Four period country houses which are actually brand new

(Image credit: Strutt & Parker)

published 8 September 2018

Cheshire, £3.75 million

Devisdale House, a pristine Arts-and-Crafts villa that dates back to 1880, has been completely remodelled by award-winning developer Huntsmere.

In the sought-after village of Bowdon, the fortunes of which took off in the mid 19th century as a pretty, countryside spot for Manchester commuters, there are five en-suite bedrooms plus a pool, spa, sauna, gym, games room and pool terrace. Manchester airport is only 15 minutes away.

For sale with Jackson-Stops. See more pictures and details about this property.

Buckinghamshire, £5.95 million

Double-height vaulted ceilings and a flurry of glazed doors and windows ensure that enormous Langley Wood House (11,000sq ft) is always filled with light. Built two years ago just outside the village of Fulmer – the name comes from Old English for ‘lake frequented by birds’ – it has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms and an impressive, triple-aspect 42ft by 31ft drawing room.

The 4¾ acres of grounds include terraces, lawns and a Julian Christian lodge for outdoor entertaining. Planning permission has been granted for pool and garage complexes.

For sale with Strutt & Parker. See more pictures and details about this property.

Oxfordshire, £5.2 million

White and elegantly Georgian in style, Birch Copse, set in 32 acres of mature parkland only three miles from Oxford city centre, in Boars Hill, has six bedrooms and airy proportions.

Outside, there’s a tennis court, and the house has views of Matthew Arnold’s ‘dreaming spires’. The property also benefits from the mixed-use rates for Stamp Duty.

For sale with Knight Frank. See more pictures and details about this property.

Northumberland, £1.3 million

In local Doddington stone with lawns that slope down to a stream and views to the Cheviot Hills, The Pastures has five bedrooms, a billiard room, inglenook fireplaces, beamed ceilings and a mahogany staircase.

A bridge leads across the stream to a fenced paddock and a half-acre plot with planning permission for a three- to five-bedroom house is available separately.

For sale with Finest Properties. See more pictures and details about this property.

Six stunning properties with beautiful fireplaces

Come on baby, light my fire – Annunciata Elwes rounds up gorgeous country houses with fireplaces guaranteed to impress.

Five delightful country houses in East Anglia under £1m

Buying a country house in East Anglia offers up all sorts of superb options for less than £1 million. Annunciata

Credit: Knight Frank

Six incredible homes perfect for making the most of the great outdoors

A beautiful house is one thing, but a beautiful house in a wonderful location which lets you make the most

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.