When you come across a 692-year-old house, it's not hugely surprising to find out that it has a moat. Nor is it a shock to know that the place has leaded windows, ancient beams, hand-carved stone features, four-poster beds or a suit of armour in the hallway.

What is a bit of a surprise — to put it mildly — is to discover that the house also has a hot tub, double glazing, high-speed fibre broadband and a gazebo. It's a bit like finding a horse and cart with a turbo charger.

But that is Burstow Manor for you. It's a house that's a mass of contrasts, an astonishing medieval relic mashed-up with a very 2020s house, and it's for sale with Fine & Country at £2.25 million.

This Grade II*-listed home is originally believed to have been a hunting lodge owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, although recent archaeological investigations didn't dig up any evidence of the ecclesiastical connection.

The dendrochronologists had more luck than the archaeologists, however. Analysis of the tree rings in the beams of the oldest parts of the house apparently led them to proclaim that Burstow Manor is 'surely the finest of its period in Surrey'.

While this is one of the oldest surviving homes in Surrey, any building that comes through 700 years of history sees immense change along the way. Changes and improvements over the centuries have seen the place re-built (15th century), re-fronted (19th century) and expanded (19th and 20th centuries).

The 21st century has seen a huge amount of love and care going in to the place: the aforementioned double-glazing, for example, is of bespoke, oak-framed design to make sure it's within keeping with the look and feel of this home.

'We bought the house nearly twenty years ago to rescue it and we are immensely proud of what has been achieved,' say the current owners.

'It has been a privilege to care for such an extraordinary building and to preserve it for future generations.'

As it stands today, Burstow Manor has been configured as a seven-bedroom home over three storeys, with over 4,000sq ft of space.

The ground floor has a large sitting room and dining room off the main hallway, both of which have huge inglenook fireplaces.

There's a kitchen/breakfast room with a walk-in larder, as well as utility and cloakroom. That kitchen is a great example of how old and new come together, with a traditional Aga sitting immediately next to a modern, stainless-steel cooker.

A huge master bedroom suite, with dressing room and en-suite bathroom, is on one side of the first floor, while a second bedroom also has an en-suite.

The remaining rooms on the first floor all share one bathroom, while on the second floor there's another en-suite bedroom.

Should you need more accommodation, an annexe above the garage is set up as a separate, self-contained home with its own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living space. It's currently used as an office, but it has its own entrance via a little staircase, and thus could easily be put into play as a small flat for multi-generational living.

The gardens are one of the highlights: 2.75 acres of grounds with lawns, woodland, a paddock, the moat — crossed over by a wooden bridge — and charming seating areas here and there. It's elegant, natural and completely secluded.

The house is in the village of Smallwood, not far off the M23 and within easy reach of Gatwick Airport. 'This one offers the unique opportunity to become the owner of an irreplaceable piece of English architectural history while enjoying the comfort, privacy and practicality of a beautifully maintained country home,' say the agents.

Burstow Manor is for sale through Fine & Country — see more details.

There's no getting away from it: £4.25 million is a lot — a lot — for a three-bedroom house. We ran a quick search and found just a handful of homes this small on sale for this sort of price; most were in central London. Most of the rest came with huge stretches of land. One was right on the water in St Mawes, Cornwall. And then there was this one: Testcombe Cottage, which is for sale with Savills.

In the case of Testcombe Cottage, on the banks of the River Test near the Hampshire town of Stockbridge, you're actually getting a two-bedroom house, plus a collection of outbuildings.

But my goodness, you can see why the asking price is this high. What a house. What a location. And what a collection of outbuildings.

Testcombe Cottage might look like it's been here for centuries, but it's actually relatively new: the main house was constructed about three decades ago, spectacularly located on its own island in the Test. This prime location, right on one of Hampshire’s most celebrated chalkstreams, is land that once formed part of the historic Testcombe estate, owned at one time by the Disraeli family.

The decor and fittings here are beautifully done, with liberal use of exposed beams and brickwork, while tile-hung external walls add plenty more character from the outside.

There are also things you'd rarely find on a true period house, the best example being the balcony at one end of the master bedroom, which has glorious views of the gardens, the river, and the countryside around the place.

As two-bedroom houses go, it's also huge: there's about 2,500 square foot of accommodation over two floors and, it could potentially be made even bigger. The agents notes its ‘excellent potential for extension or redevelopment, subject to the necessary consents’.

All of that brings us to the annexes. One of them is across the exquisite formal gardens, and is set up as a self-contained, one-bedroom home, with bedroom, bathroom and open-plan kitchen/living room. The other, a little smaller, is ideal as an artist's studio.

The highlights, however, are a magical pair of smaller buildings, which — unlike the main house — have been here for nearly 150 years, and are Grade II listed: the fishing hut and the boathouse.

Originally built in 1888 by the Disraelis, the fishing hut is described in its Historic England listing it as 'timber-framed and clad in rustic split logs in herringbone pattern with bark'.

That rather spartan description simply doesn't do justice to how pretty and romantic it is — nor does it make much of the fact that it's on its own separate island, reached via the sort of charming little bridge that looks like Monet should have painted it.

The boathouse, equally, is a dreamy little highlight within the 8.8 acres of gardens on offer. And it's useful, too, for those who wish to get out on the water, rather than just relaxing and enjoying the views, or catching a few trout. Naturally, fishing rights are included: Savills describe them as '641 yards of doublebank main river, providing generous and varied water, complemented by a further 338 yards of carrier, offering quieter, more intimate fishing.'

And if you're worried about sharing these fishing waters with others, you needn't do so: the opposite bank is currently leased by Testcombe Cottage's owners, an arrangement which could continue. As the agents continue, it makes for 'an unmistakably peaceful and private setting, and... a true sanctuary beside this most beautiful chalk stream.'

Testcombe Cottage is for sale through Savills — see more details.

In May 1923, a house was featured in the architecture pages of Country Life: Stonehill, in the East Sussex village of Chiddingly. The author, R. Randal Phillips, was much taken with the place, calling it a 'fine old house' that was 'fashioned in the days when houses, like men, were oaken.'

Philips went on to call it 'a very delightful example of half-timber work, full of individual interest and possessing the weathered charm of age.'

How remarkable that over a century later, you could use the very same words to sum up the appeal of Stonehill, which is on the market through Savills at £3.75 million.

Philips wasn't alone in appreciating the charms of this 15th century, Grade II*-listed house. At the time he visited it was owned by a Captain H. P. Dick, who apparently bred dogs there; it was sold a year later, however, and for the next decade became the home of J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan (his tenure is often dated as 1921–34, though it's hard to see how unless Capt Dick took him in as a lodger).

Barrie wasn't to be the last famous owner: in the 1960s and 1970s, Stonehill was home to the musician Keith Emerson, a man regarded as the greatest keyboard artist of the prog rock era, and a 'maverick musical genius... [who] fused the power of rock music with the beauty of classical', according to our colleagues over at Prog magazine.

Emerson, like Barrie, had superb taste in homes, for the dreamy Stonehill — by now renamed Stonehill House — was described by as ‘the perfect timber-framed Sussex house’ by the great Sir Nikolaus Pevsner. And Savills agent Edward Wain-Heapy has also heaped praise on it, saying, 'rarely do you find such a beautifully presented and family-friendly historic house.'

The house as it's being sold today would be instantly recognisable by either Barrie or Emerson, but they'd probably be very pleasantly surprised to see how beautifully it's been kept of late. The present owners spent four years refurbishing and restoring the place, and it's now a perfect 21st century home, as well as a breathtaking piece of history.

The house, set in five acres of wonderful gardens and grounds on the crest of one of Chiddingly’s seven hills, offers 4,362 sq ft of stylish family accommodation on three floors, including two main reception rooms, a playroom, study, kitchen/breakfast room on the ground floor.

Four of the five bedrooms are on the first floor — they share two bathrooms between them — while the fifth on the second floor has an en-suite, and plenty of storage space.

As well as the main house there is also a spectacular, Grade II-listed entertainment barn, and a staff/guest cottage.

For those looking to make a few changes of their own, planning consent is in place to replace the existing kitchen and playroom with a new open-plan kitchen/diner.

Stonehill House is on the market through Savills at £3.75 million — see more details.

There are a lot of things to like about the town of Sevenoaks, but by far my favourite is the number of quirky place names you'll find in the surrounding villages. If you tootle around this corner of Kent you'll end up passing through Noah's Ark, Toy's Hill, Twitton, Bat & Ball (named after a pub which disappeared three or four decades ago), and the best of the lot: Pratt's Bottom.

One of the best of these names is Seal Chart. Sadly, it's not named after a marine mammal who learned to map-read and made its way up the River Darrent, but instead most likely dervies from an Old English word meaning 'muddy pond'. That may not sound particularly glamorous, but plenty of the homes in this well-heeled part of the word are — and one of the finest has come up for sale: Chart Cottage.

Linda Wesson of Hamptons Prime quotes a guide price of £2.5m for this enchanting, Grade II-listed home in what is a hamlet about three miles east of Sevenoaks itself.

It's delightful: a quirky and peaceful place which was once three cottages, one built in the 16th century, one in the 17th century and one in the 18th century, all of which were knocked together in the Edwardian era.

Not only does this add to the place's higgledy-piggledy charm, it also means that you get a far bigger house that you'd normally find while looking for a Kent cottage: there is more than 3,000sq ft of space, with three reception rooms, six bedrooms and two bathrooms, all set amid eight acres, and with sweeping views across the North Downs.

As fine as the interior is, the true historic element of the property is outside, for the gardens were designed by Gertrude Jekyll herself. Jekyll was one of the pioneers of gardening as we know it, a patron of Sir Edwin Lutyens, and a regular contributor to Country Life in the early days of the magazine's 129-year history.

Jekyll laid out these gardens in 1911, but they'd been almost completely lost by the time the present owner moved there almost 40 years ago. However, meticulous research, with help from experts in the UK and the University of California, Berkeley, — where the original Jekyll garden designs are held — saw the cottage garden replanted and laid out over time according to Jekyll’s original design.

The Kent Gardens Trust has documented both the process (you can download their PDF explaining all here) and the original story of the gardens. It was the tenants in 1911, a man named Bernard Blunt and his wife, who wrote to Jekyll asking if she would undertake the design of the garden at the cottage as he had read several of her books.

'He gave Jekyll carte blanche with her designs, putting in just a few suggestions and requests,' the history reads.

'As well as roses and sweet peas he especially asked for lilies and hibiscus shrubs. When the designs came back he expressed his pleasure at the inclusion of medlar and quince trees and wondered if a group of standard red currants could be added.' How extraordinary to see such things come back to life well over a century later.

Chart Cottage is for sale through Hamptons — see more details.

It's an age-old question: what could be better than life as a rock star in an iconic band, travelling the world, earning millions and living a wild lifstyle?

The answer, if you're a born showman, is nothing. But for those who'd rather-not-be-too-much-in-the-limelight-thanks-very-much, there's an even better answer: being the manager of an iconic rock band. You have all the fun, and yet you can walk around Sainsbury's without being bugged for autographs.

The fine country home you see above — which is for sale through Hamptons at £3.25 million — is that of a man who lived this life. Norman Sheffield might have had to deal with contracts and balance sheets rather than groupies hurling underwear at him on stage, but as manager of one of the greatest bands of the 1970s he enjoyed the trappings of success without the burden of fame.

And yet, as ever in life, you should be careful what you wish for — because Norman Sheffield's management of Queen took a disturbing turn.

Sheffield started his music career not as a businessman, but a musician. As a drummer for instrumental band The Hunters he had success as a performer, playing for Cliff Richard among others, and went on to open a record shop in London in the Swinging Sixties. In 1968, Norman and his brother, Barry, had an idea that would transform their fortunes and lives, converting the space above the shop into a state-of-the-art recording studio.

Artists were attracted by the studio’s ‘relaxed vibe and ability to be creative while surrounded by the latest technology and superior producers and engineers’, according to the Trident Studios website. That tech — including Dolby noise reduction and a sophisticated eight-track recording system — persuaded The Beatles to use Trident Studios to record Hey Jude, among other songs, since Abbey Road didn't have the same facilities at the time. From there, the studio became a huge success, with Elton John, Carly Simon, Lou Reed and David Bowie among those to record hits there.

It was during this heady era that Sheffield took a chance on a young quartet calling themselves Queen, letting them use the studio after hours, and getting them a recording contract with EMI.

Under his wing they released three albums, which featured songs such as Seven Seas of Rhye, Killer Queen and Now I'm Here.

At the time, Sheffield lived at Trevigue, the mock-Tudor property that’s now on the market. The band apparently spent a lot of time at the house with their manager, as well as the other artists in his orbit, with Elton John allegedly tinkling the ivories for them here. If only those walls could talk...

As Queen's early success turned into superstardom in the mid-1970s, the relationship between Sheffield and the band unravelled — over money, predictably — and they parted ways. Though Queen got out of their contract, Freddie Mercury was embittered enough to write a song, Death On Two Legs, which was seemingly aimed at their former manager.

Death On Two Legs was the opening track on A Night at the Opera, arguably Queen’s best-known album, released in 1975 — and Sheffield believed it was filled with references to him, including a line describing 'a sewer-rat decaying in a cesspool of pride', and including lines such as 'You suck my blood like a leech / You break the law and you breach... You've taken all my money, and you want more.'

Sheffield was not happy, to say the least, and threatend to sue: 'It was some kind of nasty hate mail from Freddie to me,' he later said in his autobiography, Life On Two Legs: Set The Record Straight, as recounted in The Daily Mirror.

Sheffield and Queen reached an out-of-court settlement that cleared the matter up, though it's notoriously a messy moment in the history of the band. In later years, however, Queen superstars Brian May and Roger Taylor paid tribute to Sheffield's Trident studios, particularly for the recording time they were allowed to let the young band find its voice and sound.

Mercury's vocals in particular benefitted hugely from these sessions, May explained: "As soon as he is in the studio, he hears his voicing come back at him through the speakers and says, "No, I don’t like that. I’ll do it again. Do another one." In a very short time, he tailored his performance to the way he wants to hear it. He became a really expert vocalist really quickly. He found his voice and he found the means to use it."

It's hard to know how deep the rift was felt — and even after the split, Queen's iconic, groundbreaking video for Bohemian Rhapsody was made by Trillion, a subsidiary of Trident Studios. Furthermore, following Norman Sheffield's death in 2014, May posted a tribute on his blog: 'We had our differences of course, but, in the Grand Scheme of Things, all the water had long since flowed under the bridge.'

But enough of the spat! Let’s get back to Trevigue. Set in more than two acres in the village of Hailey in Hertfordshire, the six-bedroom house is now a ‘beautiful family home’, says Hamptons.

A spacious hall, featuring a large fireplace and a sweeping staircase, sits at the heart of the property. Arranged around it are a dining room with a wooden bar, a double-aspect drawing room, a family room, a study and an office.

The kitchen is located towards the back of the house, alongside a utility room, pantry and boot room. All-important rooms in a busy family home. And let’s not forget the wine cellar underneath.

Exposed timber beams throughout the ground floor add plenty of character.

On the first floor, the main bedroom has the luxury of not one but two dressing rooms and two ensuite bathrooms. There are five further bedrooms, alongside three bathrooms and another dressing room — ample space for family and friends alike.

Outside, the grounds are bound to pique the interest of keen gardeners. They have been landscaped to create a series of distinct spaces, including a vegetable garden, rose garden, soft fruit garden, and a walled garden.

There’s also an ornamental pond with koi carp and a fountain as well as a large pond with a footbridge.

A swimming pool — installed by Sheffield — plus a pool house, and a number of outbuildings complete the set-up.

Oliver Babbage, Head of Sales at Hamptons in Hertford, says: ‘Having been lovingly updated and meticulously maintained by the current owners over the past 13 years, the property offers the perfect balance of family living and entertaining space with stunning landscaped gardens. It has been at the heart of countless memorable gatherings, celebrations, and family moments.

‘The owners are now preparing for their next chapter and are looking to downsize and relocate as their children begin to leave the nest.’

Trevigue is for sale via Hamptons at £3.25 million — see more details

In the leafy heart of West Sussex, a magnificent old country house has come on to the open market for the first time in its history. Old House at Staplefield, between Horsham and Haywards Heath, is being sold at a guide price of £3.95 million for the 99-year National Trust lease. Theo James-Wright of Blue Book is handling the sale.

That alone would make the sale noteworthy, but the house's most famous former occupants make it even more so. For 45 heady years, Old House was the much-loved country retreat of the late Lord Snowdon. His mother, Anne Armstrong-Jones, was the granddaughter of Ludwig Messel, who bought the 600-acre Nymans estate in 1890 and created the famous gardens; these were left to the National Trust on his son Leonard Messel’s death in 1953.

In 1935, Anne re-married to Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse, and later moved to Nymans with her new husband and her children, Antony and Susan Armstrong-Jones.

The National Trust bequest evidently included Old House, which she gave to her brother, the multi-talented stage designer, Oliver Messel. In 1958, he gave the lease to his nephew, Antony, who was created Earl of Snowdon after marrying Princess Margaret.

By then, Old House was in a state of serious disrepair. Undaunted, Snowdon set about transforming the dilapidated late-15th-century building — originally three estate cottages — into a private woodland sanctuary. Here, he played host to royalty, artists, actors and aristocrats, his guest list a Who’s Who of Bohemian post-war Britain that would inspire an entire episode of Netflix’s The Crown.

Snowdon’s creative skills and eye for design are evident throughout Old House, where the elegant bow windows in the Georgian wing were inspired by the streetscape of Charles Street in Brighton, East Sussex.

An upstairs bathroom is the home of a sort of 'scandal wall', created by Snowdon himself, and consisting of his collection of original newspaper cuttings recording royal scandals, society intrigues and major events of the early 20th century.

