What does a property need to fulfil your list of country house dreams? It's a question that all buyers have to ask themselves, no matter if they have a budget of £350,000 or £35 million.
Bayham Hall — which, at £3.6 million via John D Wood, sits between those two extremes — sheds an interesting light on the decisions to be made. This is a home which is as grand as it gets from the outside, as stylish and chic as you could wish for on the inside, prompting the agents to claim that it mixes a Downton Abbey exterior with a Soho House interior.
It's huge, too: almost 8,000sq ft of accommodation, with eight bedrooms (many of which can be configured for other use), spectacular, high-ceilinged living spaces, and a hallway with staircase that lends the place real grace and beauty.
Take the kitchen, for example. It was once the library, but now that space has become a huge, bright room at the heart of a house which blends the modern with period living in plentiful creative and practical ways.
The choices of art and decor are what give this Kent house its contemporary twist on classic country house accoutrements. Thus we have a Chesterfield sofa adorned with boldly patterned cushions, and a four-poster bed that is the antithesis of the heavy, dark timber, curtained four-poster you might expect when coming up the drive.
As well as all this grandeur within, Bayham Hall also has a fine rural setting in over five acres of grounds and gardens, while nearby Tunbridge Wells offers a town that both provides plenty in its own right, and also a fast rail service in to London.
The compromise? You don't get to call the whole place your own. The purchase price is for the freehold of the west wing of a mansion designed and built in the 1870s by David Brandon. You'll be able to impress friends by inviting them to come and see you down in the country, and they'll drive up to your door via a Downton-style driveway; but those grounds and gardens will be shared with others who live on this estate, and in other parts of the house.
For some that will be a deal breaker (they might to look at nearby homes such as this which offer space and privacy without that period drama grandeur). For others it'll probably be a boon, since isolation and worries about ground maintenance are two things which make some country house buyers think twice. Neither is an issue here.
So that puts the ball back in the buyers' court. Is this how and where you want to live? Is this a better choice for you than a similarly-priced Edwardian home in Cobham, or a terraced house in the heart of Edinburgh, for example? All that is up to you.
Bayham Hall is for sale at £3.6 million via John D Wood — see more pictures and details.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
Best country houses for sale this week
An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for
-
This Suffolk home is a perfect escape from the world and it comes with its own stretch of river and 20 acresThis idyllic home in Suffolk is the perfect village home.
-
We remember Prunella Scales in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 28, 2025The actor passed away today and is best known for her role opposite John Cleese in the TV programme 'Fawlty Towers'.
-
This Suffolk home is a perfect escape from the world and it comes with its own stretch of river and 20 acres
This idyllic home in Suffolk is the perfect village home.
-
The quaint Alpine village that got taken over by The BeatlesThe Beatles visited the Austrian resort of Obertauern to film their 1965 film Help!. Despite a distinct lack of prowess on the slopes, the Fab Four got by with a little help from some new-found friends, discovers Russell Higham.
-
The ultimate treehouse escape, where you can have a sauna and hot tub 12 metres above the forest floor, is for sale in DorsetGuy Mallinson's award-winning treehouses in Dorset are a true escape from the world. Anna White takes a look.
-
20 breathtaking country homes for sale, as seen in Country LifeWe take a look at some of the finest houses to come to market via Country Life in the past week.
-
The elegant country home of a motor racing daredevil who drove round the world in a 1936 Bentley and crashed a Range Rover into his own front porchPeasemore House, with its collection of barns, workshops, stables and more, is an ideal home from which to plan an adventure — something that was a passion of its present owners. Penny Churchill explains more.
-
The wisteria clad cottage where Noël Coward and Ivor Novello held court at the height of their fameThe 17th-century Follejon Cottage just outside Windsor was a perfect escape from the city for Noël Coward and his circle of friends. As it goes on the market, Penny Churchill takes a look.
-
A Cotswolds property that's the strangest mix of old and new we've ever seen... and yet somehow, it all worksThe Gasworks is a house quite unlike anything you've seen before — or at least anything you've seen all in one place. Toby Keel takes a closer look.
-
A country house near Windsor that could be straight from the pages of a Jilly Cooper novelPenny Churchill looks at the beautiful polo-lover's sanctuary that is Barkham Square Park.
