The wisteria clad cottage where Noël Coward and Ivor Novello held court at the height of their fame

'The two most beautiful things in the world are Ivor's profile and my mind,' the great Noël Coward once said of Ivor Novello, his friend and collaborator and fellow household name. In Britain between the wars, the pair were arguably the two most popular entertainers in the country, and at the heart of the 'Bright Young Things' circle. Novello was a singer, composer and actor; Coward a writer with a string of hits, whose career took off in the 1920s when he ended up with four West End plays running at the same time. By 1929, according to Oliver Soden's recent biography, Coward was the best-paid writer in the world, earning the modern equivalent of £15 million a year.

So what do you do with your free time when life is good and you're a roaring success? For Coward, the answer was to enjoy life with friends in beautiful places — and the idyllic, wisteria-glad Follejon Cottage, owned by his good friend Naomi, Lady Houstoun-Boswall. The cottage is currently for sale at a guide price of £2.45 million through the Ascot office of Strutt & Parker.

This charming, Grade II-listed home is in the delightful hamlet of Maidens Green, four miles from Ascot and just over five miles from Windsor town centre. Originally a property of the important Foliejon estate, the cottage dates to at least 1606 and some parts may well be older: the roof timbers of the oldest part of the house indicate a hall house, open to the first floor, with a large fireplace at one end perhaps dating from 1400–50.

The house came into its own with the arrival of Lady Houstoun-Boswall, who was widowed in the First World War and lived at Foliejon Cottage from 1935 until her death in 1970. She built on two small wings to the house, which, in her day, came with four acres of garden and a gardener’s cottage.

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Her cottage served as an open house for a cultured group of friends, among them Coward, who was a frequent visitor, and Novello. It is said that Ivor Novello’s We’ll gather lilacs in the spring again was composed here.

Today, Foliejon Cottage stands in three-quarters of an acre of delightful gardens with ample parking, and it offers 3,305sq ft of well-organised living space on two floors.

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There’s a fine reception hall, three reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, six/seven bedrooms and three bath/shower rooms.

Follejon Cottage is for sale via Strutt & Parker — see more details.