His former dark room survives as a library and, hidden within the grounds, is a whimsical folly incorporating a balcony salvaged from the Royal Box during the 1960s refurbishment of Ascot Racecourse.

Creating the lake was a different story: expecting the excavation to be the work of a weekend, Snowdon hired a JCB, but was stopped in his tracks by the heavy Sussex clay. It eventually took a dozen men working through the winter to realise his dream.

Snowdon sold Old House, which is unlisted, privately in 2003. Two years later, it was acquired off-market by the current vendors.

Behind the ancient front door, the dramatic entrance hall opens up to reveal Tudor windows, exposed timbers and the gallery above.

Ground-floor rooms include an impressive double reception room overlooking 5½ acres of enchanting gardens and a panelled Georgian sitting room.

The heart of the house is the family kitchen, which opens directly onto terraces with views towards Snowdon’s lake.

In all, the house provides some 5,750sq ft of accommodation that includes six bedrooms in the main house, with a large pool house providing further living space.

Old House at Staplefield is for sale at a guide price of £3.95 million through Blue Book — see more details.

All houses have stories to tell. Few could tell a tale as extraordinary as that of Cotchford Farm, in the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex.

What's even more unusual is that while Cotchford has been standing in this spot near Hartfield for five centuries, its fame is connected to three iconic figures of the 20th century. And one of those three isn't even human, for this is the house where Winnie-the-Pooh came in to being.

Cotchford Farm has been put on the rental market, with an asking price of £9,995 per month through Hamptons, but 101 years ago it was listed for sale. The buyer was a poet and playwright writer from London named Alan Alexander Milne, who took the place on with his wife, Dorothy, and their only child, the then-five-year-old Christopher.

The place, now and then, was a wonderful old remnant amid a landscape made for stories. 'There we were in 1925 with a cottage, a little bit of garden, a lot of jungle, two fields, a river, and then all the green, hilly countryside beyond, meadows and woods, waiting to be explored,' wrote Christopher Milne in his 1974 memoir The Enchanted Places. Places to be explored, then, and stories to be told by a father to his son. And like any good father, Milne Senior made the hero of the story his son, renamed Christopher Robin, and his son's favourite toy, a bear named Winnie.

Winnie-the-Pooh was published in October 1926, becoming an instant critical and commercial success, selling 150,000 copies in the first two months alone. It made Milne famous enough that Country Life sent a photographer to take pictures of Cotchford Farm in 1931; the images were never published in print, as Melanie Bryan explained in an article last year, but they do remain in the Country Life Image Archive.

A.A. Milne staying at Cotchford for the rest of his life, dying in 1956, following which it was sold to an American couple, who added the swimming pool, and eventually sold the place in 1968 to legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones.

The musician had struggled appallingly with the pressure of music, fame and drug abuse, and sought a country escape. It wasn't enough; he ended up leaving the Band in 1969, and a few weeks later tragically died at the house, aged just 27.

The house has changed hands a few times since then, but as the pictures here show, the current owners have done an excellent job of refurbishing and updating, while retaining the house's original character.

There are exposed timber beams, leaded windows, huge fireplaces, and floorboards on which the real-life Christopher must have sat while playing with the original Winne-the-Pooh.

Yet while there are reminders everywhere of the house's history — not least statues of Owl and Christopher Robin in the garden — it's also every bit the liveable family home. There is 3,400 sq ft of space across three floors, with six bedrooms and three elegant reception rooms.

The latter incude a magnificent oak-panelled dining room, library/music room and family room, while there's also a beautifully updated kitchen.

The whole feel is of a home of exceptional warmth and character amid a setting of beautiful gardens, with outdoor swimming pool and a tennis court.

In recent times the owners have rented the house out for short stays, with a two-night minimum, but now they are seeking a longer term tenant.

Cotchford Farm is available to rent through Hamptons — see more details.

The High Weald National Landscape is deceptively huge. Stretching from Horsham in the west to Winchelsea in the east, and from the outskirts of Tonbridge to the coast at Hastings, it's almost fifty miles across and 30 miles from north to south, covering 560 square miles of rolling hills and ancient forests, all dotted with charming villages. This, as Octavia Pollock wrote in Country Life in 2020, is 'the archetypal image many of us have of rural England'.

Not far from the dead centre of this stretch of England, between Heathfield and Battle, you'll find one of those aforementioned villages: Dallington. And on the edge of this village, stretching across 337 acres of East Sussex, you'll find the historic Oldcastle Estate, which is now on the market at £7,035,000.

Oldcastle, which has been in the Buckley family for over a century, consists of a hugely impressive principal house, three cottages, one farmhouse and one farmyard, and hundreds of acres of productive farmland. Will Matthews of Knight is handling the sale, either as a whole at the full guide price, or in up to nine lots.

The estate’s focal point is Grade II-listed Oldcastle, the original part of which is a two-storey, timber-frame, late-17th-century building. It was bought in 1910 by Mr Justice Henry Button Buckley, a distinguished barrister and judge, who had the place — then still called Old Castle — restored and enlarged between 1910 and 1912 by Ernest Newton.

It didn't take long for the Justice Buckley to have a fine title to go with his new home: he was created Baron Wrenbury of Old Castle in 1915.

This original part of the house, which boasts some fine 17th-century panelling, forms the central section of the present building, with Newton’s 1910 wings added at either end.

For most of the 20th century Oldcastle remained the country home of the Buckley family, though it housed children refugees during the war, served for a time as a girls’ finishing school, and was even a guest house for a spell, according to the agents, before the 3rd Baron Wrenbury made it the Buckley family home once again in 1961.

The original house, available as Lot 1a at £1.95 million, provides 8,235sq ft of traditional accommodation, set amid 13 acres of delightful gardens and grounds that include easily-seen remnants of those original, 900-year-old castle walls.

The space is set across three floors, and is an object lesson in keeping a period home updated while retaining its character.

There is a fine entrance hall, kitchen, grand dining room, beautiful drawing room, billiard room and more on the ground floor, which has a wine cellar and gun room below.

One side of the house is arranged as a self-contained, three-bedroom annexe, ideal as either staff accommodation or multi-generational living.

The principal bedrooms are all on the first floor, and all with fascinating names which speak of more history to uncover — Chapel Bedroom, Aunt Joyce's Bedroom and so on.

There are also upstairs spaces currently designated as a nursery and a longroom, but depending on the new buyer's needs things could be reconfigured to make this a ten-bedroom home.

The three cottages on the estate — being sold together as Lot 1b — are The Gardener's Cottage and The Engine House, both with two bedrooms, and the three-bed Stables Cottage. The latter is more than just a pretty name: there is indeed a stable included, with three separate bays.

The remaining lots take in the hundreds of acres of farmland — mostly laid to pasture — and woodland, with one of the parcels including a four-bedroom farmhouse.

The Oldcastle Estate is for sale through Knight Frank — see more details.

There’s a tendency to think of great artists being inspired by the muse, sitting down at a desk with reams of blank paper before them, then pouring out pure originality from their imaginations.

In reality it doesn’t often work like that. Not for the greats, at any rate: Shakespeare never came up with a story in his life (even The Tempest is derived from other sources), Herman Melville based Moby Dick on a real-life albino whale, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy was Tolkien’s mash-up of Anglo-Saxon sagas, his research into linguistics, and the trenches of the First World War.

As for JM Barrie’s Peter Pan? That was inspired by his neighbour’s children, his dog, and the spectacularly unspoilt landscape of the Surrey Hills. And the house where Peter Pan, Wendy and the Lost Boys came together in his head is now for sale: Barrie House, a part of Lobswood Manor — formerly known as Black Lake Cottage — is on the market with Savills at £1.25 million.

Barrie had been born in Scotland, but by 1900 was a successful playwright living in Kensington with his wife, next door to the Llewelyn-Davies family and their three children, George, Jack and Peter.

That year, Barrie's wife, the actress Mary Ansell, decided to lease a summer retreat called Black Lake Cottage, on the outskirts of the village of Tilford, close to Farnham. The Barries would have the place for eight years, and the Llewelyn-Davieses were invited to come regularly — an offer which they happily took up.

The three boys threw themselves in to this bucolic spot which, then as now, is a vast landscape of hills, woodland, lakes and rivers. Their roaming and games inspired Barrie, who created a photo book called The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island, featuring the three boys and Barrie’s dog, a placid and endlessly-patient St Bernard (sound familiar?). He also began to spin tales of how the youngest brother, Peter, somehow knew how to fly, and Peter Pan was born.

Barrie didn’t publish the photo book (a copy does still survive, and can be seen at JM Barrie website), but it wasn’t long before Peter Pan was shared with the world — initially in the 1902 novel The Little White Bird, and then two years later with the stage play Peter Pan, which was an instant and enormous success. A plaque adorns the front of the house, commemorating its pivotal role in one of the most enduring literary creations of the 20th century.

Black Lake Cottage came to be renamed as Lobswood Manor, and was split into three separate homes back in the 1970s, but the wing that is now for sale, Barrie House, forms the front portion of the building, and is full of charming, original features that Barrie would surely recognise were he to walk in today.

Take the fireplace in the sitting room, for example: its huge inglenook fireplace is framed by a carved timber which is believed to have been sourced from a 16th century shipwreck.

The ground floor has the aforementioned sitting room, a dining room and a huge kitchen-diner, with french doors opening onto the magical gardens — gardens which Mary Ansell herself created, and wrote a book about (copies of The Happy Garden remain prized today) while her husband stayed indoors working on his writing. (If that makes their life sound idyllic, it shouldn't: the couple divorced after Mary had an affair, while the Llewelyn-Davies boys would be orphaned in 1910, when their mother Sylvia died of cancer.)

One of the four bedrooms, with its own bathroom, is on the ground floor, with the others all on the first floor, and all en-suite.

There's also a cellar and a garage, and a separate one-bedroom annexe bringing the space here to well over 3,000sq ft in total. The annexe, separated from the main house by a stud wall, could easily be reincorporated to the main house; it could make an ideal part of a multi-generational living set-up; or you could just use it as a writer's retreat from which to create your own enduring story.

Barrie House, within Lobswood Manor, is for sale via Savills — see more details.

The New Forest is beautiful, unspoilt and filled with charming villages and towns, separated by seemingly endless acres of open habitat and woodland. While this contributes to its charm, it also brings logistical difficulties: mains water didn't arrive in many parts until after the Second World War. And for the Victorian inhabitants of Fritham House at the turn of the 20th century, they needed a better way ensure a water supply.

Their answer was to build a four-storey tower with a reservoir at the top, from where the force of gravity would supply the big house with fresh water. An adjacent cottage was equipped with diesel generators to pump water up from below and into the reservoir.

Clever stuff, but the need for the tower had long gone — and in later years it became a quite extraordinary restoration project, turning the tower and cottage into a home. That home. Lister Tower, is now for sale through Strutt & Parker at £1.95 million.

The four-storey tower won awards for its conversion, and the owners have done a wonderful job of refurbishment and decoration of this smart, red-brick edifice.

Visitors and the new owners alike enter the property via the tower, from where a curved oak staircase awaits to take you up through the floors, each of which is around 160sq ft.

There is a bedroom on the first floor, a sitting room on the second floor and a bathroom on the third floor, which contains a William Holland nickel-plated, free-standing bathtub.

On the ground floor, the buildings that once housed the generators and pumps are still connected to the tower itself, but today house a striking 34ft kitchen and breakfast room, with a vaulted ceiling and exposed timber eaves.

A sitting room with a ceiling lantern skylight can be accessed via this room, and there are two further bedrooms with en-suite facilities in this single-storey part of the home.

Lister Tower also has a detached annexe contains a double bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom.

For horse owners, the story only gets better: Lister Tower comes with just over nine acres of land, five loose boxes and an all-weather arena.

The village of Fritham itself is tiny, though it's big enough to have a proper English country pub, complete with thatched roof.

Lister Tower is for sale through Strutt & Parker at £1.95 million — see more details.

There's a detail in the property listing for Culverlands — for sale in Berkshire at £7.25 million through Knight Frank and Strutt & Parker — which hopped out: there's a wine cellar with space for 3,000 bottles.

For those of us whose collections extends to a handful of dusty clarets in the cupboard under the stairs, this is a number so large as to lose all meaning. So, we did a few sums: 3,000 bottles of wine is about 500 gallons of the good stuff. If wine were petrol, it would be enough to fill up the average family car about 45 times over. And if you opened a different bottle every night, it'd take you eight years, two months and 20 days before you had to go to Aldi to restock.

Except you wouldn't, because 15.5 acres of Culverlands' 146 acres are a vineyard — and according to our calculations, you'll have made a further quarter of a million bottles of wine in the intervening eight years. In short, this home is probably the ultimate wine lover's dream.

It's probably also a very good business opportunity for the right person, with the right expertise, and some entrepreneurial flair. For although the £7.25 million asking price is a lot of money, making a fiver a bottle off your home-grown wine would pay off about half the cost of the house over 20 years. And during those two decades, you'd also have the joy of living in a quite wonderful home in a fabulous location.

The Culverlands Estate is located in Burghfield Common, on the edge of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, 3½ miles from Theale and seven miles from the commuter hub of Reading. It's a historic estate, which stands on high ground and enjoys panoramic views over its own land and the surrounding Berkshire countryside.

At the heart of the land stands the imposing, Grade II-listed Culverlands itself, a handsome, 10,866sq ft, Georgian country house reputedly built in 1705 for a member of the Royal Family. Well-connected subsequent owners include the royal physician Sir Gilbert Blane (from 1749–1834); Dr Horatio Bland, a wealthy Canadian-born merchant who bought large tracts of land in Burghfield and founded Reading Museum (from 1851–61); the magistrate and surgeon, James Taylor (from 1861–72); Arthur Thursby, High Sheriff for Berkshire and Warwickshire (from 1890–1909); and Sir Charles Wyndham Murray, who was MP for Bath and the King’s messenger in France during the First World War (from 1923–28).

The present custodians bought Culverlands with 120 acres in 2011, and later acquired
further land, where they have created the thriving vineyard on a south-east slope of this environmentally friendly estate.

The rest of the grounds are just as enticing as the vineyard. They combine formal landscaped gardens and paddocks with level pasture and arable land enclosed by mature hedges, trees and woodland.

Mature broadleaved woodland has been carefully managed and extensive tree-planting undertaken, with new grassland sown within a Countryside Stewardship Scheme. The back of the house overlooks grand, landscaped lawns where, off to one side, there's a fine swimming pool.

The owners have also substantially improved the house, with the renewal of bathrooms and the kitchen.

The striking Georgian exterior is complemented by a wealth of original features, including open fireplaces, high ceilings, ornate cornicing, large sash windows, working shutters and parquet flooring.

In all, Culverlands offers spacious, light-filled accommodation on three floors, including a large reception hall, impressive drawing and dining rooms, a fully fitted kitchen, a television room, study and office, four bedroom suites, two further bedrooms and shower rooms, a cinema room and a gym.

There is also, of course, that cellar, with space for those 3,000 bottles of wine. If the wine making goes well, you might want to think about extending that...

The Culverlands Estate is for sale through Knight Frank and Strutt & Parker at £7.25 million.

'Reached through woods, it stands next to golden cornfields, broken by hedges, without another human habitation to be seen,' wrote Clive Aslet in Country Life following a visit to Downley House. 'This is the sort of site that a medieval builder might have chosen, for shelter rather than show. But don't think that Downley House is unassuming; on the contrary, it squeezes every drop of drama that can be had from a family house.'

Clive — a former editor of the magazine — was writing back in 2013, not long after Downley had been completed, with owner Chris Taee and his family having moved in after a two-year build. Today, with the children having grown up and the family moving on, Downley Park is looking for a new owner; it's for sale through House at £4.25 million.

Chris was in the fortunate position to take a couple of years away from work to project manage the build himself, a time of his life that he describes as 'memorable, stressful, but fabulous'. The award-winning end result — designed by architects Birds Portchmouth Russum — took a site that once contained a dilapidated house and turned it into something very special indeed: a five bedroom house with over 7,000sq ft, in which 'space flows through the building like a stream' (in Clive's words).

Nowhere is that more evident that in the room that is without doubt the showstopper, a bold, challenging vaulted dining room that is akin to a medieval great hall, where the roof is formed with curved, laminated timber, with copper elements adding extra drama.

It's an extraordinary space that's full of light, and offers wonderful views of the sheltered valley that the house sits in; 'you can sit back and bask in the sunshine, or watch the weather roll in up the valley', says Chris. It probably helps that there's a superb wine cellar in which to keep something special to sip while you enjoy those views.

The danger of high ceilings and glass walls in new builds is that the resulting building 'can feel austere, cold and vacuous,' Chris adds. 'But everyone who comes here comments on how cosy it feels. It's not a cold place to be.'

That's a statement which is literally true, as well as metaphorically, as Clive's piece in 2013 explained. Downley House's design includes, 'hyper-insulation, a geothermal heat pump and a ventilation system that passes incoming air through pipes buried 5ft underground and extracts heat from the exhausted air.'

As the 2012 vs 2026 pictures on this page show nicely, the house has settled into its landscape over the years. Walls which once stood out against the South Downs backdrop are now covered in the characterful creeping which the Taees planted when the house was built, and the cherry trees that went in are now the best part of a decade and a half old.

That was always the plan, Chris explains, but it's evidently very gratifying to see it coming to fruition: 'Its only right for a country house in a setting like this to blend into its surroundings,' he says.

The pull of the property isn't just about the house and its two and a half acres of the South Downs, however. Harting Down, with its mix of protected woodland and wide open spaces, is on the doorstep, and the market town of Petersfield — with its superb schools and fast trains to London Waterloo — is ten minutes up the road. Not surprisingly, then, Chris says what he'll miss most about moving on is the mix of tranquility, beauty and practicality; or, as Clive put it back in 2013: 'This house is not only a work of art. At every level, it works.'

