There are few towns of any significant size in the middle of the deserts of southern California. But there's one in particular that you'll have heard of, tucked in between the San Jacinto mountains and the Joshua Tree National Park.

Its name is Palm Springs, and it became one of the greatest A-lister hotspots of the 20th century. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Cary Grant, Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are among those who flocked here at the height of their fame, and its reputation still rides high today.

It was Hollywood's stars that started the influx, in large part because Palm Springs promised endless sunshine, a refuge from press photographers, and (crucially) was close enough to Los Angeles to meet the requirements of the Two-Hour Rule, which required film stars to ensure they always stayed close enough to Hollywood to get back for re-shoots within a couple of hours. The movie stars may have started it, but the rest of the A-list came with them: anyone who was anyone in show business in the 1950s and 60s made Palm Springs part of their life.

With a list of former residents like that, it's pretty much impossible to pick out a name worthy of top billing. But what we can say for definite is that only one of Palm Springs's illustrious former residents has a 26ft statue in the town, and only one of those names recently had over 1,000 impersonators hit the streets of the town to celebrate what would have been their 100th birthday. That person is Marilyn Monroe.

Monroe's career was tied to Palm Springs almost since the start. She first came here in the late 1940s as a down-on-her-luck wannabe, with early promise turning into disappointment as a couple of her contracts were cancelled. And it was here that her luck changed, beginning her rise to become the biggest movie star in the world.

She didn't stop once she made it, coming back again and again, going to parties, rubbing shoulders with movie stars and presidents. And one of the homes she's said to have lived in, known locally as the Marilyn Monroe Doll House, is currently on the market at $3.3 million.

Palm Springs is full of interesting modern architecture, and while The Doll House isn't celebrated as the likes of Richard Neutra's Kaufmann house, or Frank Sinatra's house withs its legendary piano-shaped swimming pool, it's still a fine example of a classic mid-century home in this desert enclave.

It's generously-sized for a four-bedroom house, at just under 3,000 square feet, and the whole place seems flooded with light, thanks to a clean white interior scheme and the huge windows, which afford wonderful views of the nearby mountains.

Those features and its location in the sought-after Vista Las Palmas neighbourhood give the place an asking price of $3.3 million — around £2.5 million — which from what we can see looks entirely in keeping with similarly-sized hopes nearby. You can consider the Marilyn Monroe connection an added bonus, rather than something that has impacted the price.

As for the strength of that connection? Well, stories of Monroe's days in Palm Springs are the stuff of legend. It's here that her career took off, thanks to a photoshoot by Bruno Bernard — the man dubbed 'Bernard of Hollywood' — at the legendary Palm Springs Racquet Club, which led to Monroe's career taking off just when it looked like it had stalled. The agent Johnny Hyde and the legendary film director Howard Hawks both met Monroe at the club, ending up with her breakthrough role in The Asphalt Jungle, and her iconic turn in Gentleman Prefer Blondes which made her the biggest female lead in Hollywood.

As ever with Monroe, however, unpicking fact from fiction isn't always easy. One of the tales told about the town is that it was here the actress had her fling with President John F. Kennedy — but it's a story that's hard to pin down, requiring a couple of big leaps of logic, timing and faith to extrapolate an illicit tryst from a phone call asking about a back massage. Did she have an affair with JFK, and for that matter his brother, Bobby Kennedy? Quite possibly, indeed quite probably, but nobody can prove it one way or the other, and nobody is worried about questioning it either way in 2026.

The same could be said for Monroe's life at the Doll House itself. An article in the Desert Sun in 2016 argued that Monroe never lived here, and couldn't possibly have done so while married to Joe DiMaggio (as several of the stories suggest) because the house wasn't even built until 1961. That's six years after Monroe had split from the her baseball-playing second husband, and just a year or so before her death.

None of that proves that Monroe didn't stay in the house, but the fascinating question is whether or not it really matters if she did or not. A decade on from what was a pretty well-sourced debunking of several Monroe-related myths, you'll still find plenty of sources referring to 1326 N Rose Avenue as Marilyn Monroe's Palm Springs home. One person who doesn't is David Emerson, the agent handling the sale, whose listing cleverly refers to it only as the 'internationally recognized [sic] architectural residence known as the Marilyn Monroe Doll House'.

The questions that swirl around Marilyn Monroe's life put me in mind of another iconic figure we recently featured in Country Life whose life entwines truth and fiction: Lawrence of Arabia. The celebrated soldier undoubtedly performed many heroic deeds, but — equally undoubtedly — much of what he's credited with is bolstered, embellished or entirely made up. Yet despite the fact that his more far-fetched claims have been repeatedly debunked for a century or so, Lawrence's star never really seems to fall.

One of the first writers to make Lawrence famous, the American reporter Lowell Thomas, once asked his subject outright about the veracity of some of his more fantastical exploits. Lawrence apparently 'laughed with glee', according to Richard Adlington's 1955 biography, 'and replied, "History isn't made up of truth anyway, so why worry?"'

The Marilyn Monroe Doll House at 1326 N. Rose Avenue, Palm Springs, is for sale through Coldwell Banker — see more details.

Who wouldn’t love their address to be ‘The Close, Salisbury’ — one of the most sought after in the South-West of England, right on the green that houses Salisbury Cathedral.

It's a quite magnificent building, with a soaring spire that's the tallest in Britain — at 4-404ft high, it's some 40ft higher than St Paul's Cathedral — and is the medieval masterpiece that was the primary inspiration for Ken Follett's classic novel The Pillars of the Earth.

No 28, The Close — for sale with Myddleton & Major at £1.35 million — is a rare find. It looks straight out across to the cathedral itself, and sits alongside an eclectic mix of historic properties in the heart of the largest cathedral close in the country: 80 acres, securely locked at night, and with its own security team. Unusually, too, for this location, the house is freehold.

The house itself is extremely pretty and characterful, partly tile-hung, and with bay windows that offer fantastic views of the cathedral itself. Unsurprisingly, the current inhabitants have arranged the space so that one of the two sitting rooms is on the first floor, making the most of that view across the green.

What the current owners haven't done, however, is modernise this house: it's something of a timewarp, with the carpets, curtains and fittings a step back in time to the 1950s.

That's not to say it isn't cared for — quite the opposite — and it's all the more charming for its retro vibe. What happens next will be a decision for whoever takes it on

There are four bedrooms, one of the first floor, with en-suite bathroom, and three on the second floor, which share a bathroom. There's a further family bathroom on the first floor, opening up the possibilty for larger families to turn the firs floor sitting room into a bedroom.

There is a tiny garden to the front, but that's eclipsed by the one at the back that is mainly laid to lawn, and offers an enviable amount of outside space considering that this is a house in the centre of a medieval city centre.

And on that note, the house even has its own parking space on the road — not that you'd need to drive much. A few moments on foot take you through the archways linking the cathedral close to the rest of Salisbury, where you'll find a wealth of independent shops, cafés and restaurants.

For sale through Myddleton & Major — see more details.

Every day's a schoolday at Country Life. In the past few weeks I've discovered that the world's oldest sweetshop was opened in Yorkshire when the Duke of Wellington still ran the Armes Forces; that Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones lived (and died) in A.A. Milne's farm in Sussex; and that dung beetles can move 1,000 times their own weight, which is equivalent to a horse being able to pull along a blue whale.

And today? Today I learned who the greatest polo player of all time is: Adolfo Cambiaso. This new fact brings up to two the number of things I know about polo, the first being that it's played on horseback. The Argentinian superstar maintained a 10-goal handicap for two decades (this is good, apparently), won every trophy in the sport multiple times, and did so while looking like an impossibly dashing cad who's escaped from the pages of a Jilly Cooper novel.

All this I discovered thanks to the appearance on the property market of the rather extraordinary Emsworth Polo Grounds, an outrageously elite, 72-acre estate just outside Windsor. The great Cambiaso has regularly used the place as his training base while in England, according to the agents, UK Sotheby's International Realty, who go on to describe Emsworth as 'one of the most complete and significant private sporting estates to ever reach the open market in the United Kingdom.' The asking price is £20 million.

What really marks the place out is that Emsworth was built from scratch as the perfect polo property, rather than having facilities tacked on to an existing country estate. It was the brainchild of the current vendors, Simon and Romilla Arber, who came here two decades ago and built the whole place. They also built up the Four Quarters Polo squad at the same time, whose players secured a record-breaking fifth Royal Windsor Cup in 2024. And all while raising their children right here as well. 'Emsworth Polo Grounds is not simply a residence with equestrian features,' says Jessica Moreton of Sotheby's. 'It’s a legacy private polo estate wrapped in a deeply moving family diary.'

The polo facilities include training grounds, two clubhouses and six stable blocks, capable of housing 120 horses, but the property goes far beyond just the equestrian facilities.

The impressive GoDown House, a five-bedroom home, is at the heart of it all. Swish, modern and stylish, this is for the Arbers the 'emotional heart of the estate', with its panoramic views across the paddocks and polo fields.

There is also a seven-bedroom gatehouse, an American barn with first-floor flats and two studios. In total these extra buildings provide 18 bedrooms — ideal as living quarters for managers, world-class grooms, and, of course, visiting international superstars of the world of polo.

Agent Alex Isidro also points out how rare it is to find an estate of this size and type in one of the most sought-after spots just outside London. 'Given how strictly protected the Windsor-Ascot corridor is from new development, finding a fully built estate like this is nearly impossible today,' he says.

Emsworth Polo Grounds — for sale through UK Sotheby's International Realy. See more details.

Where is it?

Wiltshire, on the edge of the Marlborough Downs.

A quick description

A late-18th-century Grade II- listed hunting box built from mellow Bath stone with a Georgian bow front, set in 70 acres of fields and ancient woodland.

How did you find it?

We’d been looking for a country bolthole for years and found it in 2013 through a buying agent. The search took us all over the countryside, but I grew up nearby and when we first saw it, it said ‘save me’.

Any challenges?

There were various hurdles put up by the vendor, but I was determined that I was going to get it.

Favourite aspect of the house?

It feels happy, has amazing light and I love the peacefulness. It actually stands not far from the motorway, but it feels very rural.

Best memory of living there?

All the lovely parties we’ve hosted.

Biggest mistake?

I underestimated how much money I would need to fix the house. It was last decorated in the 1980s when someone had the idea of creating a restaurant with rooms, so there were exit signs, strip lighting and an acre of bright-red nylon carpet to remove.

Biggest indulgence?

My bedroom. It’s huge, with enough room for two sofas. I wake up and still can’t quite believe that I live here.

Sophie Conran is a designer, cook and gardener. Her eponymous home and lifestyle brand includes a collection of sofas handmade in the UK. On September 11, 2026, Salthrop Manor will host the Rare Plant Fair.

This feature originally appeared in the August 5, 2026, print edition of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.

The Forest of Dean in west Gloucestershire forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north-west, Herefordshire to the north, the Severn to the south and the city of Gloucester to the east. It covers an area of more than 42 square miles and in medieval times was a royal hunting ground, the second largest Crown forest in the country after the New Forest. Renowned for the quality of its timber, it is small wonder that the materials for many fine houses in this part of Gloucestershire were taken from the Forest of Dean, where forestry was a primary source of work.

Described in Pevsner’s The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire as one of the finest timber-frame farmhouses in the county, Grade II*-listed Pound Farm in the hamlet of Tillers Green, near Dymock in the Forest of Dean, four miles from Ledbury on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border, is for sale through Phil Bates of Savills in Cheltenham at a guide price of £3.5 million.

Owners Angela and Glyn Miles were looking to move with their beloved horses from Worcestershire sheep-farming country to a new home in the Cotswolds, when, in 2009, they saw an advert for the run-down and ramshackle Pound Farm.

Following advice from English Heritage, the SPAB and architectural historian Richard Morriss, they bought the property, which dates from about 1530, with its tumble-down buildings and historic carp-lake that was once farmed by the monks of nearby Flaxley Abbey. They then embarked on a painstaking restoration and renovation of the property.

Owned by the influential Cam family for more than 200 years, Pound Farm was once a copyhold estate of Dymock Manor.

Today, the farmhouse, set in 58 acres of formal gardens, pasture and paddocks, offers 7,966 sq ft of comfortable living space on three floors, including three fine reception rooms and a beautiful country kitchen with a cream Aga, stone floor and exposed beams.

There are four bedrooms, all generously-sized — particularly the opulent master suite, with a four-poster bed, an en-suite that has a free-standing bath and a chaise longue, and a dressing room with a fantastic purple and gold colour scheme which for some reason reminded us of the classic Disney animation Beauty and the Beast.

The landscaped gardens, by Chelsea Gold-medal winner Jacquie Gordon, include a sheltered courtyard and circular belvedere with views over the lake.

Ancillary accommodation includes a two-bedroom barn and a separate carriage house.

Palatial equestrian facilities include four large stables that were rebuilt, brick by brick, from the ruins of an ancient barn and a 60m by 30m outdoor arena.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shropshire — £1,650,000

Once the local rectory, this beautiful country home — the oldest parts of which date to the 17th century — is secluded and completely charming and, thanks to the Georgian façade on the newer half, suitably grand. Six acres and six bedrooms, outbuildings, garage, annexe and even a folly in the garden complete the picture.

For sale via Balfours — see more details and pictures.

