A 'mini-château' in the hills of Sussex, with pool, cinema and a dedicated sneaker room
Danley Hill is a Sussex country home that's designed as a mini-French château, with a rather unusual addition in one of the rooms.
Toby Keel
A property listing is a snapshot in time. While you can research a house's past, and take an educated guess about its future, it's primarily an exercise in there here and now — and because of that, it's a little like dipping into the middle of a story without finding out how it ends.
Today, though, we have a departure from this norm thanks to the appearance of Danley Hill on the market. This charming Sussex home — in the village of Linchmere, not far from Haslemere — is on the market at £6 million via John D Wood, eight years after it last made an appearance in Country Life.
Danley Hill as it appeared on the Country Life website in 2018.
Back in 2018, the house was on the market at £2 million. Why the hefty change in price? In part it's the changes in the market, but in the main it's the work that has been done here.
The house, we noted in eight years ago, was in dire need of refurbishment; as you can see in the latest pictures here, all that has been done with flair and ingenuity by the current owners.
Built in the 1900s, the house was created to mimic the style of a small French château, something which can be seen in the lines of the roof, the shutters — now grey, where once they were green.
Keen-eyed readers will all spot some more changes: the chimneys on the roof are gone, and dormer windows have appeared, betraying the fact that the house now has an extra floor of accommodation. The grounds have also been updated — including a smart new driveway — plus further building work is also evident.
The result is that Danley Hill is now a huge family home, with 5,735sq ft of space, and set in seven and a half acres of landscaped gardens and woodland.
The pool and tennis court that needed refurbishment in 2018 are both now pristine, and there's also a wonderful, air-conditioned gym in an outbuilding.
The interior is centred on an open-plan kitchen and living area, with additional reception space in the study, family room and cosy snug.
On the first floor there are five double bedrooms, served by two en-suite bath/shower rooms and a family bathroom.
And then there's the aforementioned second floor, which has a cinema and — and I think this is a first in Country Life — a 'sneaker store', ideal for those who have a collection of vintage trainers they'd like to put on display.
Danley Hill is for sale via John D Wood at £6 million — see more details.
