A country house that comes with a Harrier Jump Jet

A year and a half ago, in the depths of the damp winter of 2023/24, a house came up for sale. By pretty much any standard, it was quite a place: 10 bedrooms, 10 acres of land, designed by Inigo Jones and with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll, and eminently commutable to London via nearby Petersfield. And that's before we even mention the [checks notes] Harriet Jump Jet parked on the lawn...

Yes, Durford Edge really does have a staggeringly rare example of this iconic warbird — only eight are left in Britain — but even with a USP like this, the property market has been somewhat fickle in the last 18 months, and a new owner hasn't yet been found. While not ideal for the seller, it's good news for the buyer since the house has been relaunched via Fine & Country with a price cut from £3.95 million to £3.25 million.

New pictures have been taken — property photography really is increasingly important these days — and while the interiors always looked great, it's lovely now to see Durford Edge with leaves on the trees, the wisteria in full bloom and those Gertrude Jekyll gardens at their spring peak.

A new description of the house has also been put together by the agents — though curiously, just as before, no mention is made of the world's first vertical-take-off-capable fighter plane. We suppose we can understand that; sell the house on its own merits, and so on; and it does feature in the pictures and video on Fine & Country's site (albeit given less prominence than the borrowed Bentley that the agent drives up in...).

It's something that struck James Fisher when he wrote about Durford Edge when it first hit the market; here is his very funny piece about the house, originally published in January 2024:

Sometimes, when I’m bored, I like to imagine hypothetical situations where people from the past would be presented with something from the present, and how they might react.

What would occur, for example, if you showed a Victorian chimney sweep an Iphone? Would the mind of a serf from the Middle Ages be able to tolerate the concept of a Vauxhall Corsa? Could legendary garden designer Gertrude Jekyll comprehend the mechanics of the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier?

Silly questions really, but they help pass the time.

The Jekyll-Harrier question sprung to mind when browsing through the particulars of Durford Edge near Petersfield in Hampshire. The property — with Savills for £3.95 million — is everything we love at Country Life: an Arts-and-Crafts home, built in the late Edwardian period by the esteemed architect Inigo Triggs, with gardens laid out by the aforementioned doyenne of the English country garden, Gertrude Jekyll.

At some point, however, the owner of this beautiful Hampshire home decided that one ornament the garden was missing was the world’s first Vertical Take off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, the Harrier jump jet. So they went and got one.

Some questions. Many questions, actually, but we'll start with these.

Firstly, which shop does a person visit when they wish to purchase a Harrier? Is it one of those strange army surplus stores that you used to sneak into when a kid to look at some crossbows? Or does the Ministry of Defence have an account on Ebay?

Secondly, does it come with missiles?

The third, and in my opinion more important, question is why, in the agent’s particulars, it is not mentioned at all? This is surely the first time in history that the elephant in the room is actually a fighter jet in the garden.

It's not as if there aren't plenty of other important details included. For example, I can tell you that the main home extends to more than 4,800sq ft, offers six bedrooms over two floors and has been sympathetically modernised in recent years. I can even assert with some confidence that there's a WiFi-enabled fridge-freezer.

Other important details are the secondary accommodation included in the asking price, named The Hollow, itself with four bedrooms, the 10 acres of gardens (designed by Gertrude Jekyll, not sure if I mentioned that) and the very pleasant pond.

Not mentioned is the Harrier jump jet.

I suppose at this point, a half-decent journalist would do some digging to find out if the fighter aircraft is included in the sale price, or available via separate negotiation. But that sounds like a job for a conveyancing lawyer, and I don’t want to step on their toes. [Editor's note: James later spoke to the owner, discovered that it is included, that the plane is decommissioned, and that it also has decommissioned missiles in situ to complete the look.)

So, to recap, for £3.25 million you will receive two properties, 10 bedrooms, 10 acres and a Harrier (maybe) in the Hampshire countryside.

Sounds like a pretty good deal.

Durford Edge is on the market with Fine & Country in Petersfield — see more details.