Berkshire — £7,000,000

A breathtaking 12-bedroom country house set in 31 acres. It's beautifully kept, full of original features and has an element of grandeur — the curving staircase lit from above by a glass dome being a perfect example.

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

Buckinghamshire — £1,525,000

Superb value on offer at this 17th cenury cottage, with five bedrooms, wonderful gardens and within walking distance of a station that gets to central London in 39 minutes.

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

Berkshire — £14,500,000

Some 12,000 sq ft of space at this immaculate, wonderfully-renovated country house in Kintbury.

There's a gym, a lake — with seating area set out in on a sort of jetty — and the sort of poolhouse you'd see in a romantic boutique hotel.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Cambridgeshire — £750,000

In a village on the outskirts of Peterbrough, this is a house of two halves: thatched cottage at the front, brick and tiled at the back, showing its evolution over the centuries.

Plenty of work is needed but the character features are wonderful, and the large garden full of potential.

For sale via Norton Rickett — see more details and pictures.

Rendcombe Park state has origins that pre-date the Norman Conquest and it is true to say that few places in the Cotswolds can match it for the depth of its history. Prominently located on the high ground of the scenic Churn valley, some six miles north of Cirencester within the Cotswolds National Landscape, Rendcomb Park has, over the centuries, passed through a succession of powerful landowning families.

Then, in 1918, it was acquired by the educational philanthropist Frederick Noel Wills, who set out to create a school that would give talented young boys initially (girls from 1972), regardless of their means, access to an exceptional education. Two years later, in June 1920, Rendcomb College welcomed its first pupils.

In July 2026, the school finally succumbed to financial pressures that ultimately proved insurmountable and Rendcomb College reluctantly closed its doors. Consequently, Country Life this week sees the launch onto the market of the 230-acre Rendcomb Park estate, with its Grade II*-listed mansion house, picturesque Grade II-listed stable block, historic parkland, ancient woodland, deer park and playing fields, plus a total of 190,000 sq ft of accommodation. Rupert Sturgis of Knight Frank in Cirencester quotes a ballpark figure of £20 to £30 million for the estate as a whole, although proposals for individual parts will also be considered.

The manor of Rendcomb was owned in the 12th century by Robert de la Mare and remained in the de la Mare family until 1503, when it was sold to Edmund Tame of Fairford. It later passed through the Berkeley family before being acquired by Sir William Guise of Elmore and it remained in the Guise family until 1864, when Sir John Wright Guise sold the historic farming estate to banker Sir Francis Goldsmid, who was MP for Reading.

Sir Francis swiftly replaced the ‘substantial mansion of plain design’ built by Sir John Guise in about 1685, with the present grand, 55,000sq ft, five-storey Italianate mansion designed by London architect Philip Hardwick, built in 1866 by Thomas Cubitt and set in 129 acres of formal gardens and parkland, which together form the core of the present estate.

Contemporary elements added by Sir Francis include the massive stable courtyard with its tall tower, built in the French Renaissance style and completed in 1867, and the Grade II-listed ornamental bridges that carry the south drive over the village road and the River Churn.

Located away from the main campus in the south-east corner of the estate, the 7¾-acre stable complex comprises a distinctive group of buildings centred on the former stable yard.

At its heart is the 10,334 sq ft stable block, a striking Cotswold stone building arranged around a central courtyard. Immediately surrounding the stable block are a number of residential buildings and facilities and, to the east, a further group of four Cotswold cottages is separated by garden plots, all of which adds up to some seven acres.

Sir Francis died in 1878 and was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Julian Goldsmid, who, in 1883, sold the Rendcomb Park estate with 4,775 acres of land to James Taylor, a cotton manufacturer from Bradford. The estate later passed to James Herbert Taylor, who sold off most of the land in 1914. The estate then passed to a syndicate of owners who oversaw its eventual break up.

Dominated for centuries by the big house and estate of the Guise family, in the 20th century, Rendcomb village was gradually assimilated into the 9½-acre central campus of Rendcomb College and, by 1978, the school owned most of the village, with the houses mainly occupied by its employees. A period of expansion in the 1960s saw the addition of purpose-built buildings in the mansion-house grounds, including houses for the headmaster and other staff members.

In 1967, a new Arts block was added. A boarding house was built on the north side of the house in the early 1970s, followed by a new sports hall in the upper village in 1978. The result is a cohesive and active campus, combining built form with open space and landscaped areas.

The final piece of the Rendcomb Park jigsaw is the 76¾-acre park in the quiet northern part of the estate, an area of playing fields, pasture and ancient woodland.

Here, the only buildings are a lone Cotswold-stone cottage set among mature trees, a sports pavilion serving the adjoining playing fields and maintenance and storage buildings that provide operational support to the entire estate.

The Rendcomb Park Estate is for sale with Knight Frank in Cirencester — contact the agent for more details.

The name's La Gaeta. Villa La Gaeta. But you'll know it better as the house where James Bond finished his Casino Royale adventure, a glorious palace perched above the impossibly blue waters of Lake Como. This was the house used for the final scenes of the 2006 film, which marked Daniel Craig's debut as James Bond — and thus it was the house that subverted one of the great 007 traditions. Instead of sailing off into the post-film credits with the latest Bond Girl® on his arm, the grim-faced super-spy instead smirks his name at a dying villain. Classic stuff, and no wonder Craig would go on to become the longest-serving actor to play Ian Fleming's hero.

Villa La Gaeta itself proved just as unforgettable as Craig's performance, instantly becoming one of the most recognisable locations used in the entire series — along with the likes of James Bond Island in Thailand. And a chance to live in the villa has now come along through Sotheby's International Realty at a guide price range of €1.2-1.4 million, or roughly £1.1 million.

Before you get on the phone to your mortgage broker, bear in mind that the purchase price isn't for the entire villa. This iconic building, built in 1921 and demonstrating a mix of Gothic Revival and Art Nouveau elements, was split in to five apartments in 2011, and the property that's up for sale at the moment is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom place.

The apartment entrance is on the ground floor of the villa's annexe, and split over two levels. Upon entering you'll find a living area which opens onto a magnificent terrace that has a panoramic view of the lake, while there's also a fully-equipped kitchen, double bedroom and a bathroom.

The lower level has French doors opening directly onto the villa's marina, as well as a further double bedroom with bathroom, and an additional space that could be used as a dressing room or study.

It's also a home where, in true James Bond style, you can bring your Aston Martin, your Ferrari, and your speedboat. A couple of parking spaces are included, while you also have access to the jetty and your own designated boat mooring within the villa's small marina.

Needless to say you'll also enjoy use of the spectacular communal gardens and swimming pool. As well as the views of the lake and mountains that surround it, this is a beautiful natural oasis with plenty of rare, exotic plants, and there are steps down to the villa's private beach.

For sale via Italy Sotheby's International Realty — 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

It's easy nowadays to laugh at the 1960s television adaptation of Batman. Seen through a 2020s lens, it's easy to take the kitsch, colourful, wildly overacted show at face value — something I did as a kid, as did all my friends — and poke fun at the whole thing.

The show's creators and stars, though, were in on the joke right from the start. Ludicrous plotlines. Farcical pseudo-science. Adam West's unflinchingly deadpan delivery. This was a classic piece of 1960s satire that delighted in making every joke possible — at the expense of its comic book source material, the very notion of superheroes, TV detective shows, and indeed 1960s society as a whole.

Subsequent incarnations of Batman, and in particular the films helmed by Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, have darkened the mood and played things straight. In a world full of bleakness and wannabe-strongmen political leaders who convince themselves (and, depressingly, others) of their own legends, I'm not sure that Burton, Nolan et al have done us much good.

One thing about Batman's world has remained unchanged, though: the stately home where his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne, lives. Wayne Manor has been played by plenty of different country houses over the years, including a couple (Knebworth and Wollatton) that are in England. Neither of those will be up for sale any time soon, but the original Wayne Manor from the 1960s show is up for sale right now — and it's priced at $32 million, or around £24 million.

'Wayne Manor' may not have the aristocratic ring of 'Wollaton Hall', but it's a considerably more romantic name than the house's real-life moniker, 380 S San Rafael Avenue, in Pasadena, a northern suburb of Los Angeles. The name may not have the ring of an English country home, but an awful lot else about the place hits the spot.

This really is quite the place: 18,655 sq ft, seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and just under five acres of land — enough to almost convince you that you're out in the countryside.

In a sense, you are: the house actually backs on to the Arroyo Seco park, the largest green space in the area, which has several hundred acres set up for hiking, running, cycling, picnicking, golf and more — not something that you'll find in many LA neighbourhoods.

The house itself is just as much of a pleasant surprise: it's absolutely extraordinary, built in the 1920s in mock Tudor style, with leaded, stone-mullioned windows, the same mix of brick and stone walls you'd find at Hampton Court, and even castellations on parts of the roof.

There's intricate carved timber, marble flooring, wood-panelling, open fires and gothic touches. The interiors weren't used for the filming — and thus, sadly, there is no Batcave in the cellar — but it's a shame, for they're even more impressive than the ones put together in the studio back in the day. Like the television show that was once made here, this house is pure pastiche — yet it's irresistible.

All this comes at a cost, naturally: it's the most expensive house for sale in Pasadena at the moment by an order of magnitude, and should it achieve the asking price it'll beat its own record as the most expensive ever to be sold in this suburb. Batman may have been made with tongues firmly in cheeks, but selling agent Peter Owens is deadly serious: 'This singular estate is more than a home,' he says. It is 'one of the most extraordinary residential offerings in Southern California... and an exceptionally rare opportunity to acquire what many would consider the finest legacy property in the city.'

380 S San Rafael Street is for sale through Peter Owens of Christie's Internaional Real Estate — see more details.

Few novelists have as great a talent for creating believable fictional homes as Daphne du Maurier. The obvious example is Manderley, the unforgettable house in the classic Rebecca — a 1938 book which has been filmed several times, not least in Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning classic.

Hitchcock located Manderley in Cornwall, but the county is never specified in the book — and that's perhaps unsurprising when you learn that Manderley was based on multiple real-life houses in different parts of Britain.

Before she wrote Rebecca, however, came du Maurier's earlier success, Jamaica Inn, a tale in which several of the locations were firmly rooted in reality. Jamaica Inn itself, for example, is a centuries-old staging post in the heart of Bodmin Moor, on the main road down to Penzance, that has stood here for countless generations. Another of the key locations is also taken from reality: the vicarage in the nearby village of Altarnun, home in the novel to the Reverend Francis Davey — and it's now up for sale through Inigo at £1.6 million.

In the book, Revd Davey gives the outward appearance of respectability, hiding the truth of his character. For du Maurier, a writer fascinated by the gap between appearance, reputation and reality, it's easy to see how such a fine home would have been an irresistible place to house a dark-hearted villain.

The vicarage has long been a private house, these days going by the name Penhallow Manor, and it's a truly exquisite home. It;s Georgian origins are difficult to pin down, because of a fire in 1841 after which the house was rebuilt.

The history of the dwelling goes back at least 1,500 years, however: a 6th-century granite cross in the garden shows that a settlement was here in early Christian times, if not before. Once again, du Maurier seems to have drawn from this: Jamaica Inn features themes of ancient religious belief in this mysterious moorland spot.

Penhallow Manor today is a huge home of almost 5,000 sq ft, with five bedrooms, all en-suite, in the main house, and three more in the coach house that's included in the sale.

There are period features throughout, but this is also a house that has been sensitively modernised — the pastel green Aga and the cabinetry in the kitchen show as much — but the overall feel has been carefully kept in period style.

If this clever curation and high-end feel reminds you of a country house hotel, it's for good reason: that's exactly what it was for some years, and indeed when it came up for sale via Country Life in 2002 at £585,000, it was offered as a going concern.

What will the future hold for Penhallow Manor? That will be up to the new owners, but with the beautiful rooms, lovely location, fascinating history and great potential — there's an old stone building that could, subject to relevant permissions, be converted — the possibilities are enormous.

Penhallow Manor is for sale through Inigo at £1.6 million — see more details.

That pool. How can you resist?

Clearly, it would be madness to buy a house just because of the swimming pool... but if ever you were to do so, it'd most likely be a house like Glendon, a Grade II-listed Georgian home. Here, the pool looks like it's stepped out of a film. If ever there were to be a re-make of The Graduate set in Dorset, Glendon — for sale at the moment at £4.95 million — is where it should be filmed.

Glendon itself looks every inch the classic 18th century home as you approach it — bit the subtle white rendered elevations of the house give no warning of the mass of vibrant colours inside.

You'll find greens mixed with yellows of various hues within the three grand reception rooms, not least the eye-catching formal dining room.

You'll also find more flashes of bold colour throughout. Here you'll see a red carpet, there a golden hallway, and in one of the bedrooms a pair of chairs covered in eye-popping day-glo floral fabrics. These interiors are full of fun and panache.

It's not just those design choices which catch the eye, however: period details also vie for attention, including ornate chandeliers, ceiling roses, cornicing and original fireplaces. And the curving staircase in the main hall is exquisite.

As well as the eight bedrooms in the main house, there are five more spread across the three self-contained apartments, two in the eastern wing of the house and one on the second floor.

