Sedgehill Manor is a handsome historic property located in a beautiful part of the country. Penny Churchill takes a look.
With little new to look at since the start of the year, the frenzy has gone out of the country-house market in the West Country — especially in Devon, where there is ‘a dreadful shortage’ of family houses in sought-after parts of the county, such as the area around Blundells School in Tiverton, says Ed Clarkson of buying agents Property Vision. Fortunately, the West Country is a big place and good houses with land can still be found in tranquil corners closer to London.
Previously located in Dorset and now in Wiltshire following boundary changes, the manor of Sedgehill was owned by Shaftesbury Abbey in the early 12th century. At the Dissolution, it passed to the Crown and was granted, in 1540, to Sir Thomas Poynings, who immediately sold it to Sir Thomas Arundell.
Following Arundell’s arrest and execution, the manor was acquired, in 1573, by William Grove, who was briefly MP for Shaftesbury. The estate, which diminished in size as farms were sold off, remained in the Grove family until the death of Sir Gerald Grove in 1962. It was sold twice more before 1980, when the early-19th-century manor house was acquired with 50 acres by its present owner.
For sale through Oliver Custance-Baker of Strutt & Parker at a guide price of £4.95 million, Sedgehill Manor, which is unlisted, today stands in 55 acres of formal gardens, pasture and woodland, about two miles from the village of Semley, Wiltshire, and just under five miles from Shaftesbury, Dorset.
It comes with a party barn, stabling, workshops and garaging, as well as far-reaching views over the lush pastures of the vale to the Wessex Heights.
The imposing, 8,452sq ft manor house offers spacious accommodation on three floors, including four reception rooms, a library/study, kitchen/breakfast room, various utilities, nine bedrooms and five bathrooms.
In the 1890s, one of the bedrooms in the guest wing was designed by Lady Agnes Grove as her morning room, where she wrote her books and discussed her work with Thomas Hardy, who called her his ‘good little pupil’.
Sedgehill Manor is currently on the market via Strutt & Parker with a guide price of £4.95 million — see more pictures or enquire with the agent for further details.
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