Downley House is for sale through House Parternship at £4.25 million — see more details.

There is not much to do in Blean, the small, sleepy Kentish village sandwiched between Canterbury and Whitstable, but it is, nevertheless, the best place on earth. There are two pubs, a church, a garden centre that does incredibly good sausage baps and an excellent primary school where the children are forced to wear the awful combination of yellow and brown as part of their unflattering uniform. It is where I dream about getting married and where I hope I will be laid to rest when I die. Although it may not be much to write home about, I've actually never needed to, because Blean is where I’m from.

This is why, with perfect certainty, I can say that there have only ever been two even remotely famous incidents to occur in Blean. I was alerted to the first when, to my unemployed delight whilst living at home, a job advertisement on LinkedIn appeared one fateful day for a Bison Wrangler. Blean made national headlines (something that almost never happens) when our woods were chosen as the first place in which to reintroduce bison to the UK — not something that happens just everyday. My dreams of donning a cowboy hat and riding around the Kentish countryside with a lasso, manfully herding the mighty beasts while gleefully bellowing ‘Yeehaw!’ were crushed, however, when I accepted a job instead at Country Life. Alas, what could have been.

Blean’s biggest claim to fame, however, has not been our burgeoning bison population, but the legacy of the magnificent Peter Firmin. Alongside Oliver Postgate, he co-founded Smallfilms, the production company that dreamt up the delightful 1960s and 1970s children’s shows The Clangers and ‘the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world’, Bagpuss. At Hillside Farm, 36 Blean Hill, which is just a stone’s throw from where I grew up, the latter was created and filmed — and now you have a chance to buy Blean’s most famous property.

Firmin’s former home, which might I add is my dream home, is on the market with Finn’s estate agents for £1.2 million. Being so close to home, and such a tantalising piece of local history, obviously I had to go and have a look for myself.

I have walked past Hillside Farm many times on my way to Canterbury and not known that a slice of British TV history had been hiding just down the winding driveway all along. It was here where Firmin’s wife, Joan, helped make some of the props used on the set of Bagpuss. Smallfilms also made The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog but it was Bagpuss that was the winner in a BBC poll for British children’s favourite TV programme in 1999. Firmin sadly passed away in 2018, but his legacy lives on. A new film starring the beloved wrinkly cat is set to be released in 2027.

‘It’s the sort of house you’d drive straight past. You wouldn’t even know it's here,’ says Paul Robertson of Finn’s, who meets us at Hillside Farm. The garden of the property is charming. Winding roses and creeping sweet peas grow around the iconic blue-framed windows that are recognisable from the TV show.

The house, which dates from the early 1800s, Paul thinks, is like stepping back in time. You can’t put a price on this kind of originality. The kitchen, with its bright green walls, yellow-tiles and gorgeous AGA is as whimsical and magical as Firmin’s creations were. There is a pantry, the door to which proudly has the heights and dates of the various Firmin children and grandchildren scrawled on it.

The current owners, the very same grandchildren, now grown up, have clearly inherited his creative streak. Papier-mâché sculptures of animals that I recognise from the popular local Mexican restaurant Café des Amis are stationed at points around the room. They are the creations of Emily, Firmin’s daughter, who sells her kooky artwork through her business, Total Pap. She was the little girl in Bagpuss. A small puppy with angel wings, one of her creations, guards the kitchen’s entryway. A delftware style plate which reads ‘The artist Peter Firmin lived here’ stands proudly on a dresser, into the bottom of which is built a cosy dog bed.

The other rooms are the same, old-fashioned, clearly well-loved cosy spaces filled with art and knicknacks, and plenty of Smallfilms memorabilia. Several Bagpuss toys are scattered throughout the house and a picture of Firmin and Postgate taken outside Canterbury Cathedral hangs on one wall. They are holding Bagpuss and all three of them have mortarboards merrily perched on their heads. The place is such a moment in time, it makes you feel as though Firmin could, at any moment, appear from the other room with a cup of tea held in one hand, and his beloved cat tucked underneath the opposite arm, humming a familiar tune.

The buyers of this four-bedroom property will have to do a bit of work to restore the house to its former glory, but such a house is undeniably well worth the effort. I had taken my incredibly practical Dad along for a nose around and even he, usually the enemy of any home features that would need ‘plenty being done to’, was won over by the property’s innate charm and utter originality. Paul calls it ‘completely untouched,’ which is, Dad and I agree, just as it should be.

‘We’ve had lots of viewings,’ Paul adds. ‘It’s just such a one-off and so close to Canterbury.’ It has been mostly families so far, he says. I ask Paul if they’ve had many Bagpuss-fanatics book viewings. ‘Fortunately, no,’ he says, sounding relieved. My favourite room is the large upstairs drawing room, which was added to the property in the 90s. With high wooden beams and plenty of natural light it would be the perfect place to curl up with a cup of tea and a book whilst gazing at the gardens below. Which, by the way, are hardly insubstantial.

The private dwelling sits within over 6 acres of gardens and woodland and comes with its very own Kentish barn, which could easily be repurposed as a writer’s retreat (which is what I would do) for the lucky buyers. There are also stables, a paddock where an alpaca currently roams, a pond with a tiny makeshift boat and another outhouse, in which you'll find a pottery studio and old-fashioned printing press. A working well is used by the current owners to water the plants in the garden, which was dug by Firmin himself, according to his grandson.

Hillside Farm evokes a sense of nostalgia for Firmin’s day, where TV was just beginning and filming something magical about a pink-and-white cat could be done from your living room. It makes you wonder how his family can bear to part with it.

Although I dream of living there myself, I am currently about £1.2 million short. Until I have saved up the funds, some other well-meaning custodians will have to look after it for me in my absence. So, let this be my public plea to the new owners. Please do your very best to preserve a slice of the magic of Bagpuss’s former home, so that when I finally have the money to buy Hillside Farm from you one day, Firmin’s legacy will continue to live on within its beautiful walls. As my Dad said when we left, it truly is ‘unique and timeless’.

This property which the Country Life team are now cheerfully referring to as 'Bagpuss's House' (formerly known as Hillside Farm) is on the market with Finn's. Potential buyers should note that when Country Life's Digital Writer Lotte Brundle has amassed the requisite funds she will be more than happy to succeed them as its next owner.

'Cosy' and 'grand' aren't exactly opposites — but neither are they friends.

Calling a house cosy conjures up images of roaring fires, characterful decorations and comfortable furniture. Grand makes you think of high ceilings, gleaming floors and properties built on an epic scale. When it comes to looking for a new home, it's almost always an either/or equation: you can get the cosy, or the grand, but not both at once.

I say 'almost always', because once in a while we come across a house that somehow manages this most difficult of tricks: bringing cosy and grand together. It's so rare that it probably deserves its own word; no doubt the Germans have one, but since we're communicating in English, it's probably time to invent one. 'Crand', perhaps? Or how about 'Grosy'?

The house that inspires this tangent is a delight: Fyning House, on the outskirts of a village called Rogate, in a green and rolling spot in the South Downs between Midhurst and Petersfield, which is for sale through Savills at £3.25 million.

Fyning House is a place that has it all. Its grandeur is evident the moment you pull up the driveway and stop outside a huge, blue front door sheltered from the elements by a portico. This Grade II*-listed home is in essence an early-Georgian building dating to 1730, though it was built on the site of an existing manor house and thus some parts of the building date back to 1589.

The building is huge, and was actually split into three separate dwellings — Fyning House, Old Fyning House and Old Bell Cottage — in the second half of the 20th century. The original listing at Historic England dates to 1959, when it was all still one house; that listing has subsequently been updated to reflect the changes that have happened here.

The portion that is for sale at the moment is Fyning House, effectively the west wing, that includes that magnificent early-Georgian façade. With 7,000 sq ft, six bedrooms and in a wonderful setting, it's the sort of place they could use to film Bridgerton.

Yet for all its impressive proportions, this is very much a house that gives off homely vibes within. The furniture and fittings are entirely right for the era of the house, yet without ever making it feel like you're walking around a National Trust property.

The utterly charming kitchen is a case in point: the cupboards are painted in a sort of cornflower blue, with a small table in the centre of the space that's warmed in winter by the Aga.

The bedrooms also get this right, with calming colour schemes, patchwork quilts and furniture that's not afraid to mix in a bit of Ikea flat-pack with some choice pieces that are probably sourced from one of the many antique shops in nearby Midhurst.

And while this is a house that's obviously been dressed beautifully ahead of the Savills photographer arriving, it never feels forced or unnatural. This is a house made for living in.

Not just a house, actually: there are also the gardens (a little over two and a half acres) that include a swimming pool (watertight, but apparently in need of attention before use), a walled garden, a laburnam walk, a gothic-inspired summer house and a brick-built, detached double garage. The latter could be turned into a home office or gym with relative ease, the agents casually suggest (while knowing full well it won't be their job to find a decent builder).

The options don't stop there, actually. There are a series of cellars on the lower ground floor, currently used for storage (one corner is designated as a superbly pretty wine cellar) but which could probably be turned into some sort of man-cave (or teenager cave); and on top of that the entire second floor is configured to be usable as a self-contained apartment. It makes multi-generational living a viable option.

As far as we can see the only downside is that you're splitting the building with the neighbours; many will appreciate the security that brings with it, but it does take away from the feeling of having your own little corner of the world.

Then again, this is very much a village house for those who wish to be in the country but among people: Rogate has a little shop, a nice pub and a strong community feel, which Fyning House is very much a part of. 'A more delightful period village house is hard to imagine,' says agent Phillippa Dalby-Welsh. We're inclined to agree.

Fyning House is for sale through Savills at £3.25 million — see more details.

The exquisite Britwell Priors is located in charmed spot: Longparish, a Hampshire village that derives its name from the five settlements of Middleton, East and West Aston, Forton and Longparish Station, which stretch for some four miles along the River Test. The house, every bit as glorious as its setting, is for sale through Lindsay Cuthill at Blue Book, for £3 million.

Set discreetly behind hedging in more than 10 acres of glorious gardens and grounds just outside the village, the main part of the house is a late-16th-century, Tudor timber-frame building.

If you'd come here in the year 1600, however, you'd have found no house. Quite astonishingly the entire place was originally located in Oxfordshire, but was painstakingly dismantled and reconstructed, piece by piece, in the late 1920s.

Why would anyone go to such lengths? A mixture of friendship and fishing. It was owned at the time by Captain Charles King and Lady Clare Noel, who were both avid anglers and close friends of Major-General Guy Dawnay of nearby Longparish Manor. The whole 'location, location, location' mantra suddenly seems less relevant if you can literally up sticks — and beams, and floorboards, and roof tiles — and take your house with you anywhere you fancy.

That unusual history leads to another anomaly. Despite its age, and wealth of original features — including ancient timbers, open fireplaces and leaded windows — Britwell Priors is unlisted, which would normally be pretty much unthinkable for a house that's over four and a half centuries old.

As such, there's an unusual degree of flexibility for those who might wish to reconfigure and adapt the layout. And there's precedent for just such things: in 1965, the property passed to the Tennant family, who added a low modern extension to create additional living space and house an important art collection.

The interplay between historic and modern creates a natural flow throughout the house, where all the main rooms look out across the gardens and the countryside beyond.

There are also no near neighbours to obstruct or spoil the view: 'Britwell Priors is one of those rare, quiet houses which offers utter privacy and seclusion,' says Lindsay, 'sitting amongst 10 acres of fabulous gardens and grounds in its own section of the Test Valley.'

The main house offers more than 4,800sq ft of accommodation on three floors and includes a series of light-filled, well-proportioned reception rooms, seven bedrooms and four bathrooms.

The triple-aspect drawing room is a particularly charming space, with painted panelling, a Tudor fireplace and a bay window. The dining room connects directly to the formal gardens.

A long corridor lined with bookcases leads through to the 1960s wing and the garden room, which floods with natural light.

The spacious principal bedroom suite enjoys far-reaching views across the gardens and down towards the Test.

Britwell Priors is for sale through Blue Book at £3 million — see more details.

The clear chalkstreams of Hampshire valley ‘a natural wonder and a national treasure’, wrote Charles Rangely-Wilson in Country Life in 2024. They ‘are the most biodiverse of any freshwater habitat’, he added, and create ‘the most perfect conditions for an abundance of natural life.’

Unsurprisingly, then, homes along the River Test and the River Itchen ­— where the waters ‘slide silently, occasionally gossip and chatter over a gravel bar, but never roar’ — are among the most in the south of England, particularly among those who adore fishing. And one of those homes is for sale today: the idyllic, Grade II-listed Longstock Mill in the charming medieval town of Stockbridge. Myddelton & Major are handling the sale at a guide price of £2.7 million.

Longstock Mill House is on the market for the first time in almost 80 years, and was the childhood home of the present vendor, who was a year old when, in the late 1940s, her parents bought the landmark mill complex. For the past 45 years, it has been a much-loved home shared with her husband and family.

Situated less than one-third of a mile north of Stockbridge’s lively high street, Longstock Mill House is built of brick under a traditional tiled roof and is currently arranged as a four-bedroom main house on three floors, with a large, one-bedroom annexe to the rear.

This layout provides independent living accommodation for two generations of the present family, but could easily be re-integrated within the main house by a subsequent owner.

The Mill House offers more than 3,400sq ft of light-filled accommodation, including, on the ground floor, two good reception rooms and a large kitchen/breakfast room, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the first floor and two further bedrooms on the floor above.

The signature bay window in the sitting room was designed by the architect Ernst Freud — youngest son of psychoanalyst Sigmund and father of painter Lucian — who left Germany to establish a successful north London practice in the early 1930s.

Although no fishing rights are included in the sale, there is ample fishing to be had elsewhere along the Test, says Mr McKillop.

The house is set in 2½ acres of enchanting gardens and grounds, scattered with some fine specimen trees planted soon after her parents’ arrival, the complex enjoys captivating views across the Test to the water meadows beyond.

There’s been a mill on the site since Domesday, although the present Longstock Mill, listed Grade II in its own right, dates from the mid 18th century, with an 1893 extension added by its then owner, Mr J. H. Broadfield. Built in four storeys, reduced to two in the late 1940s, this was one of the first of the revolutionary new roller mills that today are the backbone of every large-scale milling operation worldwide.

The earlier 18th-century building is a corn mill and attic with mill streams at either end, driven by a breast-shot water wheel that was removed when the mill ceased operation in the 1930s.

Also included in the sale is The Cottage, previously two mill-workers’ cottages that were knocked together to create one two-bedroom dwelling after Longstock Mill House, the mill buildings and cottages were sold in 1948 by the exclusive Houghton Club, the world’s oldest fly-fishing club, founded in 1822.

Outbuildings include a pretty, Grade II-listed granary, garages and a small open-fronted barn in the nearby field.

Longstock Mill House is for sale via Myddleton & Major — see more details.

Liss — £995,000

A somewhat gnarled wooden gate with a sign ‘Old London’ (also pictured at the top of the page) proclaims arrival at this three-bedroom property in Liss with 17th-century origins and myriad exposed interior ceiling timbers that are thought to have originated from ships once moored in Portsmouth. ‘Old London represents a rare opportunity to acquire a characterful, peaceful home steeped in history, yet perfectly equipped for modern rural living,’ run the agent’s details.

The kitchen (which has plenty of the aforementioned ceiling timbers) also boasts built-in and free-standing cabinetry and would suit those who enjoy lazy breakfasts and lively dinner parties alike. Panoramic views are on full display in the conservatory, reached via the dining room. The triple-aspect sitting room enjoys an abundance of natural light and also features an inglenook fireplace that casts a warm, inviting glow on chilly evenings.

Centuries ago, apparently, a London baker settled here and cultivated the garden that gave the cottage its original name—The Londoners’ Garden. Today, this part of the property consists of lawn, flower beds and mature shrubs and hedging.

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

Kings Somborne — £675,000

A classic thatched roof sits atop the whitewashed elevations of Riverside Cottage in the sought-after village of Kings Somborne, which boasts a village shop, a Post Office and a traditional pub, all of which sit within a conservation area. Bustling Stockbridge, with its independent shops, cafés and restaurants, is only three miles away. However, once installed, will the new owners be able to prise themselves away from their four-bedroom chocolate-box purchase? Sage-green wall and floor units grace the beguiling kitchen/breakfast room.

The open-plan sitting and dining room feature a flagstone floor, as well as doors that lead out to the well-stocked garden and terrace — the perfect place for alfresco dining and entertaining. Keen Good Lifers will no doubt love the vegetable plot where the new incumbents will find raspberries, gooseberries and red currants already growing and the chance to expand the offering for further self-sufficiency. Out of the four bedrooms, three are situated on the first floor, with one in the self-contained annexe — providing an income-generating opportunity or simply a bolthole for family and friends.

For sale via Myddelton Major — see more details and pictures.

Bentworth — £595,000

What does a buyer look for in a period home? Time-worn features balanced with modern interiors, definitely; exposed timber beams, quite probably; inglenook or brick fireplaces, certainly; cottage gardens filled with mature plantings and lawns, hopefully; and light-filled reception rooms — naturally. Four-bedroomed No 1, Church Street in Bentworth seems to tick all of these boxes and more.

Exposed beams and brickwork can be found in the cosy sitting room and in the kitchen/dining room with its handcrafted pale-green cabinetry. Part of this room occupies a relatively recent rear extension that offers an impressive vaulted ceiling, underfloor heating and French doors out to the rear garden.

The brick fireplace keeps draughts and the cold at bay during the winter in the sitting room/entrance hall. The garden, with a shaped lawn and well-stocked flower borders, is as attractive as the surprisingly spacious cottage it frames.

For sale via Hamptons — see more details and pictures.