The kitchen, with bespoke wooden cabinetry, has French doors and bifolds that open out onto the grounds, as well as being a place where chandelier, Aga and wine fridge come together.

Here, as well as the aforementioned pool, you'll find formal gardens, terrace areas, pristine lawns and border hedgerows, all of which make up part of the 20¼ acres of land that accompany this property.

The rest consists of rolling parkland and paddocks and there are loose boxes to keep horses snug and dry in the winter.

The location, the town of Corfe Mullen, is within easy reach of Wimborne, Poole and Bournemouth.

Glendon is for sale through Strutt & Parker at £4.95 million — see more details.

Hertfordshire — £7,500,000

On an estate that was once owned by Westminster Abbey, this house was built and has evolved over the centuries, not least the 21st, to become a superb modern home, full of light and modern comforts while retaining its character.

An example? The ancient wine cellar looks like something from the Napleonic era, yet it sits below a swish Neptune kitchen.

The 18 acres of grounds, which Humphry Repton worked on in the late 18th century, are a highlight, and include a wonderful walled garden.

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

Kent — £5,000,000

Having a helicopter is one thing; having a helipad and hangar to land it on and keep it in is quite another, but Postling Lodge has both.

This spectacular home in the Kent Downs National Landscape, built in 2009 but since extended further, is slick and modern — with a pool that would grace a boutique country house hotel.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Wiltshire — £1,600,000

On the market for the first time since it was built three decades ago, this lovely family home amid open countryside five miles from Chippenham is an amazing opportunity to create a life in the country — and the huge barns and 14 acres of land offer all sorts of options.

One thing to note though: there's an agricultural tie on the property, so you'll need to do your homework — our guide to buying property with an agricultural tie can point you in the right direction.

For sale via Webbpaton — see more details and pictures.

East Sussex — £5,950,000

With six bedrooms, over 8,000 sq ft and 55 acres, Socknersh Manor sits in a parcel of land near the village of Burwash. Beyond the main house — 16th century, fully refurbished and Grade II-listed — you'll find a series of barns, games rooms, lake, tennis court, and a coach house set up with a gym, cinema and much more.

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

Bedfordshire — £1,500,000

Tucked away down a discreet private driveway, this six-bedroom home sits in just over two acres of gardens, orchard and woodland, all backing on to open countryside.

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

A few weeks before Christmas 1938, some nine months before the outbreak of the Second World War, a young stockbroker called Nicholas Winton was all packed and ready to go on a skiing holiday to Switzerland. A phone call from a friend, Martin Blake, changed his plans — and saved the life of hundreds of children.

Winton had long been aware of the threat of Nazism. His parents were German-Jews who'd left for England before the First World War, and though he lived a good life as a stockbroker he moved in Socialist circles, and was only too aware of the growing threat of Nazism. The Swiss holiday was cancelled, and he instead went to Prague to see what he could do to help.

What he found shocked him. Desperate families living in fear, appalling conditions in the camps where many Jews were already being held, and impossible red tape blocking any of them from leaving Czechoslovakia. He had no legal training and no experience in relocating people, but he set about seeing what he could do.

He took a hotel room in Prague and set it up as an office, working around the clock. Two weeks later, he had a huge list of children, their families, addresses and passport-style photographs, and headed back to London to try and find a way to get them out.

What followed was months of battling authorities, finding sponsor families happy to take the children in (a condition of the British government allowing them to stay) and putting in place financial guarantees intended to pay for the eventual return of the children to their families. He linked up with others trying to help refugees, notably the heroic Doreen Warriner, and set up his own office in London, run by his mother and staffed by volunteers. They begged and cajoled, negotiated and lobbied, even — by Winton's own admission — resorting to forging documents for some of the children when official channels were proving too slow.

Amazingly, it worked and train journeys across Europe began, eventually allowing 669 children, the vast majority of them Jewish, to traverse the continent and get on a ship to London.

For years, Winton barely told a soul about what he'd done. He'd never expected nor sought praise, and indeed remained heartbroken that more couldn't have been saved — the USA, among other countries, refused to allow any Czech refugee children in to the country. What was even more heartbreaking, was that a further trainload of 250 children were at the station, and indeed thought to have been sitting on the train ready to depart Prague for London on September 1, 1939. The start of the war meant that the train never left the station; only two of those children are thought to have made it through the war.

Recognition eventually came by chance when Winton's wife, Grete, found an old scrapbook in storage which had all the details of the work her husband had done. She contact the BBC, who told the story on an unforgettable episode of That's Life, in which Winton met many of the refugees he'd saved — most of whom had no idea how they'd escaped the country.

Those 669 children went on to have lives, careers, children and grandchildren of their own; a 60 Minutes programme about Winton which aired shortly before his death in 2015 estimated that some 15,000 people owe their lives to the north London stockbroker. If you do nothing else today, theThat's Life programme from 1989 and the 60 Minutes episode from 2014 are more than worth half an hour of your time. There's also a film of his life: One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter — and if you happen to be in Prague, you'll find a statue of Winton at the railway station.

Fascinating though Winton's story is, you may be wondering what it has to do with the property section of Country Life. Well, the house built for Winton in the 1950s on the outskirts of Maidenhead has now hit the market with Hamptons for £3,850,000.

The current owners bought it in 2017, two years after Winton died at the age of 106. How wonderful that a man who did so much good lived a long and happy life.

Since then, it has been, in Hamptons’ words, ‘masterfully rebuilt from scratch, and reimagined into a distinguished state-of-the-art residence, combining architectural elegance with refined modern living’.

This striking contemporary home is largely wrapped in vertical timber cladding and features extensive Crittall-style glazing. If the Scandi aesthetic is your bag, then you’ll love this house.

Owner Hugh Chambers explains: ‘When we first saw New Ditton and heard the incredible story of Sir Nicholas Winton, we were inspired to build on his original architectural style, influenced by his Danish wife, and extend this into a light and contemporary Scandinavian look and feel.

‘The house we built is designed as both a warm family home as well as a spectacular entertaining space. We like to think that Sir Nicholas would have approved of the happiness and laughter that now fills his wonderful house.’

There are huge, bright living spaces throughout the home, thanks to floor-to-ceiling Crittall-style glazing both inside and out. The enormous kitchen and dining room deserves a particular shout-out. It’s split across two levels, with a white-panelled, vaulted ceiling and double-height glazed walls providing sweeping views across the garden.

Beyond it is a pantry and a laundry room as well as a bedroom with an ensuite.

Also on the ground floor are three reception rooms - drawing room, sitting room and study — all impeccably styled with a neutral colour palette that complements the contemporary design.

Upstairs, there are four bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom. The main bedroom even comes with two dressing areas.

According to Hamptons, modern finishes in the house include underfloor heating, B&W and Sonos sound systems, and full LAN data network. It seems no stone has been left unturned.

This extends to the grounds too, which are enclosed by old brick walls. There’s a large terrace, with a seating area anchored by beautiful olive trees, and carefully-maintained lawns and flower beds. A large football pitch is a reminder that despite its immaculate style, New Ditton is still very much a family home.

The grounds also include an annexe and an adjoining gym. There is planning permission in place to combine the two to create one large space. A separate garage, also timber clad, provides further storage.

Hamptons Prime agent Charles Wellbelove describes New Ditton as ‘a seamless architectural masterpiece’ with ‘beautiful landscape gardens offering immense seclusion and privacy’.

He adds: ‘This delightful and very comfortable home benefits with fantastic access to London especially by the Elizabeth Line located only a few miles away.’

New Ditton is for sale via Hamptons — see more details.

It's easy to live in rural Britain without ever really feeling immersed in the countryside. A small town or large village might can be in the middle of a National Park or National Landscape, yet a road full of houses is still a road full of houses.

And then there are other places, where the entire home feels like it's been lifted from a Constable painting, or the pages of Cider with Rosie, or an episode of The Darling Buds of May... You get the idea — not least because you've already seen the picture at the top of this page. Haventree Cottage is the sort of place that you dream of when you think of moving to the country.

Located within the Malvern Hills National Landscape in Worcestershie, Haventree Cottage — which is for sale at £1.35 million with Morgan Aps — is framed by a wildlife. The trees, the gardens and the pond — regularly frequented by ducks and other visiting wildlife — creates a picturesque backdrop point that you'll enjoy not just as you approach the house, but also from the windows of every principal room of this traditional timber-frame property on the edge of the village of Suckley.

The windows in question are a mix of original timber framed in the oldest parts of hte house — which as you'll see from the architecture, has evolved and been expanded several times over the centuries.

The newest part is the kitchen, with floor-to-ceiling windows and bifold doors and a vaulted roof, leading out to a terrace area with view not just of the property’s two acres, but across the entire Teme valley unfolding in the distance. Such an expanse of open countryside can mean only one thing: mile after mile of walks on the doorstep.

Inside, as the agent states, Haventree Cottage is ‘absolutely perfect for a busy family… [with] plenty of spaces for relaxing, entertaining and working.'

Open fires and ancient timber beams are found throughout a home that is bursting with character and period charm.

It's cosy, comfortable, beautiful and fun — not least for the sixth bedroom, on the second floor, which seems to be used pretty much as a dedicated Lego room at the moment. The countryside literally on the doorstep, and a Lego room for rainy days: what could be finer?

Haventree is for sale through Morgan Aps — see more details.

Good news! One of the houses from the Disney+ adaptation of Rivals is for sale.

The less good news is that it isn't one of the beautiful old Cotswolds piles that you've been yearning for. The home of Declan O'Hara and his family, as played by Aidan Turner, is a beautiful country pile near Tetbury called Chavenage House. And the ancestral home of Rupert Campbell-Black, portrayed by Alex Hassell, is a Grade-I listed home in Somerset called Ammerdown House.

Naturally, both have been featured in the pages of Country Life before now; just a couple of months ago, we even republished a piece from the archive about the history of Chavenage House:

Ammerdown was featured in 1929, in a three-part series across several issues of the magazine. Life Chavenage, it's still instantly recognisable over a century later — despite the fact that there was, sadly, no naked tennis going on the day that Country Life's photographer visited.

The Rivals house that's on the market at the moment is centuries newer than those two homes — and it's actually even younger than the book itself. Foxfield, known as Bella Vista in the show and home to Danny Dyer's character Freddie Jones, was only built in 1999.

Touse was a labour of love for a real-life 1980s entrepreneur: Peter Thomas, the former chairman of Cardiff Rugby Club who made his fortune running Peter's Pies with his brother, Stanley. The Thomases sold the pie business in 1988 and moved in to commercial aviation, where the family fortune grew still further.

Peter died in 2023, and despite the fact that pies were just a small part of his long and successful career, the irresistible lure of alliteration saw his home dubbed 'Peter's Pie Palace' when it first came on to the market at the start of 2025, and the name has stuck.

Something else that has stuck is the asking price: Fine & Country quoting 'offers over £8 million' for this house in 24 acres just outside Cardiff, making it the most expensive home in Wales.

It's a little surprising, given the fact that many similarly large homes have had price cuts in the last year or so: Ripley Castle, for example, has its £15 million asking price halved to £7.5 million. That includes the 14th century, Grade I-listed castle and 166 acres of land.

We can see why Ripley will need time to find the right buyer — Grade I-listed castles tend to come with a long list of caveats — but those looking for a country home in the £8 million bracket have some wonderful options out there right now:

Comparisons such as these are never like-for-like, of course, and Foxfield is a grand, slick, modern home with all sorts of features that a 250-year-old place could never match.

The most obvious of these things is the magnificent spiral staircase at the centre of the house. Made from American white oak, it was created by hand by local craftspeople, and its oval shape is a reference to the game of rugby.

The staircase wasn't the only thing that had such attention lavished on it. Unusually, the family have a section of the property listing that they've written themselves, explaining how they, 'worked with a Welsh architect and prioritised using local materials and craftsmen, making the construction of Foxfield a tribute to our cultural pride.'

The orangery is also worth a special mention, bringing in huge amounts of light to the house — something that carries on throughout.

The building work took three years, creating a house with a dining room that happily seats 16, a superb cellar, a grand dining kitchen, a bar, and — for those who aren't able to use that staircase — a lift.

Outside, the 25 acres of grounds include terraces, lawns, woodland, a tennis court, and an unusual trio of lakes. Slightly surprisingly, there is no swimming pool: the scenes involving a pool at the house in Rivals had to be shot at a different location.

There's no doubt, then, that Foxfield has a lot to offer — as well as a location near some of the best schools in Cardiff. But is that enough to make it worth twice as much as this wisteria-clad country estate a few miles away near Barry? Or £3 million more than Bertholey, an 18,000sq ft house on the market in Monmouthshire?

The answer might depend on the star power that the Rivals connection brings with it, for we've seen time and again homes with film and TV connections garner far more attention than they might otherwise do.

Take Lynford Hall, for example, a country pile in Norfolk which sold after going on the market at £3.5 million last autumn. It needed a huge amount of investment, but even in what's been a slow market it has now gone — and it's hard not to think that its history as a place used in the filming of classic sitcoms Dad's Army and Allo Allo might have helped, if only in terms of getting views to the listing.

In spring last year, another multi-million pound home found a buyer: this wonderful Victorian house in Crystal Palace, which launched on the market at £5 million. Was it because the enterprising agent had nicknamed the area 'South London's answer to Notting Hill'? Or was it because the home was used in the shooting of the wildly popular Keira Knightley show Black Doves, which was riding high in the Netflix top 10 at the time.

