tomorrow

Quiz answers

1) Keyrings

2) Tomato

3) Mrs Hudson

4) Canada

5) Norwegian

There are no secrets between you and me, dear reader. And that is why, it is with a heavy heart, I must admit something. I have not read any books by Jilly Cooper. I have certainly not read Rivals. And I have not watched the new tv show. I should really be handing in my tweed jacket and my badge.

But, perhaps I can make it up to you, by bringing to your attention a home in Tetbury. You may know Tetbury as the local village of King Charles III; his country home, Highgrove, is here.

But you can forget that now. It is also the fictional town of Cotchester, transformed last summer for the filming of the Disney+ show. They even put banners welcoming Margaret Thatcher for the occasion, which is odd as it wasn’t even Hallowe’en when they filmed it.

Anyway, back to the house. It’s called 19 The Green, it costs £1.05 million, it’s on with Knight Frank and it’s in the heart of Tetbury/Cotchester, depending on how much you want to cosplay.

There are four bedrooms, two reception rooms, and two bathrooms over the three floors, so plenty of space for guests, a family, or to have affairs, which is what I’m reliably told is what happens in the book/tv show.

The property is a very typical Cotswold townhouse, that has been recently refurbished to an exacting standard throughout — and it has a look that's much more 2024 than 1986.

The ground floor is occupied by a large sitting/dining room, with a kitchen and study to the rear, as well as a courtyard garden.

Two bedrooms occupy the first and second floors, while there are two cellars, just in case you need more space for wine/affairs.

Naturally, the town of Tetbury is one of the jewels of the Cotswolds, with all the amenities you could desire. After all, The King does live nearby — and also Jilly Cooper, apparently. 

As well as Rupert Campbell-Black, obviously.

Just one warning, though, should you move here: the series has already been enough of a hit that a second series has been given the green light. So don't be surprised if you pop down to the shops one day and find the centre of the village overrun with film crew and festooned with Margaret Thatcher banners.

19 The Green is for sale with Knight Frank for £1.05 million. For more information and pictures, click here

James Fisher is the deputy digital editor of countrylife.co.uk. He lives in London, and is waiting for someone to give him a Disney+ subscription so he can see what all the fuss is about.

A breathtaking house and garden for sale that was created by one of Britain's greatest landscape architects as a playground for his family

Thomas H. Mawson, one of the 20th century's most renowned landscape architects, created this place for his family to enjoy.