In the tiny hamlet of Countess Cross, a mile from Colne Engaine in the lovely Colne Valley, is the picturesque, 163-acre Over Hall estate — a place where you can happily mix country life and city life. The former owner, in fact, did just that: Over Hall's late owner, Michael Lambert, combined a career in the City with a passion for farming and the countryside, and spend 40 years assembling the estate. It's now for sale via Barclay Macfarlane of Savills Country Department, at a guide price of £4.75m for the whole, or in five lots.
Described by Savills as ‘a rare gem in the Essex countryside’, the estate is just eight miles from Kelvedon station on the busy Great Eastern Main Line — a 50-minute train ride to London Liverpool Street — and 11 miles west of the Roman city of Colchester.
The elegant, Grade II-listed Regency main house is lot 1, on offer at a guide price of £2.5m, and comprising the house and just under 13 acres of gardens and grounds, plus extensive outbuildings, garaging for 12 vehicles, a traditional barn, multiple stores and an estate office with potential for conversion to staff accommodation.
Built in 1831 of Flemish-bond red brick under a slate roof in the classically symmetrical Regency style, Over Hall boasts twin verandahs and a central portico, a spacious entrance hall with a galleried landing and flagstone floors.
There are four good reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, two original staircases, six bedrooms and three bathrooms — some 5,343sq ft of easy living space in all.
Leisure facilities include a swimming pool, tennis court, five-box stable block and tranquil landscaped gardens with terraces, rose beds, a spring-fed pond and a charming walled garden with a crinkle-crankle wall and a thatched summerhouse.
How can you not love a house with a crinkle-crankle walled garden?
Lot 2 is a pair of semi-detached farm cottages, priced at £800,000.
Lot 3, on offer at £500,000, is a block of 53¾ acres of arable land currently cropped with winter wheat and farmed under a farm business tenancy (FBT) by a neighbouring farmer. It includes two blocks of land under country stewardship, interspersed with areas of woodland that could form the basis of a fun family shoot.
Lot 4, for sale with a guide of £450,000, is a compact, 44¾-acre block of land and wood-land on Over Hall Hill, also farmed under an FBT. Part of the land is arable, with oilseed rape currently growing, and, in the water-meadows, cricket-bat willows are grown under contract for J. S. Wright of Chelmsford.
Lot 5, guided at £500,000, is a compact block of arable and woodland lying next to the Countess Cross to Pebmarsh road, part of which is currently cropped with winter wheat and part in a countryside stewardship scheme.
The Over Hall Estate is for sale via Savills — see more details.
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