An idyllic country estate set in a South Downs landscape of cliffs, villages and chalk figures hewn into the hillsides
The Grade II-listed Sherrington Manor is a wonderful character home that blends old and new, sitting in over 175 acres of spectacular downland.
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.
