A sweep of lawns, a curve of river and a backdrop of woodland; a golden stone façade covered in wisteria, with a grand doorway leading to a house full of oak-panelled rooms with views across the croquet lawn; a lake, a cottage, a tennis court, plus 25 acres of Gloucestershire to call your own; and a location near a whole host of the most beautiful and beguiling places in this enchanting part of the world.
This isn’t a Cotswolds property shopping list, but it might as well be — and every one of the boxes is ticked by Little Barrow, which has come up for sale via Ed Sugden of Savills at £12 million.
The house sits close to the Fosse Way in the hamlet of Donnington, which stretches from the River Evenlode in the east to a mile west of the River Dikler, two miles or so north of Stow-on-the-Wold, and the same distance in the other direction from Moreton-in-Marsh. Daylesford and Soho Farmhouse are both within easy reach.
As for the house itself? Little Barrow is a fine, late Arts-and-Crafts house built of Cotswold stone on a medieval site and remodelled and extended in the Cotswold manorial style in the 1930s by the distinguished conservation architect Walter Godfrey.
Set in 25 acres of pasture and woodland with splendid gardens created by the present custodian, Little Barrow has been comprehensively renovated throughout and offers four reception rooms, a luxurious principal bedroom suite, seven further bedrooms (four en suite) and a family bathroom.
There is also a cinema room, a one-bedroom apartment and additional accommodation in the form of a three-bedroom cottage and a four-bedroom lodge. Amenities include stabling and barns, a hard tennis court, a croquet lawn and an ornamental lake.
Research supplied by the present Texan owner, who, in 2000, bought the manor that was previously owned by Sir Charles and Lady Mander — resident there from 1950 until 1999 — maintains that the original Little Barrow, first mentioned in Domesday, was the name given to the 35 acres or more that surrounded the manor. Little Barrow Manor itself was reputedly built in 1734–35 by a doctor to George II, part of the King’s entourage when he decamped for the summer to the royal county of Gloucestershire.
The house was built with large blocks of Cotswold limestone mined from a nearby quarry and was a rectangular structure; an extension into the present-day breakfast/lunch room and morning-coffee room was added at some point in the 1880s. The Arts-and-Crafts work was carried out some 40 to 50 years later.
And there you have it: a beautiful house with a story to tell, located in a wonderful setting near some of the Cotswolds finest honeypots. £12 million is, obviously, really quite a lot of money... but then again, it's hard to imagine a home in this area that does a better job of ticking every box.
Little Barrow is for sale via Savills at £12 million — see more details and pictures.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
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