It's not only grand houses that enjoy this halo effect. Back in South Wales, the seaside town of Barry has seen two homes sold in recent months which played starring roles in the beloved BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey.

Both are located on Trinity Road, a street of terraced homes. Uncle Bryn's house, over the road from Stacey and her mother in the show, and the house of Stacey's next-door neighbour Doris both went for over £220,000. That's in a street where most sales in the last few years have been in the £150,000-£200,000 bracket.

Still, at least it's plausible that the characters in Gavin & Stacey lived in Trinity Road. Another classic sitcom, Outnumbered, featured a couple and their three children living in a house that was located in Chiswick, according to London estate agency Martin & Co. The couple were a history teacher and a PA, yet managed to be living in a home with an estimated value of £1.8 million...

Where was it?

In the Dorset village of Iwerne Minster.

A quick description

It was a three-bedroom terrace house, but one that didn’t have the terrace house feel of being hemmed in, because at the back, beyond the cobbled courtyard, there was half an acre of garden. The countryside was also only a 150-yard walk away.

How did you find it?

I was in the military and travelled a lot, but I wanted to put down roots. These were the days before the internet when you relied on estate agents’ offices and ‘for sale’ boards, plus patience. My first wife, Brigit, and I knew the area well and Iwerne Minster is an idyllic village that a lot of people pass by. We found the house within a few months and it became our family home for a while.

What sold it to you?

Location, location, location! The setting opposite the village church was typically British and simply perfect. Through the sound of those bells, you could also tell what day it was.

Was it a smooth purchase?

I don’t remember much pain. This was also back in the day when not much gazumping went on.

Best memory of living there?

Walking to the village shop most days when my children, James and Charlotte, were young to buy them an ice cream. It was wonderfully quiet even though we were only a few hundred yards from the A350.

Biggest indulgence?

This may sound ridiculous, but it was the first time I ever bought myself a set of drainage rods, and that Victorian plumbing definitely needed such a set to make everything flow freely. I haven’t been without them since. Such things come into their own when you have property.

What happened to the house?

I moved on with my job and ended up in the Herefordshire/Worcestershire area and purchased a property in Malvern, again on the edge of a village. I moved on again eventually, to a farm in Cornwall, and, in 2014, found myself at Chateau de la Motte Husson in France. This is really my first true country home — we have neighbours that we can’t even hear or see.

Dick Strawbridge will be appearing at the Game Fair (July 24–26), hosting Q&A sessions and taking part in a cookery demonstration with his wife, Angel, and children Arthur and Dorothy.

This feature originally appeared in the July 22, 2026, print edition of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.

There's always a little rush of excitement that comes from finding a traditional country house that's full of surprises. And East Boreston, in the village of Halwell within Devon's hopelessly bucolic South Hams, is a perfect example.

It's for sale at £2.25 million through Marchand Petit, and at first glance appears to be a very pleasant, albeit slightly unremarkable rural home. Step inside, however, and you'll find yourself in a place where blue and green hues are expertly positioned for maximum impact, with huge windows looking out over secluded gardens.

You'll fin with fixtures and fittings that could have been taken from a smart London interior design studio, blended with cosy vintage furniture, vibrant colour schemes and the odd surprise — not least a bubblegum pink dresser in the sun room.

It's beautiful, liveable and fun — and the sort of home that could easily grace Country Life's interiors pages just as easily as the property section.

The main house comes with five bedrooms, a large, open-plan kitchen/dining/sitting room and a separate formal sitting room.

We say 'main house', because as well as the Grade II-listed farmhouse, the new buyer will be getting themselves a fully-established and successful lifestyle retreat business.

There's a converted five-bedroom holiday barn, a detached and separate one-bedroom holiday cottage, and an indoor swimming pool.

The net effect, in the words of the agent, is a property that offers ‘generous and highly flexible accommodation, designed for both family living and entertaining. The principal house enjoys its own defined private gardens and grounds, ensuring complete separation from guest areas’.

The current owners pride themselves on the property’s eco credentials — and quite rightly, for they are extrarordinary: an extensive array of solar-generated electricity and ground-source heat systems produce 34kw of power, enough to power the underfloor heating throughout the principal buildings, keep the swimming pool and hot tub warm, and still have a surplus to sell back to the grid.

Marchand Petit report that there is a 'net-positive income stream, after heating and electricity costs. That earns East Boreston a remarkable Grade A with a 97 rating on the EPC certificate; for a period property such as this one, that's almost unheard of.

And the location? The South Hams is one of the most talked-about parts of the South West, and Halwell is within easy reach of some of the best towns — including Salcombe and Dartmouth — and the golden beaches of Blackpool Sands. The larger town of Totnes, with its road and rail connections to the rest of the country, is just six miles away.

East Boreston and The Barn are for sale through Marchand Petit at £2.25 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

You wait all year for a billionaire's palatial £25 million home in a leafy enclave of London to come up for sale, and then two come along at once.

Last week we looked at the Goldsmith family's magical home in Richmond Park, Ormeley Lodge, which was home to the late Lady Annabel Goldsmith for many decades — and the place where she and her husband, Sir James Goldsmith, hosted everyone from pop stars to royalty.

Today, we look at a different house cut from the same cloth, and located just three miles away: Stud House, the Lebedev family home in the grounds of Hampton Court, for sale with Knight Frank and Savills.

It has a huge amount in common with Ormeley Lodge: both are located in the grounds of a Royal Park (in this case, Hampton Court Park); both are Georgian buildings full of character, flair and beauty; both are on the market for £25 million; and both have been in the family of high-profile billionaires for many decades, with a guest list that reads like Who's Who. Stud Park was bought by Alexander Lebedev in 2007, and it has long been the home of his son Lord Lebedev — best known as Evgeny Lebedev, owner of The Independent and The Evening Standard newspapers — who is now selling the place.

The timing of the sale seems to be good for the vendor. Research from Knight Frank suggests that there are around 3,000-4,000 billionaires in the world at the moment (neither the Lebedevs nor the Goldsmiths are among them these days, according to reports), and many of them are flocking back to buy property in London.

New research by Beauchamp Estates suggests that the market for homes in the £15-million-plus bracket has been soaring in the first half of 2026, with £1.24 billion of ultra-prime property sold — that's up 79% on the same period last year.

The reason for all this? A combination of soaring stocks in tech companies, and the political instability in the Middle East making London once again an enormously popular spot for the well-heeled to buy a home. 'London has bounced back,' says Rosy Khalastchy of Beauchamp Estates, 'the luxury homes market spluttering back to life with American and Middle Eastern buyers currently dominating ultra-prime sales in the capital’s best addresses.'

We'd say that 'Stud House, Hampton Court' definitely counts as one of those 'best addresses', and whoever ends up taking on this 18th century home will have a place that really is quite something, inside and out. It's hard to know where to look in a home full of fascinating art and glorious furnishings, which Lord Lebedev brought together with the artist and designer Patrick Kinmonth and the antique dealer and interiors consultant Edward Hurst.

Stud House is a fascinating home, arranged on an unusual inverted-L floorpan: entering the house via an enormous grand reception hall, there is a reading room and conservatory immediately ahead of you, and to access the rest of the rooms you move around to the right through a second hallway, past the morning room and drawing room with its semi-circular bay window, and then on to the larger part of the house.

There's a library, study, dining room, TV room, kitchen, pantry and laundry arranged around the stairs in the centre of the house.

Head down and you'll find a huge wine cellar, but head up and you'll get to the first floor, where you'll find six of the eight bedrooms — including a magnificent master suite with dressing room and a huge bathroom attached.

Two of the bedrooms have access to a balcony looking over the grounds, and Hampton Court beyond, while there are also a couple of treatment rooms and a security room on the floorpan.

The second floor has the remaining two bedrooms, plus a sitting room and storage — it's a space that is seemingly ideal for staff accommodation.

It's a lot to get your head around, but thankfully the agents have kindly shared a video walkthrough which will let you see the house, the art, the grand pianos, the four-poster beds, the exotic wallpapers, the spectacular gardens (laid out by Mollie Sainsbury) and more.

Lord Lebedev — or Baron Lebedev, of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation, to give him his full title — has spoken with great warmth of this beautiful home, though it wasn't necessarily the sort of home he'd have chosen himself. He explained to the FT a few years ago that it was really his father who fell for Stud House first: 'I think he was probably more in love with it than I was but I can see now, having grown older, that it’s a special house.'

There is one more curiosity of Stud House that's worth mentioning: it's a leasehold property, with the freehold part of Hampton Court; the lease has 128 years left to run. And the service charge? £300 a year. Not bad for a place that literally has Hampton Court on the doorstep.

Stud House is for sale through Knight Frank and Savills at £25 million.

Surrey — £3,500,000

Tucked away in an enchanted spot ringed by woodland near Hindhead and Haslemere, Hunters is a wonderful little enclave on 12 acres of land.

The main house is full of charm, and a separate pool and poolhouse seem perfect for summer life in Britain.

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

Devon — £6,500,000

The ultimate coastal estate? Glenthorne has a strong claim to that title, with 77 beautiful acres on the north Exmoor coast, beautifully tucked away, wonderfully private, and exquisite within.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

West Sussex — £3,500,000

Mermaid Cottage sits on one of the most sought-after plots on the estuary at Bosham — and it's glorious. This Grade II-listed house was re-designed and extended in striking style in 2012, and is a superb blend of period charm and modern cool.

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

Bedfordshire — £1,350,000

A magical Bohemian fantasy of a home, gorgeously presented, and full of wonderful touches as the pictures here show. There's also a detached garage building with workshop and a self-contained annexe above.

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

Perthshire — £10,500,000

One of the grandest residential and sporting estates in Scotland is seeking a new owner. The Kinnaird Estate has a fine main house, 11 cottages, four miles of salmon fishing, farmland, moorland, woodland, stalking, a pheasant shoot, gardens and a healthy holiday letting business.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Oxfordshire — £5,250,000

A dream home on the Thames, with seven bedrooms, pool, tennis court and much more.

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

The spectacular Dinmore Manor estate at Hope under Dinmore, situated on high ground in a remote Herefordshire valley, is one of the west of England’s most private and pristine residential, sporting and farming estates. Today, it's seeking a new owner.

The estate was briefly seen on the open market in 2019 — when we described it as being 'straight out of a fairytale' — but later withdrawn as the Pandemic took hold not long after. This historic, 1,468-acre property sitting between Hereford and Leominster, is now for sale again through Savills at a guide price of £25 million for the whole, or in up to eight lots.

A guide of £9 million is quoted for lot 1, the Grade II-listed, six-bedroom manor house with its Grade II*-listed medieval chapel, manor barn and two cottages — 397 acres in all.

A guide of £12.5 million is quoted for lot 2, Dinmore Farm, comprising an extensive farm-buildings complex, cattle-breeding facilities, a state-of-the-art equestrian centre with an indoor riding school, 40 stables and staff accommodation, the four-bedroom Kipperknowle Farmhouse and seven additional cottages — 862 acres in all.

Lots 3 to 8 are smaller parcels of arable land and woodland, a lodge and semi-detached cottages, at prices ranging from £414,000 to £1 million.

Dinmore was established by royal charter in 1189 as a Commandery of the Knights Templar and, in 1320, following their suppression, of the Knights Hospitaller. Little remains of the original 12th-century chapel, apart from some ancient walling; the rest of the chapel was rebuilt in about 1320.

Dinmore reverted to the Crown at the Dissolution, after which it was granted by Edward VI to Sir Thomas Palmer, who unwisely supported Lady Jane Grey’s claim to the throne and was tried and beheaded in 1553 on the orders of Queen Mary.

The manor passed through the Wolrych and Fleming families of Shropshire before being sold to Richard Hollins Murray in 1927. His descendants owned it until 1999, when it was acquired by the current owners, who embarked on an ambitious 10-year programme of restoration, renovation and remodelling, which included the purchase of an additional 600 acres and two further properties.

The focal point of the estate is the fairytale stone manor house, which dates from the late 16th century. Notable elements added over the years include the magnificent Cloisters and Music Room built by the Murray family in 1936.

For all its stately grandeur, Dinmore Manor is a surprisingly well-organised and manageable family home, which has been restored and upgraded by some of England’s finest craftsmen.

The main house offers 15,770sq ft of spacious, light-filled accommodation including entrance and staircase halls, three main reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, study and music room, with the sumptuous master suite, three further bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor, and a further bedroom suite on the floor above.

Highlights include the grand entrance hall leading to a newly created cantilevered staircase; an elegant drawing room with an 18th-century marble fireplace from Berkeley Castle; a charming green-panelled sitting room; and the impressive main dining room, which stretches along the southern façade and features a fine Georgian fireplace of 1765.

The pièce de résistance is the wonderful Music Room with its two staircases, one leading to the Cloisters overlooking the garden, the other up a turret to a secret sixth bedroom.

The Dinmore Estate is for sale through Savills at £25 million — see more details.