Crondall — £595,000

Victoria Cottage in Crondall, with its picture-postcard front picket gate and low-level brick wall, has found favour with property agent Helen Pack, for she says: ‘I love the character in every room of the cottage and its central village position.’ Every room? She must be thinking of the inviting sitting room with a brick fireplace that will play host to cosy nights in; the adjoining attractive dining area with its characterful cupboards; and the 19ft by 10ft kitchen/breakfast room with its chic cabinetry, wooden worktops, classic Belfast sink and striking, deep-red Lacanche range cooker.

However, this property’s abundant charm and thoughtful styling doesn’t stop there. The three bedrooms on the first floor offer a calm, restful feel, being tastefully presented, as is the family bathroom. Beyond the confines of the house and at the far end of the partially enclosed and private garden sits a timber studio that would make a home-working space or a peaceful retreat for the new owners. Grade II-listed Victoria Cottage is only four miles from the Georgian market town of Farnham.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Vernham Dean — £795,000

Vernham Dean is set within the Bourne Valley and Grade II-listed Pond Cottage is located within this vibrant village, which has a pub called The George and a well-regarded primary school. The commuter station of Andover is only a 6½-mile drive away. Pond Cottage wears its history well, with exposed timber beams and other historic features that have been beautifully emphasised by the latest updating. Externally, a tiled and characterful thatched roof lend the house a timeless charm from the moment of arrival.

Out of the four bedrooms on the first floor, one not only benefits from under-eaves storage, but also a 21ft by 12ft roof terrace, from which the new owners can perhaps savour an early-morning coffee or watch the changing seasons unfold across the surrounding landscape.

The sitting room features an exposed-brick fireplace and brick flooring; the light-filled drawing room has French doors that open onto the garden with its lawns, brick pathways and stone walling; and the breakfast room and kitchen, with its eye-catching blue Aga, is ideal for those who love to cook and entertain in the heart of the home.

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

This feature originally appeared in the print edition of Country Life on June 3, 2026. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.

Chawton is one of the best-known villages in England — yet if you didn't know it was there, you'd easily blast right past it. The A31 — a dual-carriageway that's one of the main traffic arteries in this part of north-east Hampshire — carries thousands of cars a day between Winchester and Farnham, and precious few realise that as they speed along listening to their true crime podcasts, they're within half a mile of the celebrated cottage that was home to Jane Austen.

The writer lived here in the charming Chawton Cottage from 1809 until her death in 1817, and for most of the 209 years since then it's been a place of pilgrimage for all those who love her pithy, amusing and often wildly romantic novels. Last year, Austen-mania hit new heights: 2025 marked the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth, and there were great celebrations at several of the places she once lived — not least her cottage itself, which has been the Jane Austen's House Museum since 1949.

Anybody who's visited Chawton will be struck not just by the plethora of Austen-related attractions, but also by the overriding beauty of this quaint village. Many of the houses here are half a millennium old, with wonderful gardens and effortless rural charm — so it's a cause for celebration when one of those homes comes up for sale, as is the case this week: James Machell of Strutt & Parker’s country department is overseeing the sale of Grade II-listed Baigens, which sits not just on the same road as Austen's house, but is literally just a couple of doors down.

The agents are asking £2.5 million for this delightful Tudor house, which oozes period character and charm, and is set in 1½ acres of lovely gardens that include a freshly-re-laid tennis court, boules court (or maybe that should be pitch? rink?) and a small but productive orchard.

On top of that, as previously noted, it's an easy place to get to: Alton (with its direct trains to London) is three miles away, both Winchester and Farnham are an easy drive, and you're right in the South Downs National Park.

Built of mellow brick under a gabled tile roof, Baigens offers more than 4,800sq ft of well-proportioned living space on three floors, including three reception rooms, six bedrooms and four bathrooms.

A particular highlight is the drawing room, which boasts a series of Elizabethan fresco paintings, as mentioned in the house's listing with Historic England.

And while the nice people at Historic England (or Strutt & Parker for that matter) would never make so bold a claim, you can be almost 100% sure that Jane Austen herself must have paid a visit and sat in this very room. Quite possibly she went home afterwards and wrote scathing commentary about gaffes committed by the then-owners, but as her letters and diaries were burnt after her death, we'll never know for sure.

Baigens is for sale through Strutt & Parker at £2.5 million — see more details.

The banks of the River Thames that passes through Henley-on-Thames are home to perhaps the most beautiful and sought-after stretches of waterside property in England. And one of the finest houses in this hallowed spot is on the market: Remenha Court.

Listed at a guide price of £9.5 million, this Grade II-listed home is in the village of Remenham, on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames immediately opposite Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Knight Frank's country department and Ballards in Henley-on-Thames are joint agents in the sale, which includes a two-bedroom lodge, a substantial former coach house and a collection of useful outbuildings.

The house offers elegant accommodation on three floors, including a splendid staircase hall, four or five reception rooms depending on how you lay things out, and a fine kitchen.

Five of the six bedrooms are on the first floor, with a sixth on the second floor. It's charming and original, though there is scope for some appropriate updating.

Built between 1830 and 1840 on high ground overlooking the river, the landmark late-Georgian house enjoys sweeping views over the famous Henley Regatta course and a meadow in front of the house. It was once home to Sir Miles Thomas, former Managing Director of Morris Motors and Chairman of BOAC, the airline which became British Airways. The present owners have been here more than three decades.

The price is high — as always on this stretch of the Thames — but it's partially offset by the opportunities that this location offers, since this is a house that offers a perfect view of Henley Royal Regatta. The present owners have let the place out for Henley week for the past 25 years, generating an excellent financial return. Even when the world's best rowers aren't in town, the house has been used for hosting various other events, including weddings.

Whether you'd wish to carry this on, or keep the house entirely private once more, is up to you — for this is above all a much-loved family home that's been occupied by the vendors since 1990.

Remenham Court is for sale via Knight Frank and Ballards.

At first glance, this Grade II-listed 1930s Arts and Craft-style property looks like a striking family home — but it has a twist. Hidden inside is an incredible timber-framed bar retained from its days as a pub.

The Fox in the village of Bix, just outside Henley-on-Thames, was built in 1935 for local brewer W.H. Brakspear & Son. Last orders were called in the early 2000s and the pub is believed to have stood empty until the current owners, the Bausors, snapped it up in 2005. The couple embarked on an extensive renovation of the property to create a home fit for modern family living and — fittingly for a former pub — entertaining. The owners have called ‘time’ on this five-bedroom home and brought it to the market via Hamptons for £1,850,000.

The talking point of the house is undoubtedly the bar, located at the heart of the property, between the hall, sitting room, and dining room. It’s a brilliant feature, with a frame that reaches the ceiling.

Daniel Bausor says: ‘It really makes for a different experience. When we have dinner parties, friends often sit behind the bar chatting, and then we move through to the dining room. It just works really well.’

If you can tear yourself away from the bar, you’ll notice that many other original details remain, including exposed beams, fireplaces, parquet flooring, and a panelled staircase.

The ground floor of The Fox is divided into two halves. The front of the house comprises the hall, sitting room with wood-burning stove, dining room, study, and cloakroom. And at the back of the house, there’s an open-plan kitchen alongside a laundry room, office, shower room, and another cloakroom.

Daniel explains: ‘We've had amazing parties because the entertaining space is fantastic. We've got this dining room where we can seat 14 comfortably, but equally, you can move that [table] and have brilliant Christmas parties where you've got the three very large reception rooms as well as the kitchen.’

Upstairs, the main bedroom has a freestanding bath and an ensuite loo, and there are four further double bedrooms, family bathroom, and a shower room.

The Fox may have been recently converted but there’s still scope to put your own stamp on it. According to Daniel, there’s planning permission to extend the kitchen. And there’s potential to convert the cellar — into a cinema room perhaps?

The house has potential income streams too. It has been used as a filming location and hired for private events and key moments in the Henley social calendar, including Henley Royal Regatta and Henley Festival. Previous headliners at Henley Festival have included Diana Ross, McFly, Rick Astley, Hacienda Classical, Matteo Bocelli and Jamie Cullum.

Now, The Fox has got us thinking: what else is on the market for those who have an affinity for pubs?

If you’re inspired by The Fox’s transformation, then properties ripe for the same treatment — and there are some striking bargains to be had. Take the Dog & Duck in Kingsfold, West Sussex, for example, which recently sold after being on the market for £500,000 with all the pub furniture, including the bar, tables and chairs, and commercial kitchen.

This former pub in Beckermet on the edge of the Lake District National Park is just £195,000 and is also pretty intact, but the listing notes that planning has already been granted to transform it into a four- to five-bedroom home. The ‘real potential shines through with the approved planning permission’, promise the agents. ‘Picture a massive open-plan living kitchen at the rear, complete with bi-fold doors leading out to the garden. The ground floor could also feature a large living room, a family bathroom, a playroom or fifth bedroom, and a dedicated home office – perfect for modern family life.’

Another renovation opportunity here, not far from The Fox. This former pub in Whitchurch Hill, Oxfordshire, is currently divided into four homes but it has the potential to be converted into one substantial family home. Handily, it’s close to The Oratory Prep School and Langtree School, as the selling agent, Strutt & Parker, points out. The property has a £950,000 asking price, recently reduced from £1,150,000.

If you want to skip the renovations, then this former pub has an irresistible blend of Cotswolds charm and, like The Fox, modern family style. The six-bedroom house comes with a detached, one-bedroom annexe. It sits on the edge of Finstock village and is within three miles of Charlbury, dubbed ‘Notting-Hill-on-the-Wolds’. It’s on the market with Harvey Holland for £1,250,000 — again, it's recently reduced, having been listed previously at £1,400,000.

'Dinner has always been the chief domestic event of the day in England, whether ancient or modern,' wrote C.J. Cornish in Country Life in an 1899 article on refectories. 'Even in the very rough times in which castles and monasteries flourished there was always a tendency to make the dining-room the best room in the building.'

Cornish's words seem almost prophetic in the case of The Cloisters, for sale through Savills in an enchanted spot beside the River Thames in Berkshire. This almost-1,000-year-old building was, for the first half of its life, a Benedictine monastery, and so magnificently built was its refectory that it still survives to this day.

It's the centrepiece of what is a spectacular waterside home in Hurley, one of the prettiest spots along this stretch of the river.

By the time Cornish was writing, however, this once-proud building was in a sorry state. Not much was left of the monastery by then, beyond the refectory, a part of the original cloisters, and the church itself, which was originally the monks' chapel.

The properties in around the spot, plus the original moats and gardens — all of which are listed to various degrees — were owned by the Lovelace family for several centuries after the Dissolution, eventually being split up and sold off as separate homes after the Second World War. The Cloisters was part of this.

As it stands today, the house it's in a really wonderful state thanks to the work done by the present owners, who took it on in 2017.

The main house is effectively arranged on an L-shaped plan, with the refectory plus a kitchen and living room on one side, and a series of other rooms – sitting room, dining room, drawing room, study and a further kitchen on the other.

Above, there are four first floor bedrooms, while above that is a further bedroom accessed via a spiral staircase from the first floor landing.

Beyond the main house there are various outbuildings including a summerhouse, barn, workshop and pavilion that includes a sauna, as well as serving as the poolhouse.

The real draw of the outside space isn't in the buildings, though: it's in the shady lawns and ancient moats, the stretches of riverside fringed by mature trees, the nooks and crannies of grounds which have long been famous — and were visited by Queen Mary in the 1930s.

The location is as good as the house: it stands at the extreme northern end of the quiet high street (it's a no-through road) in the heart of medieval Hurley. Marlow is only four miles away, and it's only five miles to Maidenhead with its mainline station, yet the privacy and seclusion within this three-acre site on the southern bank of the river makes it a joyous place. No wonder the monks settled here so happily.

The Cloisters is for sale through Savills at £5.5 million — see more details.

'It would be hard to beat the great panoramic view from Newland's Corner on Albury Down,' wrote John Leyland in Country Life back in 1897, the year the magazine was first published. 'And in the midst of this beautiful country lies Albury Park, its mansion and gardens — an ideal country home in quite an ideal land.'

Praise doesn't get much higher, and almost 130 years later we're happy to report that both Newlands Corner and Albury Park are just as beautiful as they were back in Leyland's day.

Just as beautiful, but in the case of Albury Park also very different indeed. This majestic country home was for three centuries one of the most celebrated country houses in Surrey, both for its setting and its architecture. The original manor house was turned into a 17th century mansion by George Evelyn, with gardens by his celebrated brother John Evelyn; it was remodelled in the 18th century by one of the great Georgian architects, Sir John Soane; and then in the 19th century it was altered once again, this time by Augustus Pugin, the man who designed the Houses of Parliament. Architectural pedigrees do not come any stronger, and the house is Grade II*-listed despite (and indeed because of) the many changes that have taken place.

Albury has been featured several more times in Country Life, including in a pair of articles in 1950, when Arthur Oswald talked through many of the changes made by the various Dukes and Duchesses of Northumberland down the centuries. It's also hosted the great and the good — not least King George III, whose coronation banquet is said to have been held at Albury in 1761.

All that changed in 1965, following the death of the Dowager Duchess, this Grade II*-listed home was sold to a charity, the now-defunct Country Houses Association, who turned it into 37 apartments. It later changed hands a couple more times, and the 37 small apartments were eventually converted (after a slightly painful process catalogued by a Channel 4 documentary) into a series of larger, more luxurious apartments which offer the beauty and grandeur of country mansion life at the price of an equivalently-sized house in one of the villages in this pretty corner of Surrey.

One of the apartments within Albury Park is a case in point that is now for sale at £995,000 — and it's a utterly charming. With bright rooms lit by huge windows, and given drama by the high ceilings and period features, it's a flat that offers 2,249 sq ft of space spread over three floors.

The sitting/dining room and kitchen share the first floor, while the principal bedroom with dressing room (along with its en-suite and dressing room) occupies the second floor.

There's also a mezzanine over the master bedroom, ideal as a study area — and if you need another bedroom, the dressing room could easily be configured as one.

Upstairs, there's a smaller bedroom and a study area, while above that on the fourth floor is one of the highlights: a roof terrace. It's not enormous — 26ft by 7¾ft, or roughly 8m by 2.4m — but it's a place from which the new owners will be able to watch the seasons alter, the hues of the leaves turn from green to gold and brown, and soak up the sun or read the papers on a lazy Sunday with a cafetiere of decent coffee.

Outside, you have five acres of Albury Park's beautiful grounds to share with your neighbours — neighbours with whom you'll also share the freehold, and the running costs. As you might expect with a property of this type (and grounds this beautiful), there is a service charge listed by the agents as £14,500 a year.

Does that change the value proposition here? Naturally so, particularly bearing in mind that the same purchase price will buy you a detached, four-bedroom family home nearby. You'll miss out on the grounds and grandeur, though.

And if you love the idea but feel that this particular flat is either too small or too pricey, there are a couple of other options for sale in Albury Park right now: a larger three-bedroom home at just under £1.6 million, and a one-bedroom flat at just £350,000.

Flat 4, Albury Park Mansion, is for sale via Knight Frank — see more details.

Down in the leafy, rolling hills of Surrey, about half-way between Guildford and Cranleigh, you'll come across the village of Shamley Green — a pretty little spot with characterful houses, a country pub, and a village green where cricket has been played for more than 160 years.

Each year, the green also plays host to a village fete, and a dog show. Everybody knows everybody, but the village is still big enough that it can sustain a charming little shop with a Post Office counter. It's a little taste of what life used to be like up and down the country in years gone by; like living in an episode of Heartbeat. The list of former residents tells a tale, too: Alfred Hitchcock, Richard Branson (whose childhood home was in the village), and E.H. Shephard, the iconic illustrator of Winnie-the-Pooh, all lived here, as did Harry Secombe.

Small wonder, then, that many people keep an eye out for the chance to move here, and if you're among those people then there's good news: joint agents Nigel Mitchell of Knight Frank and David Carter of housepartnership.co.uk are selling the dreamy, Grade II-listed Hyde Farm, which stands in more than 11 acres of formal gardens, paddocks and woodland at the end of a long drive that leads out from the heart of the village. As you might expect, all that comes at a price: £6.25 million.

Hyde Farm has roots dating back to the 15th century, although its Historic England listing categorises the present house as being ‘18th century with 20th-century extensions to the rear’.

The present owners, who bought the house 14 years ago, have undertaken a major refurbishment of the entire property, extending the house into the garden to create a wonderful garden room and installing a new kitchen, new bathrooms and modern services throughout.

A timber-frame medieval barn on the northern front has been incorporated into the main building to provide a splendid double-height drawing room.

Hyde Farm now offers more than 7,270sq ft of beautifully configured living space on three floors, including, on the ground floor, a reception hall, garden room, sitting room, dining room, drawing room, kitchen/breakfast room, home office and family games room.

On the upper floors, the principal bedroom and three guest bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms can be found, plus three further bedrooms and a bathroom.

Outbuildings include a double garage, stabling, a carport and studio. Amenities include a tennis court and two paddocks.

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

It's not often we start talking about a house by talking about the gardens — but in the case of Hangerfield, we're doing just that.

Built in 1888, Hangerfield sits in eight acres of pasture and beautifully maintained historic gardens that are believed to have been designed by one of the all-time greats of gardening: Gertrude Jekyll, England’s most celebrated plantswoman, who lived at nearby Munstead Wood, Godalming.

The house sits in a wonderful spot within the Surrey Hills National Landscape, which spans the county from east to west. This is distinctive terrain of chalk hills and wooded combes that stretches from the Hog’s Back near Guildford to the Kent border, and good properties here are always sought after. James Machell of Strutt & Parker quotes a guide price of £4 million for this classic late-Victorian home.

The house stands on the edge of the village and offers 7,844sq ft of light-filled, flexible accommodation on four floors, including six reception rooms, seven bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Highlights include a grand reception hall with a part-galleried oak stair-case; a drawing room with two fireplaces, window seating and panoramic views over the surrounding landscape; a study with folding doors leading to an elegant dining room; and an impeccably designed kitchen/breakfast room.

