A 34-bedroom Cotswolds home for £810,000, a sprawling Victorian mill or a Grand Design waiting to happen? The world of property auctions is going wild
Property auctions always bring up some unusual homes for sale — and this latest crop is particularly intriguing.
Property auctions has always thrown some fascinating tales our way. Regular readers might remember this magical, 12-acre Devon house selling for £250,000, the Art Deco seaside lift in Ramsgate with a guide price of £20,000, or the house where Henry VIII dallied with Anne Boleyn while he was still married to Catherine of Aragon.
These fascinating places feed our bricks-and-mortar dreams — even if those dreams don't always come out quite how we'd imagine. The cautionary tale of Ribbesford House is the perfect example: bought for £800,000 some eight years ago, millions spent on building work, and yet sold for £450,000 earlier in 2026.
Our guide to buying a house at auction is full of expert tips that can steer you through many of the potential pitfalls — it's required reading for anyone even vaguely thinking of buying a home this way, and will point you in the direction of getting the expert advice you need.
Once your homework is done, the upcoming Savills property auction — taking place on June 9 — has all manner of buildings for sale, from kebab shops in Bristol to swanky flats in Knightsbridge. But among all this are some quite astonishing gems which any self-respecting Country Life reader will be fascinated by.
Top of the list is Breadstone House in Gloucestershire, just down the road from Berkeley Castle, which has been the seat of the Berkeley family since the 12th century. Breadstone isn't quite that grand (it's also pictured at the top of this page), but it is an elegant, Grade II-listed house set in two acres of land on the edge of the Cotswolds AONB, half-way between Gloucester and Bristol.
The house originally dates to the 18th century, but was expanded a couple of times in the 19th century to create the pretty, Gothick style appearance it has today. More change came in the 20th and 21st centuries, and Breadstone ended up becoming a nursing home for some years — a business which, judging from the state of affairs inside, didn't end well. There is a vast amount of work to be done, both to the main house and the auxiliary buildings where you'll find the majority of the 34 bedrooms.
Given the location (the M5 is easily accessed from here) it seems likely a developer might be keen to turn the place into smaller homes — and permission is in place to turn it into nine apartments. That said, subject to new permission it could become a family home once more — and the high ceilings, sweeping staircases and huge windows give it wonderful potential. With a guide price of £810,000 it certainly offers a vast amount of space for the money.
Should you be looking for something just as pretty but more affordable, an apartment in a grand country house is for sale at one-ninth of Breadstone's price. It's set in Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, with a guide price of £90,000.
Number 2, Castle Malwood Lodge is tiny — a 324 sq ft studio apartment, with bathroom, kitchen and living space — but offers the grandeur of living in a converted, Grade II-listed 19th-century hunting lodge, with beautiful communal gardens. The lease has almost 1,000 years remaining, but you'll have to make sure you're clued up about any service charges; this is simple living in one of the prettiest parts of southern England.
For those seeking something historic — and immensely striking — then Thwaite Mill, in Leeds could be perfect. The guide price of £600,000 buys 19 acres of what was originally a 17th century fulling mill, but which has long since become a museum, event space and wedding venue. It's also been used as a filming location, most recently in Channel 4's A Woman of Substance.
A string of beautiful. Grade II-listed buildings are on the site — but this is a place of special historic interest, and will likely have to remain as such rather than offering scope for change to residential usage. There are also some legal provisos in the listing, including one noting that 'the purchaser will be required to enter into an agreement with the vendor releasing them from environmental liability'. This could be wonderful, but any buyer will have to go in with their eyes wide open to what they're getting in to.
And finally, there's a property for sale that is absolutely not a house, in any way — but it is a building which seems ripe for someone keen to get themselves on to Grand Designs. Broomhill Water Tower, in a Northumberland village between Morpeth and Alnwick, close to the beautiful, unspoilt coast. Amid this bucolic splendour, the tower rises above the landscape looking like a cross between a giant bunsen burner and the house in The Jetsons — all hewn in austere, Brutalist-style concrete.
Plans have been drawn up to turn it into a three-bedroom home, but it seems that permission has not yet been granted for the change of use. The guide price is £55,000 — we can't decide if it's a bargain, or a disaster waiting to happen. Either way, Kevin McCloud is sure to be on the phone to whoever wins the auction.
The Savills property auction is on June 9 — see more details.
