A Georgian home in the sleepy Surrey village that's been an A-lister's hideaway for everyone from Agatha Christie to Tom Cruise
The storied village of Shere in Surrey is always a joy to visit — and a wonderful home on the outskirts has just come on to the market.
The ancient village of Shere is a sleepy place. Usually, anyway. Sitting on the River Tillingbourne, five miles east of Guildford and five miles west of Dorking, it's a small, still partly agricultural village set in the wooded Vale of Holmesdale within the Surrey Hills National Landscape.
Strange, then, that it should punch so far above its weight when it comes to Hollywood royalty. Back in 2006 (no, we can't believe it's 20 years either) this was the village where the entirely daft, yet somehow now iconic movie The Holiday was filmed. The famed cottage itself — which Cameron Diaz borrows from Kate Winslet, en route to falling in love with Jude Law — was merely a facade, and was pulled down after shooting wrapped, but the rest of the place is real, and fans have headed here ever since.
No village should be without a sign letting you know where to go and see the ducks.
Diaz and Law weren't the first A-listers to come to this leafy corner of Surrey, and nor were they the last. Since at least the early 20th century, the village’s accessible location and Tudor architecture have made it a Mecca for artists and film-makers, many of whom bought houses there. Everyone from Agatha Christie and Sean Connery to Tom Cruise and Michael Caine have been spotted here down the years, though by far the most amusing tale is of Arthur Conan-Doyle and A.A. Milne coming to the Shere village green to play for J.M. Barrie's cricket team. Rudyard Kipling and HG Wells were also invited, but apparently declined. Christie's tale is nearly as good: she's believed to have lived incognito in Shere during the period after her mysterious disappearance in the 1930s.
Yes, it really is just 30 miles from London.
Historically, it was a little rougher. The neighbourhood was, for a time, one of the wildest in the county, with sheep-stealers, smugglers and poachers finding sanctuary in this once remote area.
Today, all is serene in these wooded hills, where Theo James-Wright of the Blue Book Agency is overseeing the launch onto the market of Grade II-listed Cotterell House, an impeccably renovated, red-brick Georgian house set in about 12 acres of gardens, with paddocks and a lake, on the outskirts of the village. It comes fresh to the market this week with a guide price of £7 million.
Georgian houses are rare in this part of Surrey, and Cotterell House, which dates from the mid 18th century, is probably a handsome aggrandisement of an earlier 17th-century building linked to Cotterell Farm.
All the main reception rooms flow easily off a wide entrance hall. Behind the fan-lit front door are a double-aspect drawing room and a family snug or study, with another Georgian-era family room arranged, open-plan, alongside a large family kitchen. The more formal rooms in the oldest part of the house, which dates from 1690, include a music room with space for a grand piano and an elegant drawing room with a large inglenook fireplace.
Upstairs, four bedrooms in the older part of the house make up the ‘children’s wing’, with the Georgian element housing two bedroom suites, two double bedrooms and a family bathroom.
Outside, former farm buildings have been converted into two fully equipped, potential party barns centred on a Mediterranean-style heated outdoor pool. Further buildings include a carport and garage, a pool house, stables and storage.
For sale via Blue Book — contact the agent for more details.