Just a few days ago Penny Churchill wrote about Old House, the country home of Princess Margaret and her husband, the film-maker Lord Snowdon. Following the couple's divorce, it became solely Snowdon's home, as you'd expect of a dwelling that had been in his family for generations. It was sold a few years ago off market, but is now being sold on the open market for the first time ever. Old House is on the market, with beautiful architecture, wonderful gardens and great stories to tell, it's being sold through the Blue Book agency at £3.95 million.

For all the wonders of this West Sussex house, there's one element of it that we can't help thinking about, even days later: the bathroom, hand-decorated by Snowdon himself with countless documents about his life and times.

To call it 'the bathroom' doesn't really do justice to this particular smallest room. It's a scrapbook, a newspaper clipping collection, a diary, a memoir and a map.

It's also a historical document, a memory wall and — as you'd expect of one of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century — a photo gallery.

It's even a visitor's book — one signed by Queen Elizabeth II herself, presumably while on a visit to see her sister Princess Margaret down in Sussex.

Snowdon himself curated all these pictures and clippings — and they are utterly fascinating. There are pictures of him and his family. There are sketches and plans of the improvements he made here — and those are extensive, for when the young Anthony Armstrong-Jones was given the house, by the trailblazing designer Oliver Messel, a couple of years before his wedding in 1960, it was in critical need of remedial work to make it habitable.

There are intimate family portraits, stylish architectural photographs, and fashion-shoot-style images. There's a whole sequence of a happy day out with ageing relatives, captioned 'David's day out 4th March 1973'.

There are newspaper headlines and clippings about war, disaster and epic achievement: the First World War, the Russians successfully sending Yuri Gagarin to space, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the D-Day Landings and the death of Rudolph Valentino, to name but a few.

There's a front page of the New York Times from the first atomic bombs being dropped on Japan; another, from the Daily Mail, proclaiming VE Day; and from eight years later, a front page commemorating Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay successfully scaling Mount Everest on the eve of The Queen's coronation.

And finally there are a string of front pages on the run-up to the abdication of Edward VIII, from initial rumours and discussions to the confirmation that 'I have decided to renounce The Throne'.

It's like nothing we've ever seen — quite remarkable, and all the more so considering the people who have stood and admired Snowdon's collection. For by the mid-1960s, the Old House was, as the agents put it, 'one of the most coveted country house invitations in Britain... Guests would travel down from London in Aston Martins and Bentleys for weekends of cocktails, conversation and house parties that have since become part of society folklore.'

The guest list reads like a snapshot of the 1960s A-list in Britain: Peter Sellers, Sir John Mills, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Bianca Jagger, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, Kenneth Tynan, Issey Miyake and Edna O'Brien, as well as many of the Royal Family; the late Queen Mother, for example, officially opened the man-made lake that Snowdon himself dug out with a hired JCB.

'There are country houses and then there are houses that become part of the national story,' says the agent, Theo James-Wright.

'The Old House falls firmly into the latter category.

'What Lord Snowdon created here was not simply a private home but an extraordinary creative retreat. This was a place where royalty mixed with artists, actors, writers and designers, where some of the most influential figures of the twentieth century gathered behind closed doors.

'Very few houses can genuinely claim to have witnessed such a remarkable chapter of British cultural history.'

You can read more about the Old House in our original story, or see the listing at Blue Book's website.

Things are stirring at Savills’s Lymington officein Hampshire, following the launch onto the market of exquisite, Grade II-listed Malwood Walk House, 1½ miles from Minstead village and 3½ from Lyndhurst. Selling agent Giles Muddle quotes a guide price of £4.25 million for the classic Arts-and-Crafts house set in 12½ acres of glorious gardens, grounds and paddocks with direct access to the myriad bridleways of the New Forest.

It was built in about 1924 by international designer George Abraham Crawley for the diplomat, playwright and Liberal politician Robert Venables Vernon Harcourt, whose portrait still hangs over the fireplace in the hallway. Its listing describes the house, which is timber-framed with brick infills and a stone slate roof, as ‘a very convincing copy of a Tudor building’.

Harcourt died in 1962, leaving Malwood Walk House to his daughter, Mary, who lived there with her husband, Cdr Ian Rochfort Johnston, until their respective deaths in 1998 and 2006. By then, the building had fallen into disrepair and was sold in 2010 to a buyer who embarked on a comprehensive renovation programme.

This was completed by the current owners, who bought the property in 2019 and have further improved it, adding the splendid orangery with its kitchen-breakfast room and the delightful outdoor swimming pool.

The house provides 4,757sq ft of bright and cheerful living space on three floors. This includes a reception hall, and a vast drawing room with a full-height bay window, a double-height, carved ceiling, and a huge stone fireplace reminiscent.

The effect is incredible and unusual, more reminiscent of a Tudor great hall than an Arts-and-Crafts home.

There are two further reception rooms downstairs, plus a boot room, utility room, cellar and a wine store.

Three of the five bedrooms are on the first floor — unusually, none are en-suite, but there are in any case three separate bathrooms. There's also access from the landing onto a mezzanine overlooking that magnificent drawing room.

The second floor has two more bedrooms and two more bathrooms.

Secondary accommodation is provided in the charming, part-tile-hung Gate House annexe.

The gardens also include a pool, yoga studio/gym and sauna, several storage buildings, and a barn which — subject to relevant permissions — looks ripe for conversion into another space.

It's also a home ideal for equestrians: adjacent to the barn is a stable block with three loose boxes, from where we can just imagine saddling up and heading off trekking through this beautiful part of southern England.

All in all, it's a house that's a true dream. 'Opportunities to acquire country houses in the New Forest of such high calibre do not come around that often,' says Giles. 'Just stunning.'

Malwood Walk House is for sale through Savills at a guide price of £4.25 million — see more details.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Where is it?

A remote spot in the Cotswolds.

A quick description

A barn at the top of a valley that was built in 1730 and first converted in the 1960s.

How did you find it?

We used Property Vision [a buying agency] and gave them a specific set of parameters, including not wanting to be in a village.

How smooth was the purchase?

We went to see it separately at first and instantly knew that it had our name all over it. Our offer was initially accepted, but then we lost out to a higher bidder. Six weeks after he’d purchased the property, his marriage came unstuck and we were given first refusal.

What made you buy it?

The pièce de résistance is the covered colonnaded Roman walkway. On approaching the house, no one knows that it’s there as it stands behind a wall with a door.

Favourite aspect?

It’s a bit kitsch, but we have a hot tub overlooking the valley.

Best memory of living there?

It sits on two ley lines. I don’t know whether that has an impact, but it’s a happy house. Some people arrive in a terrible state, but leave skipping.

Biggest mistake?

We thought we’d save some money by using a reconstituted stone floor in the entrance and kitchen. When it was half installed, we realised that it wasn’t going to work and instead used stones reclaimed from a 17th-century French château. You can’t skimp on these things.

Biggest indulgence?

My husband is a great collector. When we moved here, I decided we needed a proper dining table — a rustic Spanish refectory table rather than some chipboard covered with a tablecloth. I sent him in search of one and he came back with a vast statue of a lady on a horse. The dining table is still made of chipboard.

Sue Jones is the co-founder and creative director of OKA. The company has launched its first wallpaper collection based on three of its most iconic prints: Ocellus, Areca and Ghini, made in the UK.

This feature originally appeared in the July 8, 2026, print edition of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.

Think of the Industrial Revolution and you tend to think of the 'dark, Satanic mills' of William Blake. And while it's true that the explosion of technology and industry stained our environment, among the many modern miracles it brought with it was an explosion in exotic plants. The Victorians were fascinated by ferns, orchids and palm trees, and the advances in ironwork and glass production meant that huge new glass houses could be built to house and nurture exotic specimens from around the world.

The great 19th century palm houses are the most obvious examples of this, particularly those erected at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, Belfast and Kew in the 1830s and 1840s. But while most full-scale palm houses were built as civic, royal or public botanical projects, others were created on private estates. One such example survives at the Mamhead estate in east Devon, dating back to the 1850s — and rather wonderfully, it has been converted into a home, which is now for sale through Savills at £1.25 million.

Originally serving as a conservatory for the display of sub-tropical plants, with distinctive arched windows separated by giant pilasters and a south-facing aspect, the building was converted into a five-bedroom house in the 1980s.

At the heart of the property is an open-plan reception hall filled with natural light thanks to the bottom half of the five enormous arched windows which give the house its unmistakable palm house appearance.

The top halves of those arched windows are enjoyed on the first floor, with the principal bedroom, its dressing room, the study and the landing all enjoying the light pouring in.

There's are four further bedrooms, one on the other side of the first floor, and the remaining three on the second floor beneath a slate roof which dates to the 1980s.

The setting here is beautiful, with 1¼ acres that include the estate’s original kitchen garden, lawns, a meadow, woodland and a maze.

There is also a large greenhouse in the gardens, making this a glass house with its own glasshouse.

The Palm House at Mamhead is for sale through Savills at £1.25 million — see more details.

In 1949, a 16-year-old schoolboy went down to the races at Lewes, and placed a three-horse accumulator bet The stake was £10 — about £300 in today's terms, a wild amount to place on a longshot.

All three horses came in, netting that schoolboy, Jimmy Goldsmith, £8,000; that's the equivalent of over £250,000 in 2026 terms. 'A man of my means should not remain a schoolboy,' he declared at a celebration dinner once he was back at Eton. True to his word, he left school immediately, and Sir James Goldsmith went on to become one of the most successful — and most controversial — businessmen in Britain. And also France, Mexico and Spain, all places where he kept homes at various times of his life,. and with various of the women and children with which he shared that life.

Top of the list of the women in his life is Lady Annabel Goldsmith, a woman every bit as celebrated and flamboyant as her husband, and the radiant society darling after whom Annabel's nightclub is named. Both Jimmy and Annabel were married to other people when their affair began in the mid 1960s; but the affair became a long-term relationship when they started a family and bought a home in the 1970s. That home was the magnificent Ormeley Lodge in Ham, between Richmond Park and the River Thames — and it's just come to the market via Knight Frank and Sotheby's International Realty.

It's an extraordinary house by any yardstick. Grade II*-listed, described by Pevsner as 'exquisite' and dating back to the early 18th century, this Queen Anne home is a ten-bedroom house which, in the words of the agents, 'embodies both English Baroque and Classical styles, characterised by high ceilings, grand proportions and a wonderful sense of light throughout.'

With ten bedrooms, glorious formal gardens and endless elegant details, it is a true country house in London, with a list of former residents that includes politicians, diplomats, aristocrats and even an antique clock dealer, Ronald Alfred Lee, who used the place both as his home and his business premises, with his wares displayed throughout the many glorious reception rooms.

In the Goldsmith era the house was very much Lady Annabel's home, with her huge circle of well-connected friends attending parties which are legendary. Ben Goldsmith, younger brother to Jemima and Zach, told The Times that it was't unlike growing up in a 'commune', that was 'part convalescent home, part heartbreak hotel, children’s nursery, teenage marijuana den, Harrods toy department at Christmas, Portuguese soap opera,' with the Portuguese connection coming in large part from the long-serving staff at the home.

One of those taking refuge was Diana, Princess of Wales: 'She was incredibly close with my mother for the last decade of her life,' Ben adds. 'She was there constantly, lying by the pool.' Two of Ben's Eton schoolmates also visited regularly: Prince William and Prince Harry, now HRH the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex.

Jemima Goldsmith, Ben's older sister, also brought A-list connections: she dated Hugh Grant for several years, and married Imran Khan, the Pakistan cricket legend who became his country's prime minister. Khan remained on good terns with the family, and after his divorce from Jemina lived in a cottage on the grounds.

Lady Annabel's death last year at the age of 2025, however, brought the era to and end, prompting the Goldsmith children to put the place on the market. 'Ormeley Lodge has been our much-loved family home for 50 years, the setting for countless happy memories,' they said in a joint statement.

'We now feel the time is right to pass the property onto its next custodian, and we hope it will be enjoyed and cherished as much as it has been by our family.'

Knight Frank's Paddy Dring echoes that statement, and underlines what a special property it is:

'The sale of Ormeley Lodge represents a rare chance to acquire not only a remarkable residence, but also a part of British cultural heritage. Lovingly maintained over the past 50 years, we expect the property’s unique history to resonate strongly with discerning buyers around the world. Opportunities to secure a house of this size and character, surrounded by such established, picturesque and expansive gardens in a London setting are very uncommon, so it is certainly an exciting proposition for any prospective owner.'

Ormeley Lodge is for sale via Knight Frank and Sotheby's International Realty.

Gloucestershire — £1.85 million

Is there a more idyllic home in the Cotswolds for sale right now? This Georgian mill set in a dozen acres has a private lake, paddocks, woodland and access on to the Thames & Severn Canal.

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

Argyll — £2.1 million

A house described as 'one of the most remarkable private holdings on Scotland's west coast', and while you'd expect an agent to talk a place up, you'll get no argument from us on this one. Truly outstanding in every way.

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

New Forest — £4.25 million

The breathtakingly pretty Malwood Walk House has it all: wonderful period architecture, stylish new additions, exquisite gardens, and you can walk straight out of the gates into the New Forest near Lyndhurst.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Hertfordshire — £3 million

Some 8,000 sq ft and a swimming pool beneath a vaulted ceiling at this historic manor house with fine country views. The pool — along with gym and sauna — is currently run as a business; whether you keep it that way is entirely up to you.