The lower ground floor houses a family room with French doors that lead to the terrace, a sitting room/gym, a shower room and wood store.

Outside, the grounds offer a variety of seating and lawned areas, well-stocked flower and shrub borders, specimen trees and a bluebell wood.

Leisure amenities include stabling, a tennis court, swimming pool and stone-paved terraces — ideal for lazy outdoor dining and enjoying the spectacular views over the Surrey hills.

Hangerfield's location is as practical as it is beautiful. It sits in Church Lane, Witley, a thriving village situated 3½ miles south-west of the Saxon town of Godalming, and nine miles south-west of the county town and commuter hub of Guildford. What's more, Witley has its own station, with direct trains to London Waterloo taking less than an hour.

For sale through Strutt & Parker — see more details.

The ancient village of Shere is a sleepy place. Usually, anyway. Sitting on the River Tillingbourne, five miles east of Guildford and five miles west of Dorking, it's a small, still partly agricultural village set in the wooded Vale of Holmesdale within the Surrey Hills National Landscape.

Strange, then, that it should punch so far above its weight when it comes to Hollywood royalty. Back in 2006 (no, we can't believe it's 20 years either) this was the village where the entirely daft, yet somehow now iconic movie The Holiday was filmed.

The famed cottage itself — which Cameron Diaz borrows from Kate Winslet, en route to falling in love with Jude Law — was merely a facade, and was pulled down after shooting wrapped, but the rest of the place is real, and fans have headed here ever since.

Diaz and Law weren't the first A-listers to come to this leafy corner of Surrey, and nor were they the last. Since at least the early 20th century, the village’s accessible location and Tudor architecture have made it a Mecca for artists and film-makers, many of whom bought houses there. Everyone from Agatha Christie and Sean Connery to Tom Cruise and Michael Caine have been spotted here down the years, though by far the most amusing tale is of Arthur Conan-Doyle and A.A. Milne coming to the Shere village green to play for J.M. Barrie's cricket team. Rudyard Kipling and HG Wells were also invited, but apparently declined. Christie's tale is nearly as good: she's believed to have lived incognito in Shere during the period after her mysterious disappearance in the 1930s.

Historically, it was a little rougher. The neighbourhood was, for a time, one of the wildest in the county, with sheep-stealers, smugglers and poachers finding sanctuary in this once remote area.

Today, all is serene in these wooded hills, where Theo James-Wright of the Blue Book Agency is overseeing the launch onto the market of Grade II-listed Cotterell House, an impeccably renovated, red-brick Georgian house set in about 12 acres of gardens, with paddocks and a lake, on the outskirts of the village. It comes fresh to the market this week with a guide price of £7 million.

Georgian houses are rare in this part of Surrey, and Cotterell House, which dates from the mid 18th century, is probably a handsome aggrandisement of an earlier 17th-century building linked to Cotterell Farm.

All the main reception rooms flow easily off a wide entrance hall. Behind the fan-lit front door is a double-aspect drawing room and a family snug or study.

There is also another Georgian-era family room arranged, open-plan, alongside a large family kitchen which leads through to a newer addition, where glass walls slide back to give access onto a terrace overlooking the grounds.

The more formal rooms in the oldest part of the house, which dates from 1690, include a music room with space for a grand piano and an elegant drawing room with a large inglenook fireplace.

Upstairs, four bedrooms in the older part of the house make up the ‘children’s wing’, with the Georgian element housing two bedroom suites, two double bedrooms and a family bathroom.

Outside, former farm buildings have been converted into two fully equipped, potential party barns centred on a Mediterranean-style heated outdoor pool.

Further buildings include a carport and garage, a pool house, stables and storage.

For sale via Blue Book — see more details.

In the 1840s and 1850s, the rapid expansion of the Victorian rail network enabled high-flying lawyers, bankers and captains of industry to commute daily from their grand country homes in Surrey to offices in London and elsewhere.

Today, time-sensitive buyers who come to this county in search of a proper country estate may find what they’re looking for in the ancient village of Send, three miles south of Woking and 5½ miles north of Guildford, with Heathrow airport, Gatwick airport and Farnborough private airport, respectively 13 miles, 19 miles and 15½ miles distant. Here, Phillippa Dalby-Welsh of Savills Country Department is handling the of £9.85 million sale of illustrious Grade II-listed Sendholme in Potters Lane, Send.

This magnificent house at the top of this page stands in 121 acres of historic gardens, woodland and water meadows on sandy ground within the Lower Wey Valley. For those that don't want so much land, however, the estate is being sold either as a whole or in three lots.

Lot 1, on offer at a guide price of £8.35m, comprises the main house, a two-bedroom staff/guest cottage, a gate lodge and extensive garaging and outbuildings, all set in 65 acres of formal and ornamental gardens and grounds overlooking a large lake.

Amenities include a tennis court, stable block, manège, cricket pavilion and cricket pitch, and an old air-raid shelter dating from the days of Cold War. How many homes let you host your own cricket match while also sheltering you from nuclear war?

Lot 2, at £500,000, comprises farm buildings and stores set in 7½ acres. Lot 3, on offer at a guide of £1m, comprises 48½ acres of land to the east of Potters Lane, currently let to a local farmer.

According to its Historic England listing, Sendholme was built in 1863 by the Victorian country-house architect George Devey, best known for his association with the Rothschild family for whom he designed a number of buildings, including the stables and riding school on the Mentmore estate in Buckinghamshire.

He also worked for the Duke of Sutherland at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, where he designed lodges and cottages in the vernacular style of the Sussex Weald. His style was later developed by other leading architects, among them Richard Norman Shaw and Charles Voysey, both of whom studied under him and went on to become founder members of the Arts-and-Crafts movement.

Devey’s client at Sendholme was William Hargreaves, whose daughter Mary married Sir Joseph Leese, a distinguished lawyer, former Liberal MP for Accrington and a first-class cricketer, who was created 1st Baronet ‘of Sendholme in Send in the County of Surrey’ in 1908. He died in 1914.

However, the title died out following the death of the 4th Baronet in 1979. Sendholme’s third owner was a Mr A. H. Lancaster, a retired paint merchant who bought the estate in 1895. The Lancasters lived there until the death of Miss Eveline Lancaster, aged 100, in August 1976.

In all, nine owners have lived there, the last of whom is the present owner, who bought the estate with her late husband in 2002. In 2015, they extended the main house at ground-floor level and enlarged the kitchen area, which was connected to a leisure wing via a south-facing orangery.

A notable contribution to the gardens was the addition of a cascading water feature leading down from the house to the woodland area below.

In all, Sendholme provides more than 15,800sq ft of gracious living space on two main floors with further attic rooms in the gables, and access at ground-floor level to a series of storage rooms, with a wine cellar in the basement.

‘Voluminous and inter-connecting’ reception areas throughout the ground floor include the sitting room and dining room, both of which feature dramatic fenestration and decorative ceilings. Other ground-floor rooms of note are the drawing room, library, kitchen/breakfast room, orangery and sun room.

At first-floor level, the principal bedroom suite offers glorious views over the surround-ing countryside towards the North Downs.

Both the principal and guest suites have recently been redesigned and redecorated. Also on this floor are a further bedroom suite, a laundry room and a sewing room.

The second floor houses five additional bedrooms, two bathrooms and a television room, with access to the roof-top terrace and those same far-reaching views.

Sendholme is for sale through Savills — see more details.

I can’t be the only one craving the chance to switch off — or at least dial down — the economic and political noise at the moment. And for those in search of a ‘true sanctuary’, Dawsons Wood, on the edge of Ashdown Forest in Sussex, could fit the bill.

Owners Jeff Morehen, an architect, and Nela Willis, a project manager, built Dawsons Wood to be ‘a place of health, tranquillity, and authenticity’. And judging by the pictures, it appears to be just that. From the horizontal and vertical slot windows and dramatic cantilever corner window, to the timber cladding, it is an extraordinary contemporary home.

Dawsons Wood is now on the market for £2,550,000 via Hamptons.

When Nela first spotted the site, there was a tired bungalow sitting on it. But within two days, she had put in an offer to buy it.

‘We instantly saw the potential to create a home that honoured the landscape and allowed us to explore biophilic design, which simply means bringing nature into every moment of the house, whether through light, air, natural materials, or the quiet joy of framed views onto greenery,’ says Nela.

‘For us, Dawsons Wood was never just a building project — it was an opportunity to shape a way of living.’

Completed in 2020, the house is undeniably striking: clean lines, natural materials, soft colour palette, and a lot of glass.

Take the glazed cantilevered library: I bet you could curl up in one of those chairs with a good book and feel as if you were actually outside.

Nela explains: ‘Some of our favourite parts of the home are the areas that reinforce the connection with the outside, such as the library; a cantilevered section of the house that projects into the garden, under the canopy of a tree, and captures the dappled afternoon sunlight. It’s an ideal place to enjoy a book and a gin and tonic at the end of the day.’

Timber and locally-sourced sandstone have been incorporated both inside and out, creating a sense of continuity.

It’s a brave choice to have a bathroom with black walls (not to mention floor-to-ceiling glazing) but somehow, it works.

Another bold statement is the Douglas Fir staircase, which leads to a corridor that runs the length of the house.

In line with Jeff and Nela’s biophilic approach, the sitting room and kitchen have sliding doors that open out onto a terrace — and the main bedroom has a deep window seat.

Nela explains: ‘The open-plan kitchen is another part of the house where you feel very much connected to the garden. The window opening is 6m by 3m so you can see almost the entire rear garden when sitting down to eat. These small, intentional moments anchor us, offering calm, beauty and a sense of connection.’

The living space is mostly arranged on the first floor — think of it as a modern take on a bungalow.

A lot of this level is given over to the open-plan kitchen. There’s also the library, sitting room, main bedroom with an ensuite bathroom and a dressing room, as well as two further bedrooms, which share a shower room.

And at one end of the first floor, an internal annexe provides a kitchen and living room, bedroom, and shower room.

The ground floor is more functional, with a utility room, cloakroom, plant room, and garage equipped with an EV charging point.

It’s perhaps no surprise to hear that Dawsons Wood has been designed to be low-to-no carbon. Its features include a ventilation system (an MVHR unit) that draws warm air out and brings fresh air in.

Nela says: ‘It’s a real wrench to leave Dawsons Wood, but we’re hoping to find a smallholding. We have a feeling there’s one more build in us yet.’

Linda Wesson, sales director at Hamptons, adds: ‘Dawsons Wood is a beautifully considered home, set on a wonderful plot in a highly sought-after part of the country. It’s a house that feels like a true sanctuary — a place where every element has been thoughtfully crafted with care and intention.

‘One factor you can’t ignore is the use of natural materials and how the design-led details come together to create a space that feels deeply grounded. It’s both functional and beautifully crafted — and offers future owners something genuinely unique.’

Dawsons Wood is for sale via Hamptons for £2,550,000 — see more details.

There’s something undeniably magical about a castellated house, and Oxney Court is no exception.

Set within 35 acres near Dover in Kent, the striking gothic-style mansion offers ‘a real sense of history and romance’, says Alex Mathew of Harding Green, who are selling the estate for £6.5 million. A century ago, however, the scene was very different. The house was requisitioned during the First World War and, following a fire, fell into disrepair.

Oxney Court’s fortunes changed in 1997, when it was sold and the new owner — reportedly the daughter of the late Lord Charles Forte — undertook a substantial renovation, breathing new life into this once-ruined house. The result is that as it stands today, this Georgian house is a joy throughout, from the front door to the magnificent treehouse in the grounds.

Oxney Court is steeped in history. The small parish of Oxney was recorded in the Domesday Book. According to Harding Green, the timber frame house that once stood on the site of Oxney Court was demolished in the 17^th century. It paved the way for the current house, which was built in the 18^th century in the distinctive gothic style. Further renovations took place in the 19^th century.

It was during the 19th century that the mansion was owned by the uncle of Sir Joseph Banks, the renowned botanist who was the driving force behind the creation of Kew Gardens. Many exotic and rare species planted by Banks still grow at Oxney Court to this day.

Inside, the house blends period elegance with contemporary comfort. Period features, including grand windows, intricate cornicing, and generous proportions, sit alongside modern upgrades.

It has all the rooms you’d expect of a Georgian home of this scale and nature: reception rooms, dining room, kitchen, library, conservatory, and study.

Wine enthusiasts will be particularly delighted by the eye-catching cellar.

Upstairs, there are six bedrooms, all with ensuite bathrooms, and there's a theatrical fairytale feel to the design, decor and decoration (not to mention the four-poster beds) that seems to sit perfectly with the mini-castle exterior.

Beyond the main house, there’s a four-bedroom guest cottage, two-bedroom staff cottage, and a converted stable block, complete with a self-contained bedroom, kitchen and cinema room. Plenty of scope for multi-generational living, then.

The grounds also feature a swimming pool, tennis court, and what is described as ‘an outdoor, covered dining room’.

For all that, Oxney Court is still a place that's more than the sum of its parts. It's a house that 'immediately captures the imagination’, adds Mathew.

‘It has a real sense of history and romance, but crucially it’s been brought into the modern day in a way that makes it entirely liveable.

‘What makes it particularly special is the combination of scale and lifestyle. You have a striking castellated main house with over 9,000 sq ft of accommodation, but also a fully formed estate around it such as guest and staff cottages, leisure amenities including a pool, tennis court and cinema — all set within 35 acres of beautifully established grounds.’

Mathew adds: ‘Properties of this calibre, with this level of history and infrastructure already in place, rarely come to the market.’

Oxney Court is for sale via Harding Green for £6,500,000 — see more details.

A property listing is a snapshot in time. While you can research a house's past, and take an educated guess about its future, it's primarily an exercise in there here and now — and because of that, it's a little like dipping into the middle of a story without finding out how it ends.

Today, though, we have a departure from this norm thanks to the appearance of Danley Hill on the market. This charming Sussex home — in the village of Linchmere, not far from Haslemere — is on the market at £6 million via John D Wood, eight years after it last made an appearance in Country Life.

Back in 2018, the house was on the market at £2 million. Why the hefty change in price? In part it's the changes in the market, but in the main it's the work that has been done here.

The house, we noted in eight years ago, was in dire need of refurbishment; as you can see in the latest pictures here, all that has been done with flair and ingenuity by the current owners.

Built in the 1900s, the house was created to mimic the style of a small French château, something which can be seen in the lines of the roof, the shutters — now grey, where once they were green.

Keen-eyed readers will all spot some more changes: the chimneys on the roof are gone, and dormer windows have appeared, betraying the fact that the house now has an extra floor of accommodation. The grounds have also been updated — including a smart new driveway — plus further building work is also evident.

The result is that Danley Hill is now a huge family home, with 5,735sq ft of space, and set in seven and a half acres of landscaped gardens and woodland.

The pool and tennis court that needed refurbishment in 2018 are both now pristine, and there's also a wonderful, air-conditioned gym in an outbuilding.

The interior is centred on an open-plan kitchen and living area, with additional reception space in the study, family room and cosy snug.

On the first floor there are five double bedrooms, served by two en-suite bath/shower rooms and a family bathroom.

And then there's the aforementioned second floor, which has a cinema and — and I think this is a first in Country Life — a 'sneaker store', ideal for those who have a collection of vintage trainers they'd like to put on display.

Danley Hill is for sale via John D Wood at £6 million — see more details.

It's all too easy to romanticise the 1970s. The funky clothes, the wacky haircuts and the counter-cultural vibe won't fail to put a smile on your face, whether you were alive at the time or not. And the music was sensational: rock moved in a new direction, blending modern instruments and riffs with the long-form sequences more familiar in classical music. Right at the forefront of that change were Pink Floyd, who hit their peak in the 70s with a string of seminal albums including The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall.

But the 70s weren't all good, in music or elsewhere. Boney M and Little Donny Osmond rode just as high (and often higher) in the charts than the likes of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, and houses across the land were decorated with woodchip paper, deep red floral carpets and avocado bathrooms. Thus, it's fascinating to see a property for sale where all these things come together: Woodley, near Roydon in Essex, which is for sale via Savills at £1.1 million. It's a mock Tudor home that was once home to Pink Floyd's trailblazing lead guitarist, David Gilmour, and its decor appears to have been largely untouched in the half century since the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician lived here with his first wife, Ginger Gilmour.

Gilmour actually bought the house in 1970, before he'd met Ginger, and the pair lived here until selling up in 1980 — and it sounds as if the superstar guitarist was a deeply practical homeowner. Quoting the band's biographer Mark Blake, the Evening Standard reports that Gilmour did a lot of the refurbishment work himself, adding a music room and a recording studio, and digging out a swimming pool which has, sadly, fallen into disrepair, with the old diving board still visible beneath its coating of algae. It's the very picture of sadness and nostalgia, in a way which seems eerily fitting.

'The wind howled through the windows and it was like living in the elements indoors,' Ginger Gilmour wrote in 2016. 'The wind howled through the windows and it was like living in the elements indoors. But I lived through it, because I was so in love and so enchanted by being in England with my knight in shining armour. David was a wonderful father. He held the babies, changed the nappies. He would do the 11pm feed so I could get some sleep.'

The Gilmours left Woodley in 1980, moving down to Sussex (where they both still live, albeit now divorced). Following the death of their original marital home's latest owners, Woodley is on the market and is a time capsule.

The decor, dark, exposed timbers, brick-and-tile fireplaces, dilapidated outbuildings, leaded windows and floral curtains are all absolutely of the 70s and 80s.

All that said, there's every reason to think that this could easily become a wonderful family home once more. Five bedrooms, almost five acres and plenty of living space make this an incredibly tempting project — particularly given it has a semi-rural location not farm from Roydon, Harlow and Epping, which make it an eminently commutable home. Just what every aspiring rock god needs.

Woodley is for sale via Savills at £1.1 million — see more details.

You'd think — hope, really — that the former home of the world's most celebrated gadget inventor would be stuffed full of clever gizmos: smart lights, automated curtains, walls of screens, and perhaps a few gun turrets hidden in the hedges. But not so: the real-life home of Q, fictional creator of James Bond's outrageous arsenal of deadly gadgets, is about as low-tech as you could ever imagine.

Whitelands is a gorgeous Georgian house — currently for sale via Knight Frank — that was the former home of the late Desmond Llewelyn, the actor who played Q in 17 Bond films.

Llewelyn lived here for seven years with his family from 1958 to 1965, and while it might not have suited his most famous character, it was absolutely perfect for Llewelyn himself.

'I am hopeless with gadgets,' he once said. 'I can't even get a ticket to work in one of those confounded machines on the London Underground. And I can hardly put on a kettle, let alone set a video.'

The very phrase 'set a video' will provoke almost as much nostalgia as the sight of Llewelyn himself, who first played Q in 1963, making his debut in From Russia with Love, and carrying on in the role until 1999's The World is Not Enough. He made more appearances in the series than any other actor, and unless current Q actor Ben Whishaw clocks up 14 more credits in the role between now and 2048, it's a record that doesn't look set to be beaten.

What a life it must have been for Llewelyn, filming the franchise as its second-best-loved recurring character, playing with Aston Martin ejector seats, magnetic cigarette lighters and bagpipes that double up as flamethrowers. And then, after all that, to come back to this idyllic country home in a rural setting just outside Battle, the Sussex village where the Battle of Hastings took place.

Charming throughout, it's a home set over four floors, with five bedrooms in the main house, and it has been much changed and modernised since it was sold by Llewelyn in 1965.

A fine entrance hall leads off to a dining room, kitchen/breakfast room, and a drawing room which heads on in to a sitting room. All the spaces link in to each other, giving a lovely free-flowing feel to the floorplan.

There's a wine cellar, boot room and utility room in the cellar. The first floor has three bedrooms, one of which has an en-suite and a walk-in wardrobe, while two bedrooms (both en-suite) are above on the second floor.

There's also a separate outbuilding set up with a further bedroom plus gym, office (which could also serve as a bedroom) and a games room. A pool house with sauna, a garage and stables complete the picture within the 1.5 acres.

The best news of all, at least for gadget fans? The house is unlisted, so there's nothing — apart from imagination, budget and a few health and safety concerns — to stop you from installing all the 21st century tech you could ever dream of. Q would be proud.

For sale via Knight Frank at £2 million — see more details.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article claimed that Desmond Llewelyn lived at Whitelands for 30 years. This was incorrect, as he only lived at Whitelands from 1958–1965. We apologise for the error.

The Old School Hall at Broxbourne was, as its name suggests, once an educational establishment where, perhaps, cooking techniques were sometimes discussed. The children from those days, however, would be in awe of how the Grade II-listed building looks today, having undergone a transformation by the current owners.

The house is now on the market, at £795,000 via Savills. How they're tearing themselves away we're not quite sure, given — especially when you see the magnificent kitchen they put in as part of their renovations.

It's chic and modern, yet relaxing and pleasant in a soothing shade of teal that also helps give the place a period feel that fits with the building. Drawers and cupboards provide ample storage space and the breakfast bar is an alternative to the nearby dining table for those in a rush.

This open-plan kitchen and the adjoining reception space (once the school assembly hall) flow seamlessly into each other and, at 26ft by 23ft, there is ample room both for entertaining and everyday living.

A sitting room-slash-study completes the reception offerings on the ground floor, with bookshelves that run almost floor-to-ceiling in a room large enough to swallow up a beautiful old desk.

So what's the catch? Well, as you might expect at this price level in a village just outside London, with outstanding connections into the city, it's essentially a two-up, two down, and is probably a home for a couple rather than a family.

Upstairs, for example, there are two bedrooms, one of which is a huge room with built-in storage; the other is a bed on the mezzanine floor above the kitchen.

That said, if that's all you need then it's a place that has everything, even has some lovely outside space: gardens, vegetable patch and fruit trees outside, as well as a carport and parking for further vehicles.

All things considered, it's hard to imagine a more charming little home, and the agent's reaction says it all.

‘Since moving to this wonderful area, this is one of my absolute favourite properties,' says agent Felicity Walker. 'It took my breath away the first time I walked in.'

The Old School in Broxbourne is for sale at £795,000 — see more details.

Standing three storeys high, this handsome Grade II-listed gatehouse — on the market via Humberts for £1,695,000 — offers sweeping views over the rolling Sussex countryside (the High Weald National Landscape, since you ask).

Is the building’s stature simply a design flourish? Perhaps not. Rumours abound over its Tudor history. Historic England's listing for Bolebroke Castle itself doesn't give much away beyond a few architectural details, but gatehouse is believed to have been built in the 16th century, a few years later than the castle itself, which local historians have dated to the mid 15th century.

More salacious claims abound, too. Henry VIII is said to have courted Anne Boleyn here before making her his second (and perhaps most celebrated) wife — and the producers of the 2007 film The Other Boleyn Girl apparently used Bolebroke Castle to film several of the interior scenes. How authentic those interiors are is probably a matter for debate, given the state of Bolebroke at its lowest ebb in the mid-20th century, when it was photographed by Country Life.

The Boleyn links are, as ever, pretty much impossible to prove or deny, but it's a fun thought. And we do know that Henry VIII’s hunts ran through the surrounding woods and fields, and that Anne Boleyn's family seat was at nearby Hever Castle. So who knows? Perhaps this really was a key place for Henry and his second wife, whose daughter Elizabeth went on to reign from 1558 until 1603. Either way, the agents report that the gatehouse was most likely built during the reign of Elizabeth I.

It sits in the village of Hartfield, which has links to the literary world and, intriguingly, legendary rock band, the Rolling Stones. The author A.A. Milne was inspired to write the now-famous stories of Winnie-the-Pooh after moving to Cotchford Farm near Hartfield in 1925. And the same farm was later the home of Brian Jones, of Rolling Stones fame.

Hartfield is a picturesque spot, with a village shop, tea room, and a pub. So, if you’re a fan of poohsticks and Hundred Acre Wood, you’re in the right place.

But back now to the gatehouse. Set down a private lane, it offers that sought-after combination of period features and modern accommodation.

And by period features, we mean really cool details, such as two turrets crowned with cupolas, slit windows for firing arrows, and an oak door with a siege door within it. These sit alongside more traditional features you might expect of a property from this era: fireplaces, stone mullion windows, oak spiral staircase, and exposed beams.

In the original building, there’s a dining room on the ground floor, with a utility room in one turret and a spiral staircase in the other. There are two bedrooms above, one on each floor, with ensuite bathrooms inside one of the turrets. The main bedroom steals the show with a fireplace and a striking web of ancient oak beams.

A ground floor extension houses most of the living space. There’s a contemporary kitchen, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. And beyond, a spacious and airy reception room and a family room built in a barn style with a vaulted ceiling and southerly and easterly views.

The garden also deserves a mention. It features a large lawn (which has ‘croquet’ written all over it), a terrace under a vine-clad pergola, pretty flower beds, neatly-clipped hedges, and a trellised walkway.

There’s also a garage and a shed, which you’ll need to keep up the good work in the garden.

Simon Lewis, of Humberts, says the gatehouse is perfect for buyers looking for a home with ‘story and soul’.

‘This home would suit anyone wanting a piece of history in a tranquil rural setting, whether you’re drawn by its architectural provenance, the space and versatility for contemporary family life, or the opportunity to enjoy panoramic views and the quintessential English countryside from your doorstep.’

He adds: ‘Originally built in the 1550s during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I as the entrance to a walled manor house, the gatehouse remains as a rare survivor of its era, with original oak doors, ancient beams and a striking oak spiral staircase providing character and historic authenticity.’

The gatehouse is for sale via Humberts — see more details.

It seems only fitting that a couple of days before Valentine's Day we came across Durrant House. Hidden away in the trees, covered in wisteria, tucked discreetly and perfectly into its setting, this is a house it's impossible not to fall in love with.

On the market via Savills at £1.5 million, this four-bedroom home isn't — as the pictures suggest at first glance — hidden away within miles of virgin woodland, but instead it sits within a village in Sussex. The house was built in 1939 by Stanley Durrant, a local master builder who gave the place his name, and the setting he chose is breathtaking: 3.7 acres of woodland and lawns, peppered with natural sandstone outcrops, towering fir trees, twisting pathways, sunken gardens, and a pool so romantic you'd half expect to find woodland nymphs frolicking in the water. This is, quite simply, the most romantic setting we've seen in years.

Inside, it's almost as charming: just under 4,000 sq ft of space, laid out in a rectangle to allow all almost all the rooms to look out on the view. Downstairs you'll find a sitting room, dining room, family room and a study, plus a long kitchen that leads into a semi-circular conservatory that juts out at the centre of the house.

While less than 90 years old, the house is full of character: huge, stone-built open fireplaces, wooden floors and ceiling beams, Crittal-style windows and glorious use of natural timber — the bannister, fashioned and curved from local wood, is a perfect example.

Above, there are four bedrooms, one of which is en-suite, while the others share a bathroom. If you need more space, the good news is that a separate annex in the garden has two more bedrooms, plus a self-contained space currently set up as an office.

It's the gardens that really sell Durrant House, though — well, that and the fact that there is a roof terrace from which to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you.

Yet almost as much of a pull is that this is a rural hideaway that's an eminently practical choice for family life. 'Durrant House is a real gem,' says Rohan Vines of Savills' Haywards Heath branch, 'It's a characterful country home which is within straightforward reach of village and town amenities, schooling and transport.'

The village in question is Cooper's Green, which sits just off the A272 that traverses the South Downs from Winchester to Heathfield. Uckfield, with its direct rail services to London Bridge and an 'Outstanding' rated secondary school, is a short drive away.

For all that, we'd bet that those practical considerations aren't what'll drive the next owners of Durrant House. It's like Arts-and-Crafts meets Sleeping Beauty.

Durrant House is for sale via Savills at £1.5 million — see more details.

Hampshire — £2.85 million

The wine cellar alone is sure to win over at least of the potential buyers for this home in an enviable setting in Hampshire, with trains from nearby Grateley getting to London in an hour and a quarter.

There's a bit of updating needed to be sure, but the house is a joy — as are the groudns, which include a wonderful walled garden.

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

Leicestershire — £1.95 million

This Queen Anne farmhouse sits right in the middle of the village of Lubenham, a pretty spot with a pub, a lovely primary school and a conservation area protecting its charms.

The house itself is a gorgeous, sympathetically-restored home — but we suspect the paddocks, stables, outbuildings and workshops will prove just as much of a selling point to the next owner.

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

Northamptonshire — £2 million

Three houses for the price of one — a farmhouse, a cottage and a converted barn — plus its own little vineyard at this village home overlooking open countryside. There's even a discreet bank of solar panels, so you can be at least partially self-sufficient for both power and wine.

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

Wiltshire — £9.5 million

Striking and unusual, this Arts-and-Crafts house — which dates to 1905 — is bold on the outside, and bold within, from the magnificent colour scheme to the cherry blossom tree in the dining room.

The equestrian facilities are truly outstanding, too, with both indoor and outdoor maneges, wonderful stables and a parade ring, as well as paddocks within the 60 acres.

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

East Sussex — £2,400,000

This gated farmhouse is set in an idyllic 21 acres of gardens and woodland, and has outstanding equestrian facilities.

It's a wonderful blend of rural charm and refined modern living — and we love the cabin tucked away in the woods within the grounds.

For sale via Bees Homes — see more details and pictures.

Norfolk — £2,000,000

A Grade II-listed barn built in the late 17th century that's been converted into a grand, 21st century eco-home with air source heat pump, solar panels and ultra-fast internet. It's set in four acres, and comes with two separate cottages that are rented out and generate over £1,000 a month each.

For sale via Humberts — see more details and pictures.

Devon — £1,500,000

Space, privacy and seclusion at this Grade-II listed country house with four acres, a cottage, outbuildings and a location looking across open countryside to Devon's south coast.

For sale via Stags — see more details and pictures.

Kent — £1,400,000

Character pours out from this farmhouse, thanks to a sensitive refurbishment that's kept the charm — the library is a real highlight. There's a separate annexe, thatched double garage, gardens of over three acres, and its commutable from a nearby station

For sale via Hobbs Parker — see more details and pictures.

Oxfordshire — £1,350,000

One of the Thame's most iconic homes, a six-bedroom house overlooking the town’s cricket ground and St Mary’s church.

For sale via Hammett Hayward — see more details and pictures.

Somerset — £1,300,000

A wisteria-clad, six-bed home dating back to the 19th century, with Exmoor National Park literally on your doorstep.

For sale via Fine & Country — see more details and pictures.

East Sussex — £1,250,000

It's all about the garden and the spectacular position on the South Downs at this three-bedroom home in the hills above Lewes.

For sale via Charles Wycherley — see more details and pictures.

Surrey — £950,000

By no means the prettiest home on this list, but to those who love horses this is the holy grail: a house with stables and almost three acres, only just outside the M25, for under £1 million.

For sale via Churchill Country & Equestrian — see more details and pictures.

Perth — £875,000

A country house within a beautiful walled garden enjoying a superb location, woodland and a paddock.

For sale via Galbraith — see more details and pictures.

Shropshire — £845,000

Beautifully presented family house with five bedrooms, jaw-dropping panoramas of Shropshire countryside, and no chain.

For sale via Balfours — see more details and pictures.

Oxfordshire — £625,000

A rare find: a detached house with four bedrooms, within walking distance of Chipping Norton town centre.

For sale via Maxwell Douglas — see more details and pictures.

Northamptonshire — £595,000

This converted malthouse has four bedrooms, a south-facing garden, and a prime location in the middle of Oundle, one of the prettiest villages in the 'Notswolds'.

For sale via Artistry — see more details and pictures.

Derbyshire — £575,000

The potential is great at this two-bedroom cottage, with five acres, potential scope to extend and convert the stone-built barn, and a further 6.87 acres should you want more space.

For sale via John German — see more details and pictures.

When estate agents use phrases like 'Georgian elegance' and 'timeless charm', what do they really mean? What visions are they trying to conjure up? (Beyond one of buyers writing large cheques, of course.)

The answer is that they're trying put their finger on the appeal of homes such as the Grade II-listed Eastergate House, in West Sussex. The rooms are huge and bright; the gardens, wrapping all around the property, are an idyllic slice of Sussex; the flint-knapped walls are covered in wisteria; there are endless little touches and original features to build the atmosphere of the home. It's for sale via Fine & Country at £1.75 million.

Eastergate is a five-bedroom house where the very walls contain history: much of the flint-knapping in this part of Sussex was the work of French soldiers held captive during the Napoleonic Wars (Chichester, just nearby, has many such examples). Historic England's listing for the house doesn't specify the exact date, but this part of the village — which sits half-way between Chichester and Arundel, and not far from the coast at Bognor Regis — is the heart of a small conservation area, which should give the new owners some reassurance about any future development nearby.

Once tucked away inside the house itself, the place is charming. Sunlit rooms are bright and spacious, and for a five-bedroom house it's huge at 6,000 sq ft. That translates to a home that has five reception rooms: a drawing room and dining room, as you'd expect, but also a library, a day room and a garden room. There's also a south-facing conservatory opening out onto the gardens, a pair of cellars, laundry room, a pantry and more.

Upstairs, the bedrooms are all generously proportioned — especially the master suite, which (for once) really is that. A door off the first floor landing leads to a small hallway off which are bathroom, separate cloakroom, dressing room, and the bedroom itself.

The other bedrooms aren't en-suite, instead sharing two large bathrooms between them, while the fifth bedroom could be set up as a separate living area: it has its own landing, and stairs directly down to the day room, which itself has a door leading out into the grounds.

The aforementioned mature gardens are eye-catching whatever the season. Landscaped, and with quiet seating areas incorporated, they wrap around the property in a caress, the plants and flowers providing year-round colour.

Additional features include a rose garden, a summer house, a greenhouse and a cricket practice net (the latter carefully positioned so as not to cause any risk to the former).

Anyone could be happy here, whether indoors or enjoying time alfresco. ‘If romance was a property, this would be it,’ says agent Goreti Gananca. It's not hard to agree with her.

Eastergate House is for sale via Fine & Country at £1.75 million — see more details.

Devon — £3.95 million

An estate mentioned in the Domesday Book, with a spectacular tale to tell. The house has been here since at least the 13th century, was once the house of the Bishop of Exeter, and was expanded and enlarged in the 19th century to turn it into the Gothic Revival mansion that it is today.

18,000 sq ft, eight bedrooms, plus a string of ancillary flats make this more than just a home in the countryside outside Exeter. And did we mention the chapel, with its stained glass windows?

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

East Sussex — £5 million

Over 100 acres of land, staggeringly impressive equestrian facilities (including a hangar-like barn containing an indoor manege) and a sprawling eight-bedroom house, set in rolling hills near Hartfield, between Tunbridge Wells and East Grinstead. A country estate that's genuinely commutable to London.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Surrrey — £6.95 million

At first glance a classic Arts-and-Crafts mansion in the Surrey hills between Guildford and Dorking, but a closer look reveals a house built to exacting standards as recently as 2013.

The countryside — which is incredibly unspoilt considering the proximity to London — surrounds the place, while inside there's charm, space, and a magnificent wine cellar-slash-tasting room.

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

Hertfordshire — £1.7 million

Surrounded by countryside in the village of Cottered, this home — which is less than two years old — might be very new, but it scores highly for its location and (unlike far too many new builds) the 1.37-acre plot.

And what you might lose in character you gain back in energy savings: this superbly-insulated house has an air source heat pump, solar panels and more eco-friendly elements to earn it an impressive EPC rating of 87.