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

Devon — £1 million

Utterly idyllic, this thatched cottage in Chudleigh looks like something out of a picture book: it's covered in rambling roses, has delightful gardens, and is full of quirky charm.

For sale via Jackson-Stops — see more details and pictures.

Argyll and Bute — £1.25 million

Only a short boat ride is required to access the 9¾-acre Harbour Island from Crinan Harbour near Lochgilphead, and, once there, the architect-designed, recently renovated principal house offers four bedrooms.

Additionally, there are two sitting rooms — one on the ground floor and one on the first floor, the latter forming part of an impressive light-filled open-plan space with a vaulted ceiling that also features the kitchen and the impressive 30½ft by 14¾ft living room.

Glazed doors lead outside to a raised timber deck, which offers direct access to a wood-fired hot tub.

‘Harbour Island represents a onceinalifetime opportunity,’ says property agent Iona Conn. ‘It is rare to find a private island offering this level of privacy, seclusion and panoramic views, all within a remarkably short 300m [985ft] trip from the mainland.’ Additionally, there is a self-contained cabin known as The Witch’s Folly.

For sale via Savills — see more details.

Isle of Wight — £1.775 million

St Winifreds sits above Totland Bay and overlooks one of the Isle of Wight’s finest sandy beaches and the western approaches to the Solent and Christchurch Bay.

The former convent with ornate ceilings, decorative fireplaces and an elegant staircase has, over the past three years, been significantly upgraded and turned into a chic and comfortable six- to eight-bedroom home, where there is even a spacious cinema room on the first floor.

The principal rooms, such as the dining room and the 32½ft by 21ft drawing room, are of impressive proportions, making them perfect for entertaining or large family gatherings. The kitchen overlooks the swimming pool and the near-one-acre garden that is mainly laid to lawn.

For sale via Knight Frank — see more details.

Devon — £695,000

In 1373, Geoffrey Chaucer visited Dartmouth; in 1620, Mayflower briefly put into the town’s Bayard’s Cove with the Pilgrim Fathers before they set sail for America; and, more recently, Flora Thompson, author of Lark Rise to Candleford, lived in this place with an extraordinary heritage. She chose to make her home in Above Town, one of the oldest and most sought-after residential areas in this town that is on the River Dart and only a stone’s throw from the sea.

A recent addition to the market is the four-bedroomed 60, Above Town, which has a ground floor sitting room, a snug/television area and an open-plan kitchen/dining room.

There's also an alfresco dining terrace, a hot-tub terrace at the rear of the house and glorious river views.

The agent says of 60, Above Town that it ‘offers beautifully appointed accommodation, thoughtfully designed to maximise space and light.

The views of the estuary are superb, and the interior coastal design, which runs throughout the house, is both elegant and relaxed’.

For sale via Jackson-Stops ­— see more details.

Northumberland — £1.1 million

Imagine uninterrupted views stretching from Bamburgh Castle to Holy Island. Seahouse, a former colliery owner’s home that is sited a mile from Scremerston and three miles south of Berwick-upon-Tweed, offers just such views from its exceptional location, on a cliff top and only yards from the shore of the North Sea.

A substantial five-bedroom, stone Georgian property that boasts many period features (including high ceilings, decorative tiling, sash windows, feature fireplaces and panelling), Seahouse has three reception rooms — a drawing room, dining room and a smaller snug.

The imposing kitchen/breakfast room contains an electric Aga and is sited close to the boot room and tack room.

The nearby sandy beaches are perfect for dog walkers and horse riders alike and, indeed, Seahouse may interest keen equestrians, as there are almost four acres of land, some made up of paddocks, plus, for those four-legged friends, there is a timber stable block with two loose boxes.

The self-contained attached cottage has two bedrooms, making it perfect for either multi-generational living or as a commercial prospect.

For sale via GSC Grays­— see more details.

If pushed, most estate agents operating in the country-house market will admit that getting a sale done this year has felt like being stuck on a winding lane behind a load-bearing tractor. The data supports this, with prices for high end rural homes falling 7.8% during the 12 months to March 2026, according to Savills.

This is, in part, a reversal of the covid 'race-for-space' boom as millions of workers have returned to the office at least three days a week. Stubborn inflation, sticky interest rates, the cost of living and the burden of stamp duty are all taking their toll on transaction levels too, along with increased economic uncertainty cause by the war in the Middle East.

The dream of owning a country house or living in a village is certainly not dead, but the buyer — now more than ever — needs to balance fantasy and practicality, to create the illusion of living in the middle of nowhere while being within easy-ish reach of the office.

New research by Savills and Country Life unveils those villages across the UK that present the best of both worlds. The first in a 'best villages' series, this article will pinpoint those idyllic locations with the fastest journey into London. Each of the top 10 is within an hour's commute into the capital from a mainline railway station — and each still has the countryside on the doorstep.

Hassocks, West Sussex

The northern gateway to the South Downs, Hassocks is one of the most rural locations on the list, surrounded by vineyards, golf courses and windmills and yet seven miles from Brighton and with a direct line into London.

The modern iteration of the village grew up around the railway station built in 1841. A tightknit but burgeoning community, it has four churches, three schools, five pubs, two post offices and a library.

'Hassocks is an excellent choice for buyers looking to relocate from London or even Brighton, thanks to its convenient rail connecting,' says Jemma Smith of Hamptons. 'It is appealing to a broad range of buyers from downsizers to first-time buyers, young families and professional couples'.

There is a lot of housing stock on the market, with mid-century and new build family sized homes starting from £700,000.

Denham, Buckinghamshire

The village of Denham was home to Denham film studios (now luxury housing) and became an A-lister hotspot in the mid-century. Sir John Mills moved there in the 1940s. Roger Moore and Dusty Springfield followed.

The film heritage lives on in these parts: Pinewood Studios is in neighbouring Iver. 'The area appeals to creatives and a younger mix of residents than you might expect in a village of this size,' says Elle Coles of Strutt & Parker. The village is part-conservation area and sits in the Colne Valley Regional Park in between the M25 and Greater London with a steady stream of families moving out from northwest London.

There are some significant country piles on the outskirts of the village, not least the 43-acre Denham Place once owned by the Star Wars franchise co-producer Harry Saltzman, on sale for £45 million (if that sounds like a lot, bear in mind that the asking price was £75 million when it was first launched).

In the village itself large family homes start well above the £1 million while three-bedroom cottages and terraced homes sit between £700,000 and £800,000.

Iver, Buckinghamshire

The number of entries and exits to Iver station has risen by 52% since the pandemic as homebuyers seek a village lifestyle, lower house prices than in the capital, and a quick commute on the Elizabeth Line.

The high-speed line has opened up the City and Canary Wharf to the western commuter belt. It has a bustling high street with a gym, a village hall, a fish and chip shop, a convenience store, and a primary school (with a good rating from Ofsted).

The amenities and secondary schools of Slough are on the doorstep and the station is a short cycle or a 30-minute walk away, in neighbouring Richings Park. Family-sized houses close to the high street and the station typically start from £800,000. Substantial rural trophy homes with multimillion price tags can be found on the edge of the village.

West Horndon, Essex

Between Upminster and Basildon is the village of West Horndon. It is surrounded by parkland — Thorndon County Park South, Heron Country Club and golf course and Longdon Nature Park.

The village has its own primary school, a pub (the Railway Hotel) and a café-bistro (the Hideaway). Its location and house prices make it an attractive proposition for families, with shopping facilities and sports clubs in nearby Brentwood and Basildon. There are family-sized new houses in the centre of the village for £725,000 and a host of bungalows for sale for those wanting a wide plot.

One word of caution: as it expands in popularity, West Horndon may also expand in size. It is an area earmarked for housing development, which will bring both more homes to this side of the capital, and more consternation for those who live here already.

Brookwood, Surrey

Five and a half miles to the west of Woking, and surrounded by woodland, Brookwood appeals to a range of buyers — and in particular first-time buyers, families and young professionals.

It is better value for money than London and the 'pricier Surrey villages', according to Hamptons' Julian de la Poer Beresford. 'Buyers are drawn by the balance of connectivity, green space and a strong community feel,' he says.

Basingstoke Canal runs through the village, and it is home to the UK's largest Cemetery, covering 220 acres, with a parkland and ground. There's a nature reserve, heathland, and West Hill Golf Club. The village has its own primary school, takeaways, and cafés.

Bourne End, Buckinghamshire

Bourne End sits in the Thames golden corridor running west out of London and long popular with celebrity homebuyers who wish to tuck themselves away in multi-million-pound rural piles down country lanes.

It is fitting then that Cliveden House — the hotel at the centre of the Profumo Scandal — is on the doorstep. Prices reflect its beauty, location and rural glamour. Within the village itself, £1 million will buy a four-bedroom, detached cottage.

Charles Fraser-Sampson of Strutt & Parker describes Bourne End as one of the most desirable villages in south Buckinghamshire with buyers coming from local towns and London in equal measure.

Weekend life revolves around the river with people out on boats from the marina, or at the sailing club or on paddleboards on the slipway. The Bounty pub overlooking the water is bound to be a busy spot this summer.

Burnham, Buckinghamshire 

Burnham is a large village on the edge of Slough, close to Maidenhead, to the north of the River Thames — and not far from Bourne End, as listed above. It has a wide array of housing stock — from apartments and starter homes to large family properties on the periphery of the village.

'It's popular with families who want to be mobile within the area and move up and down as needs dictate,' says Laura Collins of Hamptons. 'Many of them want the village feel with commuter access to London and many move out of London to use the Elizabeth Line'.

The Buckinghamshire grammar school system is a draw too. There is shopping at Windsor, Beaconsfield and Maidenhead as well as country walks at Burnham Beeches nature reserve and watersports on the local rivers and lakes.

Within the village itself you can find a detached Edwardian house with five bedrooms for £875,000 — considerably cheaper than the equivalent property in west London. And if you have the means to spend more, you'll be spoilt for choice.

Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire

Commuters in the 1920s discovered Brookmans Park. The village sits between Potters Bar and Hatfield to the east of the A1.

It was a quiet rural spot until the arrival of the railway station in 1926 which sparked the development of new homes as families moved out of London and into the commuter belt.

Steeped in sporting culture, the Brookmans Park tennis club is older than the railway station and the golf course is considered one of Hertfordshire's finest surrounded by mature parkland. This was also home to Spurs captain and England player Gary Mabutt (the village, not the golf course — although he has been spotted on the fairway).

Residents exercise dogs and children at nearby Gobion Wood Nature Reserve or in the grounds of North Mymms stately home — which hosts weddings and film shoots, including The Crown and Bridgerton.

There is a 'good' primary school in the village along with a butcher, a baker, a library, a dog groomers and a small supermarket.

Down the surrounding lanes are large new build mansions set back, built with footballers in mind no doubt, whereas in the village itself three-bedroom cottages and apartments range from £300,000 to £700,000.

Oxshott, Surrey

Oxshott is one of Surrey's designer villages in what is dubbed the CEO corridor of the A3. It is the most expensive village on the list.

Oxshott attracts wealthy families moving out of Chelsea, Fulham and Wimbledon as well as international buyers.

The latter like the wide new build homes that offer the lateral living within gated communities or on private roads. Prices for such homes start from £2 million and can reach £8 million to £9 million.

'Buyers are able to get a lot more square footage for their money and often landscaped gardens which are difficult to replicate in central London,' says Paul Trafford of Hamptons. 'However, the market is very price sensitive and buyers have high expectations of presentation and realistic pricing'.

There's a village store and two pubs — The Victoria and The Bear Oxshott — plus the estate agents, dry cleaners and interiors shops that are staples of any self-respecting Surrey village high street.

Plumpton, East Sussex

Buyers in this neck of the woods typically start their search in Lewes, but shift to Plumpton, on the same train line, where their budget will go further.

Adrian Passingham of Strutt & Parker says Plumpton has the key components of village living but without feeling too remote.

There is a primary school, village shop and two pubs and it's 11 minutes to Haywards Heath on the train for more amenities. In the other direction it's just seven minutes to Lewes and 16 miles to Seaford Beach.

'There's a whole host of clubs and local groups which create a friendly and well-established community and the village's position on the edge of the South Downs plays a big role in day-to-day life with easy access to walking, cycling and riding routes,' says Passingham.

Mayfair has always rewarded those who understand that a building’s worth lies as much in its setting as its stonework.

It is fitting, then, that London Square, the multi-award-winning developer behind some of the capital’s most quietly distinguished addresses, and its parent company Aldar, have chosen Bruton Place, W1, for its new private venue, showcasing its London-wide portfolio for the first time, and for elegant entertaining in the rooftop space.

London Square is joining forces with Country Life and Swaine — the oldest name in British luxury leather goods, purveyor to royalty and gentry alike since the 18th century — for a summer celebration and drinks reception on Bruton Place on Wednesday, July 29, from 6pm to 8pm.

Guests will hear from Swaine’s brand director, Monty Corry, on the heritage behind its workshops and have the opportunity to admire a range of finely crafted leather goods and accessories.

Founded in 1750, Swaine celebrated its 275th anniversary last year, an astonishing feat unmatched by any other British luxury house. The firm has evolved with remarkable grace, becoming purveyors of fine leather goods, umbrellas and military regalia to kings, diplomats and the occasional secret agent.