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

Cornwall — £3.4 million

A five-bedroom house right on the water at Restronguet Point, giving unmatched views across the Fal Estuary.

The house itself dates to the 1960s — it was built by well-known local architect John Crowther — and retains a mid-20th-century vibe within, with parquet flooring and huge picture windows. But really, this one is all about the location and the 135ft of waterfront to call your own.

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

Classically beautiful architecture. Art Deco flourishes. Post-industrial elements. Exquisite landscapes. Wood-panelled walls which could have come from a Jacobean mansion, on which are hung huge, flat-screen TVs. An top floor space where gym machinery and a punchbag sit alongside what appears to be a dentist’s chair. Storries, in the village of Itchingfield, near Horsham, is unlike any house we’ve ever seen. Who, as Loyd Grossman used to say on Through The Keyhole, would live in a home like this?

The answer is Alan Wilder, a member of the 1980s and 1990s pop band Depeche Mode, who've sold 100 million records in their long careers and been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. That clock in the form of a CD suddenly makes more sense.

After more than 35 years here, Wilder has decided to downsize. His family home is on the market with Strutt & Parker, who quote a guide price of £3.75 million.

Wilder bought Storries in 1990, when Depeche Mode were at the height of their fame (their biggest hit, Enjoy the Silence, was released that year). He was just the second owner of the house since it was built: the original owners were Eric Mayo and his wife Edith, whose father — the mining investor Herbert Latilla — had the place built as a wedding gift.

The casual panache of the bona fide rock star shows up in the bold furnishings and decorations in the house, but this is a country home that still drips with 1930s character.

The kitchen, with its original Aga and Art Deco tiling on floor and walls, has a timewarp feel which makes the modern coffee maker, and the microwave in the adjoining pantry, seem almost anachronistic. Things that look out of place are the exception, though: Wilder has spent a huge amount of time sourcing Art Deco elements for this house. The tables, armchairs, sofas and light fittings all feel spot on.

Over the years, it’s seen plenty of changes — not least during the Second World War, when the Mayos allowed their home to be used as a lookout for the Home Guard; indeed, Eric Mayo even served himself, alongside the real-life Captain Mainwarings and Corporal Joneses who would apparently set up camp in the sheds, and climb onto the flat roof section in turns to peer across the South Downs for impending danger. The juxtaposition of that image with one of the kings of 1980s synth-pop is irresistible.

One of the additions made by the current owner came in 1991, with the creation of what amounts to a full-on health club that occupies the entire top floor of the house. The list of facilities is extraordinary for a private home: there’s a steam room, sauna, flotation room, plunge pool and the aforementioned gym equipment — including the dentist’s-slash-barber’s chair, so you can get a haircut and a wet shave after finishing your workout.

Even more striking than that, though, is the area dubbed ‘the courtyard’, designed and built in 2000 by architect Gareth Wilkins. While most of the house feels essentially Art Deco meets Arts-and-Crafts, this is a truly modern space that feels just right for a turn-of-the-millennium project.

A polished concrete floor sits beneath a striking cantilevered steel and glass roof, effectively turning what was originally an open space into a huge, light-filled room. A bar, made from concrete, sits to one side, while a pair of Belfast sinks against one wall were salvaged from the estate’s former coach house. There’s even a specially-designed integrated fridge that's designed to be wheeled in and out as required.

Storries really would make a perfect family house for multi-generational living. With eight bedrooms and 12,000 sq ft there’s space enough for plenty of people to live side-by-side without stepping on each others’ toes, and there are things to put a smile on the face of all ages, from the tennis court, swimming pool and stables, to the provision of a lift which was installed five years ago. There’s even a separate chauffeur’s lodge within the 29-acre site, ideal for grown-up children or older relatives.

The house has recently been relaunched via Strutt & Parker, having been on the market a couple of years ago with different agents at £4.5 million. You sense that the delay hasn’t bothered Wilder too much, with the classically-trained musician-turned-keyboard player, composer and producer telling local press a few years ago that although they’re downsizing due to ‘the sheer size of the place’, they won’t be going far. ‘I have really loved being in this area,’ Wilder told the Sussex Express; that feels like a good sign.

There’s another good sign here too. Rather like vintage cars that have had only one or two former owners, there’s a peace of mind that comes with buying a place that’s been in the same hands for decades. You feel it's been a happy, much-loved home; and we can’t help but feel that the next owners might also be here for many decades to come.

Storries is for sale at £3.75 million via Strutt & Parker — see more pictures and details.

The northern reaches of Essex are perhaps one of the best-kept secrets in the Home Counties. Gently rolling countryside, ancient woods and farmland stretching away beneath huge skies are a world away from the nightclubs and bling McMansions closer to London. There are rivers criss-crossing the landscape, breweries that have stood on the same spot for centuries, and ancient mills of the sort immortalised by Constable in The Hay Wain, which while painted in Suffolk, depicted a mill pretty much on the border with Essex.

Another of those mills is now for sale, and it's an idyllic place that's been the subject of a labour-of-love restoration. Strutt & Parker are handling the sale of The Mill House in Hartford End, with an asking price of £4.95 million.

This Georgian home dates to the late 18th century, with the buildings having long been recognised for their beauty and significance. The original house is Grade II-listed, while the watermill itself is Grade II*-listed — yet listing and condition don't always go hand in hand, and when owner Barry Mather bought it in 2013, it had been long neglected.

The main house was unloved rather than decrepit, but the watermill had lain essentially untouched for two centuries, with the roof said to be on the verge of collapse. Mather Barry brought in architects with experience of saving historic buildings, and worked with English Heritage to restore what could be saved and faithfully replicate what could not.

The result, as you see in the pictures here, is pretty spectacular.

The original Georgian house (on the right of the picture at the top of the page) and the brick-built watermill (on the left) were brought together as one building, more than doubling the floor space of the house. Inside, that means a change in character between one side — the traditional 18th century residence with high ceilings and beautiful windows — and the other, where the old mill's interior have been reimagined with modern fittings sitting alongside ancient beams and other original features.

Several of those original elements have been cleverly incorporated into the design. The white weatherboard lucam and winch — once used to haul wheat into the mill — are intact, as is a former hoist door in the centre of the the first floor façade. The latter is now in the principal bedroom, and a full-length glazed window installed into what would once have been a working opening, giving views of the River Chelmer from the bedroom’s sitting room.

The main bedroom is one of the house's real highlights — the agents describe it as 'having the feel of a five-star hotel — with its en-suite, two dressing rooms and seating area.

Equally impressive is the huge open plan kitchen, dining and living space below with ancient beams holding up the structure and giving huge character, particularly effective with the swish charcoal units setting off the wooden beams, exposed brickwork and white walls.

In total there are seven bedrooms in the house, and just under 7,800sq ft of living space. Almost all the rooms have views out over the river, though couple of bedrooms plus the sitting room and drawing room look out instead over the charming walled gardens.

What was once a hard-working mill has become a blissful country house, then; but this property is still also a hard-working spot, since the owners converted some of the many outbuildings into a series of office units.

It'd make the house an ideal place from which to run a small business — or they could potentially be repurposed for other uses. And if working from home is not for you, the benefit of being in Essex is that London is just over an hour away via road or rail.

The Mill House in Hartford End is for sale via Strutt & Parker at £4.95 million — see more details.

Sometimes, when we look at property, it’s easy to know where to start. It might be the unbeatable setting. It could be fascinating tales of past residents, or its literary links. Once in a blue moon it’s even the cooker.

But this house for sale at 40a Sussex Square in Brighton has us scratching our heads. Should we open up by discussing the fine architecture in one of the grandest Regency crescents in Britain, a place that’s been called home by Cate Blanchett and Nick Cave? How about the fact that there’s a secret tunnel from the residents’ garden direct to the beach, apparently a key inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Or should we kick things off with a love story featuring one of Britain’s greatest ever architects, and his wealthy patron?

Well, as John Lennon wrote, all you need is love. So let’s begin with the Sir Edwin Lutyens and Victoria Sackville-West, Baroness Sackville, old friends who came together in the early 1920s at a time when both of their marriages had floundered, and built a beautiful relationship. She called him McNed; he called her McSack. They travelled across Kent and Sussex visiting beautiful houses and gardens, talking for hours and developing a wonderful warm bond. Google their names and you’ll casually see them referred to as lovers, but that’s pure conjecture: ‘The two enjoyed a close relationship,’ says our architectural editor John Goodall, ‘though the loss of all their correspondence conceals its character.’

What we do know is that McSack was so close to McNed that — among other things — she bought him a Rolls-Royce, and employed a chauffeur to ferry him around in it. And when she bought a trio of adjacent townhouses in Sussex Square, she of course turned to Lutyens to remodel and convert them into a single, superbly-grand home. It’s this home which is for sale right now, although only a portion of it.

Lady Sackville’s wealth (the source of which is a story in itself) proved not enough to run a household of this size, and she sold it in 1923. Following that it was converted — as have almost all the buildings on Sussex Square — into separate dwellings. Hamptons quote a price of £1.4 million for this home, the price reflecting the fact that it’s not an apartment, but a three-storey townhouse with garden (‘A very rare find in an area dominated by flats!’ says the agent Martina Tizani).

Stepping inside, the hall follows the shape of a curved staircase and opens up to an area that could be used to relax or work in. Unusually, the master bedroom and en-suite bathroom are also on this ground floor, with views of the private walled garden at the front of the house. There are a further two bedrooms — both dual aspect — and a bathroom on the first floor.

The real heart of the home is the open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting area on the lower ground floor. Natural light floods through the skylights above, creating a bright and airy space.

This floor is an intriguing blend of historic charm and modern style. A central walkway runs through the middle, showcasing archways designed by Lutyens. The brickwork has been left ‘au naturel’, adding to the effect. On one side is a sitting and dining area, while on the other is a glossy, white, pared-back kitchen with a breakfast bar.

Rather amazingly, this entire area was lost for years beneath a concrete slab. An article in the Brighton Argus from 2016 describes its discovery, along with the original plans drawn up by Lutyens; you can see the later at a local history site focusing on Brighton’s Kemptown.

It was a years-long project to clear out the rubble that once stood here and open the building up again. ‘We had known the vault was there, filled with builders’ rubble and other material,’ the building’s owner, Ian Barr, said at the time. ‘But we hadn’t realised the significance of it until we found the drawings. We couldn’t believe it.’

The property is at the reverse of the building, looking over Bristol Place rather than Sussex Square itself, but the address is still listed as Sussex Square, and as such it comes with the one of the most coveted objects in Brighton: a key to the private residents’ garden.

As mentioned above, there’s a strong claim that Lewis Carroll’s ‘rabbit hole’ in Alice was inspired by this. One of his siblings apparently lived on Sussex Square, and Carroll is said to have come to stay regularly during his life. As with every claim, about everything ever, some dispute the whole story, instead insisting that the tunnel was inspired by a narrow passageway in Oxford, where Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson) lived and worked for most of his life. But as you can see here, the Brighton claim is seductive; the tunnel really is very ‘Alice-y’.

Either way, Sussex Square is a glorious place to live, with the lively, blending beautiful architecture, ‘steeped in history and blue plaques’ in the words of the agent, with charming gardens and access to the sea alongside a location that has the Bohemian attractions of Kemptown on the doorstep.

40a Sussex Square is for sale via Hamptons — see more details.

Living in Britain, the ancientness of things sometimes creeps up on you. Take golf: up in St Andrews, the New Course celebrated its 130th birthday this year. Or academia: New College, Oxford, was founded in 1379. As for the New Forest? The first trees were planted in 1079, on the orders of William the Conqueror.

In that context, it should be barely any surprise at all to hear that New Place Manor has been standing on the outskirts of the tiny West Sussex Town of Pulborough since the 13th century. It's currently for sale, with an asking price of £2.5 million.

No house, or building of any kind, survives for seven centuries without serious work being done along the way, and New Place Manor is no exception. It's been extended, repaired, upgraded, refurbished and improved many times throughout its life. Not the least of these dates to 1591: a stone archway, which was built when Queen Elizabeth I came to visit. Very unusally, it's Grade II-listed in its own right (the rest of the house is Grade II*-listed).

As well as the 16th century upgrades, the house was also added to significantly in the 18th century, and — as you can see from the pictures on this page — the present owners have done a fantastic job of beautifying the place.

It wears its stupendous age lightly, and you can only doff your hat to the owners for their eclectic design and decoration; this is a house that feels lived-in and welcoming, where the light pours through ancient stone windows on to very 21st century kitchen fittings, where a flat screen TV nestles discreetly beside a huge inglenook fireplace, and when a very 2020s polished copper bath is set in a loft space above the master bedroom, accessed by a Victorian wrought-iron spiral staircase. It's as charming an en-suite as we've seen this year.

Balancing the old and new isn't often done this well, and it's something the agents are proud of, calling it a 'rare and beautifully cohesive country house, combining architectural importance with a wonderfully warm, liveable atmosphere'.

For all that, New Place Manor is also very much a family house on a grand scale: with 6,000-plus square foot of space and seven bedrooms, it's ideal for big families, multi-generational living or simply people who love to have friends down for the weekend. Considering that it's walking distance from Pulborough station, with direct trains to London that take an hour and 20 minutes, you certainly won't be short of friends keen to take you up on the offer.

That proximity to London, of course, also makes it perfectly commutable; this really is a place that ticks all the boxes. No wonder people have been living in the place and keeping it so nicely for 700 years.

New Place Manor is for sale at £2.5 million via Knight Frank — see more details.

Devon — £300,000

Quite astonishing potential at this six-bedroom, Grade II-listed farmhouse in the village of Cotleigh, near Honiton. The price is incredibly attractive, as is the peaceful location in a quiet village with good access to the A30 a few miles away, and ultra-fast broadband for those thinking of part-time commuting.

The bad news? Well, the pictures say it all — huge amounts to be done here. And you'll need to have funds in place: the house is for sale via auction on February 9.

For sale via Auction House South West — see more details and pictures.

Wiltshire — £1.25 million

Not just a house — although a five-bedroom home is included — but an entire complex of buildings for sale, right in the centre of the Wiltshire town of Mere. It's been run as a dairy and a wine merchant in recent years, but this 19th century building has huge potential for all sorts of changes.

The work that needs doing varies by which of the buildings you look at; the main house is perfectly liveable, if in need of some TLC, while you tackle the rest and start up your new life.

For sale via Myddleton Major — see more details and pictures.

Scotland — £270,0000

Head to the agents' listing and you'll wonder why a house this grand is for sale so cheaply; but that's because it's a computer-generated vision of what this entirely dilapidated home will look like once it's finished. Planning permission is in place, but this is one for the brave: most of the roof is missing, for starters.

For sale via Emoov — see more details and pictures.

West Sussex — £350,000

The Witterings are among the most sought-after spots on the south coast, not far from Chichester and with the beautiful sandy beach at West Wittering on hand. This house in East Wittering is away from the crowds (and traffic) you'll hit in West Wittering, while being close enough to benefit.

It needs a lot of work, but the good news is that it appears most will be updating rather than structural fixes needed.

For sale via Astons of Sussex — see more details and pictures.

North Yorkshire — £350,000

The North Yorks Moors village of Egton is the site of this fine, five-bedroom home where — as you can see — a full renovation has been paused half-way through. If you're game for picking up where the current owners have left off, this could be a wonderful home in a village with charm and its own railway station.

It's also close to some wonderful places: Whitby, with its ruined abbey, beauitful harbour and fine beach, is one of the most dramatic and beautiful spots on the North Yorkshire coast, and just short drive or rail journey away.

For sale via Hendersons — see more details and pictures.

Suffolk — £300,000

In a village between Lowestoft — England's most easterly point — and Great Yarmouth, this former NHS property is being sold for refurbishment and conversion into a family home.

Once done it'll have four bedrooms, two large reception rooms and pretty grounds, in a location near the lakes and waterways of The Broads.

For sale via Minors & Brady — see more details and pictures.

Dumfries — £170,000

Scotland has a wealth of wonderful old church buildings in need of a saviour — we wrote about it last year — but for those not keen on the idea of starting from scratch, this five-bedroom 'house' could be ideal. It's been converted into a home already, but is in desperate need of some TLC.

It offers a vast amount of space for the money (over 4,000 sq ft) and has a lot of flexibility in how you use and arrange rooms, as well as gardens, parking and a delightful countryside location.

For sale via Your Move — see more details and pictures.

West Sussex — £1,500,000

Unlike the other homes on this list, this is no fixer-upper bargain for a first time buyer. But what it does offer is incredible potential to be a superb country house in a village between the extremely well-connected towns of Horsham and Haywards Heath.

There are nine bedrooms, some utterly wonderful rooms, a plethora of outbuildings, four acres of grounds... and some worrying-looking cracks in the walls. It'll need someone who knows what they're doing, but this could easily be an amazing country house once more.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

East Sussex — £3,500,000

Not just a house, but a full-on estate of 33 acres in the High Weald, with a stunning rural location (the picture really does say it all).

For those in a hurry this might be the ideal project: a lot of the house has already been refurbished, but many rooms still lie in a partially-finished state.

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

Every corner of Britain has an extraordinary wealth of ancient folk tales, but few as fascinating as the tale of Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst.

According to local lore, this pair of conjoined twins were born in 1100, joined both at the hip and at the shoulder. Not only did they survive to the age of 34 — surely an impressive feat for those living in the 12th century — but they also became well known, dubbed the 'Biddenden Maids' after the name of the village in which they were born, and where today the beautiful Vane Court is for sale. Its history doesn't go back quite as far as the days of the Biddenden Maids, but it's not far off: this seven-bedroom home in five acres of lands dates to 1419.

Mary and Eliza might easily have been lost to history had it not been for their generosity. Upon their deaths in 1134, they bequeathed five plots of land to the village, which became known as the ‘Bread and Cheese Lands’. The income from these parcels of land went on to provide food and drink to those in need every Easter, a tradition that continues in some form to the less fortunate residents of Biddenden to this very day.