By comparison, London Square was established only 16 years ago and yet shares a similar commitment to quality, creating homes with exceptional design. Now owned by Aldar, the Abu Dhabi-based property group’s backing has underpinned London Square’s expansion into the capital’s prime and super-prime markets.

From Westminster to Kensington, Battersea to the Royal Boroughs, the company’s portfolio reads like a map of London’s enduring character, which makes its summer campaign, Iconic London Beautifully in Focus, less a marketing flourish than a statement of principle.

The evening will also offer a first look at three of London Square’s most compelling developments: Westminster Tower, SE1, on Albert Embankment opposite the Palace of Westminster, offers apartments from £2.5 million, as well as two extraordinary pent- houses; Fifty Brook Green, a gated cluster of Victorian residences in a former school- house in west London, begins at £1.43 million; and Ransome’s Wharf, SW11, set around its own historic dock on Battersea riverfront, starts from £1.1 million

The evening will also offer a first look at three of London Square’s most compelling developments: Westminster Tower, SE1, offers apartments from £2.5 million, as well as two extraordinary penthouses; Fifty Brook Green, a gated cluster of Victorian residences in a former schoolhouse in west London, begins at £1.43 million; and Ransome’s Wharf, SW11, set around its own historic dock on Battersea riverfront, starts from £1.1 million.

To attend the event on July 29, simply RSVP to RSVPcountrylife@londonsquare.co.uk.

To find out more about the developments, see their individual websites at www.westminstertower.co.uk, www.fiftybrookgreen.co.uk and www.ransomeswharf.co.uk, or @londonsquaredevelopments on Instagram.

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.

I love old maps. The older the better: yellowing, gnarled at the edges and fraying at the folds, perhaps the odd tea stain from a thermos cup rested down during a hike. Heaven.

But I also like new maps, not least because you can, with a click of a button, zoom in on pretty anywhere in the world — from the concrete canyons of Manhattan to the endless spaces of the Namib Desert. The internet might taketh away some of the charm of life, but it doesn't half giveth as well.

I paused to think about this when taking a look at the tiny village of Selmeston, almost in the far south-eastern corner of the South Downs National Park, not far off the road between Lewes and Eastbourne, because it reminded me of how this ancient part of Britain is jammed with fascinating and beautiful places.

There are chalk figures carved into the hills, in the form of the Long Man of Wilmington and the Litlington White Horse; there are the wildly spectacular white cliffs of the Seven Sisters; the picture-perfect village of Alfriston; Virginia Woolf's home, and the shed she worked in, at Monk's House; and, of course, the sapphire sea that sweeps, swirls and crashes onto the pebbles at nearby Seaford.

For those wishing to live amid this landscape, a house has come for sale that will cause a stir: the timeless, Grade II-listed Sherrington Manor, set in 177½ acres of gardens, grounds, woodland and pasture. Phillippa Dalby-Welsh of Savills country department is overseeing the sale, at a guide price of £6.65 million.

The manor, twice mentioned in the Domesday Book, passed to John Selwyn in the mid 14th century, following his marriage to the heiress Katherine Sherrington, and remained with the Selwyns until the early 1500s. In 1626, it was acquired by Matthias Caldecott, who may have built the original T-shaped house, the west wing of which is 17th century or earlier.

According to its listing, the taller north-south wing was originally timber-frame, rebuilt in the 18th century in red and grey brick under a hipped tiled roof. Two ground-floor bays date from the 19th century, with modern additions to the south and west.

In 1993, the Rees family — the current vendors — bought the estate and over the next couple of years built a leisure complex that comprises an indoor swimming pool, tennis court and entertaining pavilion within the vast walled garden.

In 1997, they added the New Hall, which echoes the style of the north-south wing, and whose main room is, blissfully considering our recent run of weather, air conditioned — a rare find in a proper country house.

In total the manor house provides more than 11,500sq ft of accommodation on two main floors, with a cellar and wine store below.

The ground floor houses the entrance hall, New and Old Halls, five reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, a conservatory, gun room and various utilities.

You'll find a gallery, library, nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms on the first floor.

Secondary accommodation is available in the thatched, three-bedroom lodge. A range of traditional Sussex outbuildings includes a coach house and stable courtyard, and an unconverted flint barn.

The farmstead, some 166 acres in all, offers a further range of farm buildings, with the land laid mainly to pasture interspersed with banks of woodland and ancient ponds.

Sherrington Manor is for sale through Savills — 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.

Some properties sound amazing when you pop a few details down in writing. Just the other week, for example, we looked at Kirtlington Park in Oxfordshire, one of Britain's greatest privately-owned mansions, with 36ft ceilings, 17 bedrooms, 37,000sq ft and gardens landscaped by Capability Brown. That little lot alone took care of the headline.

Today, we have something: 'two-bedroom pilchard cellar for sale' doesn't really sell the place as the stuff of dreams — particularly when you hear that this pilchard cellar has an asking price of £1.295 million, and less than 1,500sq ft of space.

Thankfully, the picture above, of The Cellars and its stunning location, does the heavy lifting, painting its thousand words and then some. Those views, and the access to the deep blue seas off the Lizard Peninsula, make this house a rare catch.

There's more good news: The Cellars might have started life as a 19th century pilchard cellar, but it's long since been converted into a quite wonderful seaside home on the Lizard Peninsula, just along the coast from the southernmost tip of mainland Britain.

The fishy history of this picture-perfect coastal home is goes back to the 19th century, in the days before surfing tourism and Rick Stein restaurants, when fishing was a vital part of life and the economy in Cornwall. Then as now, it seems the annual visitors had seasonal habits: large shoals would gather around this spot in the summer months, allowing the fishermen to catch them and take them to buildings such as this for processing, where they were spread on the floor and salted.

The fishermen who did this are, of course, now long gone and The Cellars is a very different place, having undergone a restoration that has retained its original form and materials, but introduced glazing and a sheltered courtyard spine that imbue the place with a contemporary aesthetic.

The sitting room, at 23½ft by 11ft, offers plenty of space for entertaining or family time. Across the courtyard, the kitchen and dining room are of similar proportions.

The principal bedroom — one of two where new owners and their guests can rest and relax — occupies the entire first floor.

The position of The Cellars, within Church Cove on the Lizard Peninsula, offers sea views from the house and raised gardens, plus easy access to the South West Coast Path — perfect for keen walkers or birdwatchers.

For sale via Rohrs & Rowe and Finest at £1.295 million.

Strawberry Hill remains the undisputed icon of the Gothic Revival movement. Built by Horace Walpole from 1749 (making it, technically, a precursor to the current which it helped to create), the jet-white edifice conceals a dark and moody interior that was designed to accommodate Walpole’s collection of antiquaries. He referred to this particular decorative style as ‘gloomth’ — warmth and gloom coming together in harmony.

These days, house buyers prefer to err on the side of light rather than dark — but occasionally we come across the home that manages to do a little of both. That is emphatically the case with a house just down the river from Walpole's home, in the beautifully-named Strawberry Vale. Here, a double-fronted Victorian home is up for sale at £4.75 million with Dexters and Inigo. This six-bedroom villa is flooded with light, but its bold colour scheme brings the gloomth to striking effect.

The house, with its long garden that trails right down to the Thames, forms part of a conservation area comprising nine other houses. and spread across four floors, with a beautifully preserved porte-cochère leading to the raised ground floor.

A glass-covered awning connects the street to the building, where each storey, save for the attic floor, is blessed with at least four or five street-facing windows — and there are even more at the back.

The proportions are vast, with the first floor dedicated to the master suite (complete with a walk-in wardrobe and a balcony) and a guest room.

The ground floor has a gym, plant room, cinema room and a store leading to the garden. Three bedrooms, with a lateral balcony, occupy the second (and top) floor.

These are, as industry parlance goes, very good bones indeed. The current interiors, the world of interior designer Claire Botha, are bold, flamboyant, and a decidedly 21st century take on Walpole’s vision of handsome riverside villas with cosy, moody interiors.

Some elements are timeless and classic: the front door, decked out in stained-glass windows; the exposed brick wall in the kitchen; the elegantly-tiled master bathroom with panelling and a mantlepiece. But safe to say that the look won't be for everyone.

Proximity to Teddington and glorious Richmond Park should typically lure buyers with an appreciation for period finishings.

The riverside garden, 150-ft long, comes with private mooring and a boathouse — both real rarities this close to central London. Parties here will be a thing of beauty. It is perfect for a large family, with one or two dogs.

For sale at £4.75 million through Dexters and Inigo.

Herefordshire — £9 million

Huge excitement for this launch: Dinmore, ome of the most incredible properties in Herefordshire, has come on to the market. The ivy-clad cloisters with a tower at one end are breathtaking.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Oxfordshire — £6.5 million

CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien used to meet regularly at Studley Priory, an outstanding 11-bedroom house that was, back in the day, a country hotel. Now, this venerable old building is a home once more — and what a home it is.

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

Norfolk — £4.5 million

An unbearably handsome Queen Anne house — plus four cottages — on this 47-acre estate in Great Hockham. This is a proper, rural playground, with superb grounds, swimming pool, tennis court and more.

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

Monmouthshire — £1.895 million

Penyclawdd Court is a remarkable, Grade I-listed country house in a wonderful rural spot near Abergavenny. Full of character, six bedrooms, and no chain to worry about.

For sale via Powells — see more details and pictures.

Kent — £2 million

In a rural setting between Canterbury and the coast, this early 20th century home is peaceful and calming. A separate coach house is run as a successful holiday let.

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

The scenic Roseland peninsula, bounded by the Fal estuary to the west and the open waters of Gerrans Bay to the east, lies within the Cornwall National Landscape and is one of south Cornwall’s most beautiful and heavily protected regions.

Rosteague, one of the most private coastal estates there, is tucked away at the southern end of the peninsula, two miles from the village of Portscatho. It is for sale for the first time in 25 years, at a guide price of £12.5 million through Truro-based Lillicrap Chilcott.

Its appearance on the market is certain to cause a stir. Prior to the sale in 2003, the house hadn't been sold since 1945 — and back then, the clamour was so great that buyers are said to have raced down from London in their Rolls-Royces in order to secure a deal.

The estate comprises a Grade II*-listed manor house and stable block, a lodge, cottage and equestrian facilities set in 183 acres of historic gardens, woodland, arable and pasture, with more than a mile of direct frontage to Gerrans Bay.

This is a wonderful wide horseshoe sweep of water, with the towering cliffs of Nare Head at one end and the ancient fishing village of Portscatho at the other. A notorious haunt of smugglers in the 18th and 19th centuries, the deeply indented coastline is today an area of gently rolling farmland, hidden coves and glorious unspoilt beaches, much of it accessible only on foot or by water.

Rosteague Manor dates from 1363, when Ralph de Restak was its first recorded resident. In 1401, John Petit and his wife, Mary, had a licence to celebrate divine service at their chapel at Resteak.

During the 16th century, the estate was held by the influential Mohun family, one of whom was Reginald Mohun, one of Sir Walter Raleigh’s captains; the impressive Elizabethan façade of the present house dates from this period.

In about 1620, Rosteague was acquired by Nicholas Kempe (about 1593–1646), whose grandson, also Nicholas (1643–1710), married the heiress Mary Spry of Place House, St Anthony in Roseland, which is now owned by the National Trust.

The younger Kempe, who inherited the estate in 1669, established its formal walled French knot garden, and, in about 1700, remodelled the 15th/16th-century manor house.

It was later extended in about 1820 for Henry Harris, whose father bought Rosteague from the Kempes in 1780. The Grade II*-listed Victorian stable block dates from the mid 19th century.

The estate was occupied by the Land Army during the Second World War and, in 1945, was acquired by the McKenna family, who converted the old Cider House into an impressive music room. The McKennas remained at Rosteague until 2003, when it was bought by its current owners, who have extensively renovated and enhanced the property.

Rosteague Manor, its medieval, Elizabethan and Georgian evolution reflected in a wealth of historic detail, sits within a sheltered fold of the landscape, hidden from view, yet commanding an immense outlook across Gerrans Bay and the open waters of the English Channel.

It provides 6,384sq ft of well-ordered accommodation on two main floors, including four grand reception rooms, a large modern kitchen, a breakfast room and study. There's also a dedicated flower room, which was once a medieval chapel.

Above, there is a vast principal bedroom suite, five double bedrooms and three further bathrooms. The look and feel of the decor is truly something: this is a home of exotic wallpaper, four-poster beds and polished copper baths.

Further accommodation is provided in the pretty, Grade II-listed, three-bedroom Lodge designed in the Arts-and-Crafts style by Charles Harrison Townsend, plus a three-bedroom farm cottage and a one-bedroom groom’s flat.

The six acres of gardens, which enclose the manor house on three sides, are a delight. Stone steps beside the house lead through a wrought-iron gate to the celebrated French Garden, of which Prof Timothy Mowl wrote in his 2005 book Historic Gardens of Cornwall: ‘Rosteague, sheltered behind a slate-roofed wall of granite and cob, has preserved that holiest of horticultural relics, one possibly unique in England, its original box parterre.’

More than 20 acres of amenity woodland provide enchanting walks. The remaining 110 acres of land include 31½ acres of well-drained, mostly post-and-railed paddocks; for keen equestrians, the house also has an all-weather manege.

For selling agent Ian Lillicrap, however, the defining attribute is the extent of the shoreline, which includes ownership to mean low water, ‘a rare and precious asset in a county where coastal property is revered and private ownership on this scale is truly extraordinary’.

Yet, despite its sense of seclusion, Rosteague remains accessible, with the cathedral city of Truro 17 miles to the north-west and Newquay airport some 19 miles away.

The Rosteague Estate is on the market with Lillicrap Chilcott — see more details.

New York — $3,100,000

This dairy farm in upstate New York dates back to 1759, sits in 12 acres of gorgeous woodland — which is as old, or older than the building — and has been beautifully updated throughout.

It's close to the Appalachian Trail, has a gorgeous DeVol kitchen, and is just 90 minutes from Manhattan on the train.

For sale @buyingupstate and The Lillie K Team at Four Seasons Sotheby's International Realty.

South Carolina — $4,295,000

In the magical old city of Charleston, this 1743-built home pre-dates the Boston Tea Party by thirty years.

It's an architectural gem on South Lamboll Street, one of the prettiest in the city, and as well as its charming original features it also has double piazzas and verandas to provide the quintessential Charleston outdoor living lifestyle.

For sale via Daniel Ravenel Sotheby’s International Realty — see more details and pictures.

Pennsylvania — $999,000

Looking for all the world like the sort of cottage you'd find in Cumbria, this glorious little stone-built home dates back to 1753.

It's been updated sensitively, though, with a fine kitchen, a swimming pool and grounds of just over half an acre.

For sale via Kurfiss Sotheby's International Realty — see more details and pictures.

Massachusetts — $1,489,000

You'll find eight fireplaces, original wide-plank wood floors, and preserved period detail throughout a house that was originally the Cushing Tavern, built in 1746 in the town of Hingham, where you'll find some of the oldest homes in America.

It's had modern updates — heating system, roof, and central air conditioning — but is in many ways a blank canvas looking for an owner to bring their own personality to this 18th century home.

For sale via William Raveis — see more details and pictures.

Connecticut — $7,250,000

As rude as it might be to play favourites, we've left the best til last: this utterly magical house is described by the agents as having 'one of the most breathtaking private settings on the Connecticut River' — and it's not hard to believe.

Built in 1750, with almost 4,500sq ft of space and just under 10 acres, it's an irresistibly pretty house that has been remarkably well cared for — and the cool, wooded grounds and pool are sumptuous.

For sale via William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty — see more details and pictures.

The one where you can smell the burning rubber — Silverstone, from £850,000

For diehard F1 fans, it doesn’t get much better than this: a property literally trackside at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix. Picture it: from the comfort of your home, you can watch (as well as hear, feel, and even smell) the action unfold on Maggotts and Becketts — among the most famous corners in motorsport.

The Escapade Silverstone development comprises 60 sleek properties and a clubhouse with top-notch facilities, including a ‘driver-focused gym’. There’s a myriad of other perks for homeowners too,, making the starting prices of around £850,000 easier to bear.

Think free access to major race events at Silverstone, with discounts available for friends and family. This is sure to appeal to anyone who takes their racing seriously (and more importantly, has the budget to match).

You may need to get used to sharing your trophy asset, though. According to By Design, which is marketing this four-bedroom house, Silverstone will rent out your home when you’re not there ‘to ensure each owner is making an income from their empty property’.

For sale via agents including Savills and United Kingdom Sotheby's International Realty.

The one with an underground 'Batcave' garage — Derbyshire, £6,000,000

Set on the edge of the Peak District National Park, this striking contemporary home comes with a twist: an incredible 4,000 sq ft underground haven that will have car collectors drooling.

On the lower ground floor, there’s a six-car garage with three — yes, three — automated roller doors, electric charging points and storage. And in the basement, there’s a separate garage space with enough room for a car collection, alongside a fully-equipped workshop and a maintenance lift. There is even a car wash and valeting bay to ensure cars leave looking track-ready.

And how do you reach this underground gem? Via a concealed hydraulic car lift from the driveway, of course.

The living space at this sprawling five-bedroom house is no less impressive, featuring everything from an eight-seat cinema to an altitude training room. You see, this really is an all-singing, all-dancing affair.

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

The one with an underground garage in the middle of London — Hampstead, £16,950,000

It is not every day that you come across a London home with a private underground garage large enough for six cars. But then again, there is very little about this property that could be described as ‘ordinary’.

For starters, this glitzy penthouse is located on The Bishops Avenue in Hampstead, dubbed ‘Billionaires’ Row’. It also happens to have been rented by Ariana Grande while she was filming Wicked.

The enormous garage is only part of the appeal. The five-bedroom apartment — part of the swish Buxmead development — is packed with A-list-style amenities, including a cinema and games room, gym, and two kitchens.

If you are in the market for this type of home, privacy and security are likely to be top-of-mind. Fortunately, this home delivers on both fronts. The garage is accessed via a lift, while a uniformed — naturally — security team watches over the development. This is the sort of setup that will allow you to sleep soundly, no matter what's parked downstairs.

For sale via United Kingdom Sotheby’s International Realty and Alexander Main.

The countryside home with space to work on your Lamborghini — West Sussex, £1,800,000

At first glance, Duncans Granary looks every inch the idyllic countryside retreat. But hidden inside one of the outbuildings is a space that is likely to set car enthusiasts’ pulses racing: an ‘extensive man cave garaging and workshop’, according to selling agent Strutt & Parker.

Totalling almost 2,500 sq ft, it comprises two garage areas, a workshop and even a bar. In other words, it is a place designed as much for admiring cars as working on them. And judging by the photos, the current owners have set the bar high, housing what appear to be some pretty special engines.

The four-bedroom house and outbuildings sit within 3.2 acres of grounds, including a pond with a bridge and a decked seating area.

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

The one with its own rally stage to race on — Ceredigion, £3,500,000

Most farms come with barns. This one also comes with its own two-mile tarmac track that features loops and split roads.

Known as the Bont Dolebolion Rally Stage, the track winds through the rolling Welsh countryside. What is more, it offers the potential to generate income: a variety of motorsport events, including rally testing days, take place here. Yes, it's a rally stage rather than an F1 circuit — but it's surely the sort of thing petrolheads dream of.

Away from the motorsports action, the 395-acre beef and sheep farm includes a traditional four-bedroom farmhouse and numerous outbuildings. Some are in better condition than others...

This is a little more rough and ready than a track-side home at Escapade Silverstone — but therein lies its charm. Just try not to confuse the livestock count with your split times.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

The one that caters to every kind of horsepower — Berkshire, £2,950,000

With extensive garaging that’s in very good nick, this property has ‘car collector’ written all over it.

The stables at Willow Farm have been converted into an enormous garage and showroom, complete with an office, meeting room, kitchen, gardener’s room and games room. A separate garage and a car port sit just behind it. All-in-all, ample space for everything from cherished classics to the latest supercars.

The block is currently used as a smart showroom, but it given that it's entirely secure and has capacity for up to 20 cars, you could probably use it as a motoring museum.

And while it's one for serious car collectors, this is still a beautiful family home that's ideal for those who prefer a different kind of horsepower: the house is set in 12 acres, has a paddock, direct access to the bridleway, and the grounds are so flat, and in such good shape, that it's apparently ideal for creating a polo field.

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

The one where you can live in the home of a legend — Kensington, £2,625,000 

What this charming mews house in south west London lacks in high octane motorsports facilities, it more than makes up for in history.

This was once the home of James Hunt, the charismatic 1976 F1 world champion, who was loved by a generation of fans first as a driver, and then as the most hilariously honest commentator in motorsport. Younger readers will more likely remember him from the film, Rush — one of the best motorsport films ever made.

Unlike many F1 stars who quit racing and go to live in country homes, Hunt loved his famous playboy lifestyle in London, and moved to this home in 1980 after swapping his steering wheel for a BBC microphone — a decision he made, as he admitted, ‘for reasons of self-preservation’.

Originally two separate houses, the property has been transformed into a light and airy four-bedroom home. Unusually, all the living space is arranged on the first floor, where an open-plan kitchen, dining and reception room opens out onto a terrace.

The property comes with two private parking spaces — a feature that, according to current owner Dave Allan, drew Hunt to the house in the first place.

‘It’s been lovely owning a piece of history and hearing all the stories relating to the house,’ says Allan. ‘Apparently, during James Hunt’s time there, it was well known for hosting some rather lively parties.’

For sale via Hamptons — see more details and pictures.

Do you have a huge pile of unread books next to your bed? You almost certainly do, because as a visitor to the Country Life website, you're fairly likely to love reading. And everyone — everyone — who loves reading also loves acquiring new books to read at slightly faster rate than they finish the ones they already have.

As a kid, this means a book or two hanging around. As an adult, your backlog will reach double figures, then multliple dozens, and — if left unchecked — can head into the hundreds, and beyond. At one point the pile of books on my bedside table grew so tall that it began to lean towards the sun, like a particularly large skyscraper. When it became an undeniable health hazard, some went to the charity shop (heartbreaking), some went into the back of a wardrobe (almost as bad). Not the bookshelves, of course, because they were already full-to-bursting.

The only real answer, I used to think, would be a stint in a high-security prison where there was no work, no recreation, nothing at all to do except to read. Six months would probably do the trick, but probably best to pencil in a year, and I reckon I could get through the lot before starting a new life unencumbered by everything I hadn't yet got round to.

Now, though, I've changed my mind. I don't need a stint in prison; all I need is £3 million to buy Thorne Island, in the waters off the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast.

Thorne Island isn't a prison, and never has been, even though it looks like the British equivalent to Alcatraz — but the reason they look so similar is that both were military forts built in the 1850s.

It was only in 1933 that Alcatraz was bought by the United States Department of Justice for use as a Federal penitentiary. A year earlier, in 1932, Thorne Island had been bought at auction for just £90, as reported by Country Life, by Miss A.W.M. Pearson, who turned it into a hotel.

The Thorne Island Hotel was successful enough to keep it running for half a century, but the Pearsons sold it in 1989 and things started to go wrong. By 2000 it had began to fall into disrepair.

The place changed hands once or twice before eventually being bought by IT entrepreneur Mike Conners in 2017. Conners has ploughed a huge amount of time and money into the place: £2 million, according to the agents Fine & Country, to make it a place where you can truly get away from it all.

This 2½-acre private haven has five sea moorings, a jetty and a helipad — the latter coming in useful during the refurbishment work, with some 350 back-and-forth trips apparently needed to bring in the new materials and fittings for the island.

While the island isn't far off the mainland, it's far enough off to be entirely off the grid — but Conners and his son Ben have made the place completely self-sufficient for power and water with a series of renewable-energy facilities that make it feel very 21st century.

There are solar panels, air source heat pumps, sewage treatment facility, a rainwater collection with a 250,000-litre capacity (that's probably about three day's worth in south Wales) and a reverse-osmosis system to ensure a supply of clean, drinkable water.

The accommodation within this Grade II*-listed coastal fort includes a modern, open-plan kitchen/family area, dining room and sitting room, five bedrooms and five bathrooms.

The sleeping areas can be reconfigured, according to the agents, to make this 8,000sq ft house able to cater for 20 overnight guests.

Traditional exposed red brickwork gives the rooms a warm, characterful feel.

There's also a rooftop bar area, with a games room — and a space that was once the fort’s lookout on the western edge of the island has been turned into an office. There's even a garden of sorts, with the outdoor courtyard laid to lawn.

All that remains is to decide what to use the place for. A boutique hotel? The ultimate Air BNB? A miniature prison? Or just a picture-perfect spot where you can finally catch up on all that reading...

Thorne Island is for sale through Strutt & Parker — see more details.

In Dorset, the pristine, 127-acre Ashmore Manor estate at Ashmore, 6½ miles south-east of Shaftesbury, revels in a panoramic vista over its own land and the surrounding Cranborne Chase National Landscape. Now, following a meticulous refurbishment and renovation programme, the estate is for sale through James Toogood of Savills country department at a guide price of £12 million.

Situated at 700ft above sea level, Ashmore is the county’s highest village, and it's as ancient a place as you'll find. Forget mentions in the Domesday Book, or Roman remains: Ashmore is one of a tiny number of villages in England that's been continuously inhabited since Celtic times.

The focal point of the estate, which was bought by the current owners in 2008, is imposing Ashmore Manor, the core of which was designed by London architect William Curtis Green.

It has been altered and extended by Dorset-based Adrian Morris Architecture, with the addition of a new farmhouse, new farm buildings and a link to an existing oak-frame annexe next to the indoor pool.

The main house provides 16,673sq ft of elegant accommodation on three floors, including an entrance hall, five reception rooms, a snug, kitchen/breakfast room, six bedrooms and four bathrooms.

The gardens have been thoughtfully designed and lovingly nurtured, each distinct area carefully positioned to capture the best of the surrounding landscape.

The estate land is farmed, but not intensively, but carefully planted to enhance the bio-diversity of both flora and fauna. This is a superb house in a setting that is simply magical, with lakes, meadows, woodland, walled gardens, a bluebell wood and more. No wonder it has the agent waxing lyrical: Savills describe it as 'one of the finest manor houses to come to the market in recent years.'

The Ashmore Estate is for sale through Savills at £12 million — 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.