The rich tradition of providing sanctuary to those in need seems to have made Biddenden an attractive place to live, especially to those in exile. Sir John Kotelawala was once Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) and, upon his electoral defeat in 1956, retired from politics and moved to the village in self-imposed exile.

An exile that was slightly less ‘self-imposed’ was that of Prajadhipok, otherwise known as Rama VII, King of Thailand (then known as Siam). After his abdication in 1935, Rama VII moved to the UK — first to Surrey and then, in 1937, to Vane Court, believed to be the oldest house in the village.

Now on the market with the Cranbrook and East Kent office of Savills for £5.5 million, the property could rightly be considered as being fit for a king. Rama VII and his wife, Queen Rambai Barni, were said to be extremely happy in the village, and were often seen ‘out and about’ on their bicycles and attending village fêtes.

But Rama VII could have been forgiven for staying at home, such is the beauty of Vane Court, itself described by Pevsner as ‘the only house in Biddenden of the Wealden type’ and now listed Grade II*.

The house actually came on to the market just over a couple of years ago, in September 2023, and was a victim of hugely unfortunate timing: that was the month that Britain's economy and housing market was sent spinning by the shortest-serving prime minister and chancellor the country has ever seen. Two years on, the property has been split into the house and gardens for £3.95 million, plus 62 further acres of land, which available by separate negotiation. The whole estate is priced at £5.5 million.

With seven bedrooms in total, Vane Court is today a stylishly presented family home with a raft of restored period features and elegant formal gardens surrounding the property. Though its oldest parts date back over 600 years there are some more recent additions in a home set over three floors with a central open courtyard space.

Upon entering the ground floor, visitors are greeted by the original entrance hall, as well as an oak staircase leading up to the bedrooms.

A sitting room is immediately to your right and the rest of the reception rooms flow to the left: first the dining room, then the kitchen/breakfast room and, finally, the family room, boot room and study completing the ‘C’ shape.

Upstairs, the seven bedrooms are laid out over two floors, with the master (The King’s) bedroom on the top floor — supposedly because of the royal custom that no head in the house could be higher than his.

As well as beautifully presented gardens and further paddocks that extend to some 67 acres, the gardens and grounds also feature a heated swimming pool and a tennis court, as well as a range of ancillary outbuildings and barns that could be converted, with the necessary consents.

A particular highlight is the water garden, known as The King’s Pond.

Vane Court is for sale via Savills for £5.5 million — see more pictures and details.

If you open up the satellite view on Google Maps and start having a look around the town of Hersham — one of the Surrey towns, along with Weybridge and Walton-on-Thames, which blend country feel with a location inside the M25 — one of the first thing you'll notice is a sort of dome-shaped residential area dotted with trees, houses and swimming pools. Lots and lots of swimming pools; we counted six houses in a row with their own.

Congratulations: you just came across the charmed enclave that is Burwood Park, once owned by the Guinness family, and home to many of the great and the good — not least motorsports star Bruce McLaren, who built a large six-bedroom family home here.

This prestigious address, a neighbourhood of mansions, is a leafy escape from the world, and privately-owned too. So much so, in fact, that the satellite view is as close as you get to this gated community, unless you're invited to visit, or are lucky enough to live here yourself. And an opportunity to do just that has come up in the form of one of the most prestigious homes on the estate: The Manor House, a ‘rare jewel of distinction and grace’ according to selling agents, Curchods, is on the market for £9,950,000.

Unlike nearby St George's Hill, which was purpose built by WG Tarrant in the early 20th century, Burwood Park has some truly old homes, and The Manor House is the oldest of the lot. The area was part of the royal hunting ground for Hampton Court in Tudor times — Henry VIII bought it, and much of the surrounding area, in 1540 — but when the Frederick family took it over in the 18th century it became a home.

The Grade II-listed Manor House house is believed to have been built by Sir John Frederick, a city merchant, in the mid-1700s. Since then, this house has played many roles including stints as a girls’ school and a school for deaf children. Today, it is a grand-looking eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion, with a striking, symmetrical façade and a portico entrance.

The Manor House is brimming with interesting architectural details inside, including elaborate plasterwork, grand columns, ornate fireplaces, and rooms of what the agents describe as ‘ambassadorial’ proportions.

Spanning more than 19,000 sq ft, it’s a house with a veritable Cluedo board of a floorplan: drawing room, dining room, sitting room, library, ballroom, kitchen and billiard room are all present and correct, but there are also more 21st century spaces: a wine store, gym, family room, several 'study suites', cinema room and a home office.

And naturally, because this is Burwood Park, there is a swimming pool, complete with a sauna off to one side.

Upstairs, there are six bedrooms on the first floor, all but one with ensuite bathrooms, but the main bedroom is the real show-stopped. Curchods describe it as ‘a retreat in itself', with two dressing rooms and a pair of 'spa-like' ensuite bathrooms.

The second floor has another gym, en-suite bedroom and a study, and a separate, self-contained apartment that could be used as staff accommodation, or for multi-generational living.

This is really quite a special home, and Warren Fraser, partner at Curchods, is undeniably pretty excited. 'More than a residence, The Manor House is a statment', read the details, and 'a masterpiece of timeless elegance' that is 'as inviting as it is impressive' and a place where ‘you can genuinely switch off’.

‘There are calm outlooks over the gardens, generous living spaces that work for both everyday family life and proper entertaining and over 4.5 acres of grounds that make being at home feel effortless,’ he adds, calling it a 'property is built for people who want privacy, space and the freedom to live on their own terms.’

It’s the type of home, Fraser adds, that’s just right for a buyer who ‘who values security, convenience and a self-contained lifestyle - whether that’s a growing family, a captain of industry working from home, or an international buyer wanting a secure UK base’.

The Manor House is for sale via Curchods — see more details.

'The Old Rectory' is the second-most expensive house name in Britain, according to research that Savills published last year. Sitting behind only 'The Manor House', the 355 Old Rectories that had sold in the preceding years had fetched an average price of £1.3 million.

It's not hard to see why. Many rectories are products of the Georgian and early Victorian age of architecture, with large, beautiful rooms, extensive gardens and charmingly graceful lines. The rectors themselves might be long gone — the church's wealth today being a fraction of what it was in an era when pretty much anyone and everyone attended a weekly service — but the houses they left behind are enormously popular, whether they keep their name or not. When you see a place like Oakley House — on sale with a guide price of £2.45 million — it's not hard to understand why.

Situated in Hampshire, a couple of miles north of Jane Austen's home village of Steventon, Oakley House is the old rectory in the village of that name that's just six miles from Basingstoke, and thus eminently commutable to London. Basingstoke itself might not be the prettiest of towns, but many of the villages around it have plenty of charm and Oakley is just such a place, with a number of imposing period houses in the conservation area at its core.

Oakley House is a classic Georgian rectory, set in just under one and a half acres of delightful gardens and grounds. While it's in the heart of the village, those gardens surround the house, and are ringed by tightly clipped yew hedges that provide privacy and seclusion.

Inside it's exactly as you might imagine. Of particular note are the full-height sash windows in the drawing room and snug, which underline the house’s Georgian credentials.

The house offers 4,487sq ft of free-flowing living space on two main floors, including four good reception rooms, six bedrooms and four bathrooms.

A stable block with pleasing period detail has planning consent to convert to ancillary accommodation to the main house.

There is also a traditional brick built garage for which planning consent was granted for its replacement by a green oak framed garage block, although that permission has now lapsed.

Oakley House is for sale via Strutt & Parker — see more details.

The beautiful Beaulieu River and the prestigious 7,000-acre estate that takes its name are two of the jewels in Hampshire’s crown. A series of secluded properties built on the waterfront in Dock Lane, Beaulieu, from the early 20th century onwards are among the most sought-after in the county and one of the earliest examples, The Rookery, is now on the market. George Clarendon of Knight Frank in Winchester is handling the sale, at a guide price of £5.25 million.

The Rookery is one of the original six houses were sanctioned by John, 2nd Baron Montagu (1866–1929), the grandfather of the present owner and a motoring pioneer, between 1909 and 1914. They’ve been much sought after ever since — as have other properties along the river, where from the 1920s wealthy industrialists, businessmen and architects built holiday homes with private moorings overlooking the water and surrounded by the woods of the estate.

Today, meandering Dock Lane is lined by no fewer than 54 houses and is listed by property website Zoopla as the most expensive street in Hampshire, where the average cost of a home was reckoned at £3,670,466 in February 2021; one of them, the 1930s Tudor-style Spearbed Copse, — owned by the Showering family of Babycham fame — came to the market in 2016 with a guide price of £8m, and which puts into perspective the asking price for The Rookery. It might have less than two acres of land, but this is a coveted location that commands a premium.

Approached via a long gravel driveway, The Rookery was constructed in 1909 in the Arts-and-Crafts style. Beautifully maintained by its current owners during their 25-year tenure, the main house offers 3,419sq ft of light and cheerful living space, including an entrance hall, dining room, sitting room, billiard room, study and a newly built kitchen on the ground floor.

Above, there are five bedrooms, three shower rooms and a family bathroom on the first floor.

Period features, including Crittall windows and open fireplaces, abound throughout. Further accommodation is provided in a large, three-room outbuilding, once used as a cottage. There is also a double garage.

Outside, the garden is laid mainly to lawn, with a south-facing terrace leading off the main reception rooms. A sheltered pool and pool house are perfect for summer days. A flight of stone steps leads down to the garden and through a secure gate to a further lawned area and the jetty that offers direct access to the Beaulieu River.

All this beauty sits at the heart of one of England’s great landed estates. Beaulieu can trace its origins to 1204, when King John gave the land to monks of the Cistercian order. The Abbey they founded grew in size and status until the Dissolution in 1538, when the Beaulieu estate was surrendered to the Crown and sold that same year to Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, a direct ancestor of the Montagu family that still owns it.

The estate is situated on the southern fringe of the New Forest National Park and occupies a glorious elevated setting overlooking the picturesque Beaulieu River, which rises near Lyndhurst in the heart of the New Forest. It then flows south across heathland to the village of Beaulieu, where it becomes tidal and passes the hamlet of Buckler’s Hard before entering the Solent at Needs Ore.

The river has been key to the development of the Beaulieu estate by successive owners, among them John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, who founded the ship-building village of Buckler’s Hard in the 1720s — now the setting for the prestigious Buckler’s Hard Yacht Harbour and marina.

The Rookery is on the market via Knight Frank in Winchester at £5.25 million — see more details.

A few miles north of Colchester on the Essex-Suffolk border, Daryl Parr of Jackson-Stops is handling the sale — at a guide price of £1.6m — of Grade II*-listed Rochfords in Fordham Road, Wormingford, which takes its name from its 13th-century owner Roger de Rocheford.

The house itself is not quite that old, but it's not far off, having originally been built in two phases in the 15th and 16th centuries, modified and updated in the 18th century, and then meticulously modernised and redecorated by its latest owners. Or joint owners, actually: the vendors are two families who moved to Rochfords from London five years ago.

The upshot is that the 2025 incarnation of this property is as an exquisite small manor house that offers 5,070 sq ft of characterful living space. There are five reception rooms, two kitchens and six to seven reception rooms, with gated access, ample parking and a four-bay garage with a studio above.

The present timber-frame and plastered house was re-styled, inside and out, in the early 18th century — the parapet was added at that point, and some of the medieval eaves removed, but the house retains many of its essential medieval features.

As a result of all this building across the centuries, the Rochfords' listing page at Historic England is a true marvel of arcane and technical architectural language. 'The bridging-joists have diminished haunches and soffit spurs,' we're told, while 'the service bay was roofed as a crosswing.' Three further parts enjoy the protection of 'a heavily timbered side purlin roof, well windbraced.'

Words as beautiful as they are obscure, and we've made a note to ask John Goodall about all this next time he ventures into the office.

The setting is just as lovely as the h house sits well back from the road in some 2¼ acres of partly-moated, landscaped grounds, less than a mile from the hedgerows and wildflower meadows of the Dedham Vale National Landscape.

Rochfords is for sale via Jackson-Stops at £1.6 million — see more details and pictures.

There's something unmatchably romantic about the idea of having an island of your own. And while many that come up for sale these days are either dots on the map in the Caribbean or pristine white-sand havens in the Hebrides, there are exceptions.

One of those is Darnet Fort, an island on the River Medway — within the great arc of the Thames Estuary — that is going under the hammer via Savills, with a guide price of just £50,000.

It is, in other words, a place where you could conceivably build a home, and commute to the City via speedboat. Though a lot of work needs to be done first.

The Thames Estuary is dotted with small islands, going from the large — the Isle of Sheppey is over 23,000 acres — to tiny sandbanks which only appear at low tide. Though some are large enough to have been settled, most too remote or marshy to have practical use, and are uninhabited. Darnet Fort was an exception, thanks to its strategic location on the River Medway, downstream from the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham.

In the second half of the 19th century, with tension rising between Britain and France as Napoleon III took power across the Channel, Britain strengthened its sea defences across much of the country, and as part of that Darnet and nearby Hoo Island were turned into forts to offer protection to the vital base upstream at Chatham. Built between 1870 and 1872, Fort Darnet was originally designed for two tiers of guns mounted in a circle, with a boom strung between them — though rising construction costs meant that the boom was never implemented. Plus ça change.

To man the guns, the fort was built large enough to house a garrison of 100 men, and while it was used for gunnery practice it was decommissioned a few years later. It did briefly find use again, as an observation post in the Second World War.

The agents report that the fort 'is still in fair condition', though they note that, at present, the magazine level, originally used for storing ammunition, is flooded. It's also worth noting that Darnet Fort is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979; there is, as yet, no permission in place for development or alternative use — something which contributes to the very low guide price of £50,000. The existing owners have held the freehold for 40 years, using it for sunny afternoons of picnicking on their own island, but there's no doubt more could be done.

Could it be changed? Should it? Could you turn the place into an off-grid haven, from which you could get into central London, 25 miles or so away, on your own boat? Or perhaps helicopter? In theory all these things are possible, but there will be big hurdles to be cleared first. Good luck to all those who bid; we're fascinated to see what happens next.

Darnet Fort is being auctioned by Savills on December 10 — see more details.

North Yorkshire — £2.25 million

Ten bedrooms and almost 9,000sq ft of space is on offer at this secluded and elegant country house, set a few miles from Leyburn.

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

Hampshire — £7.95 million

Proof that a new country house can be as charming as an old one — and with far less of the maintenance problems. This Georgian-style house set in 22 acres near Odiham has six bedrooms, glorious views and permission to erect a separate, four-bedroom cottage.

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

Hertfordshire — £1 million

An object lesson in blenind old and new at this five-bedroom house in Buntingford, where a 17th century, Grade II-listed house has been brought brilliantly into 2025. There are four reception rooms, 2,280sq ft of space and a third of an acre of charming mature gardens.

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

Devon — £2 million

A 275-year-old mill that offers not just a comfortable family home, but also a lifestyle business with five holiday cottages on this 4.6 acre site.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Devon — £1.8 million

Quite simply a beautifully built, furnished and finished home near Membury, with magnificently bucolic setting, four-poster beds, free-standing baths and gorgeous gardens.

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

Derbyshire — £4 million

Lovingly landscaped gardens meet a spacious and open house in a fine country setting, with two triple garages, 23 acres of paddocks and a separate studio annexe.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

In the tiny hamlet of Countess Cross, a mile from Colne Engaine in the lovely Colne Valley, is the picturesque, 163-acre Over Hall estate — a place where you can happily mix country life and city life. The former owner, in fact, did just that: Over Hall's late owner, Michael Lambert, combined a career in the City with a passion for farming and the countryside, and spend 40 years assembling the estate. It's now for sale via Barclay Macfarlane of Savills Country Department, at a guide price of £4.75m for the whole, or in five lots.

Described by Savills as ‘a rare gem in the Essex countryside’, the estate is just eight miles from Kelvedon station on the busy Great Eastern Main Line — a 50-minute train ride to London Liverpool Street — and 11 miles west of the Roman city of Colchester.

The elegant, Grade II-listed Regency main house is lot 1, on offer at a guide price of £2.5m, and comprising the house and just under 13 acres of gardens and grounds, plus extensive outbuildings, garaging for 12 vehicles, a traditional barn, multiple stores and an estate office with potential for conversion to staff accommodation.

Built in 1831 of Flemish-bond red brick under a slate roof in the classically symmetrical Regency style, Over Hall boasts twin verandahs and a central portico, a spacious entrance hall with a galleried landing and flagstone floors.

There are four good reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, two original staircases, six bedrooms and three bathrooms — some 5,343sq ft of easy living space in all.

Leisure facilities include a swimming pool, tennis court, five-box stable block and tranquil landscaped gardens with terraces, rose beds, a spring-fed pond and a charming walled garden with a crinkle-crankle wall and a thatched summerhouse.

Lot 2 is a pair of semi-detached farm cottages, priced at £800,000.

Lot 3, on offer at £500,000, is a block of 53¾ acres of arable land currently cropped with winter wheat and farmed under a farm business tenancy (FBT) by a neighbouring farmer. It includes two blocks of land under country stewardship, interspersed with areas of woodland that could form the basis of a fun family shoot.

Lot 4, for sale with a guide of £450,000, is a compact, 44¾-acre block of land and wood-land on Over Hall Hill, also farmed under an FBT. Part of the land is arable, with oilseed rape currently growing, and, in the water-meadows, cricket-bat willows are grown under contract for J. S. Wright of Chelmsford.

Lot 5, guided at £500,000, is a compact block of arable and woodland lying next to the Countess Cross to Pebmarsh road, part of which is currently cropped with winter wheat and part in a countryside stewardship scheme.

The Over Hall Estate is for sale via Savills — see more details.