Tim Burton, the American director behind quirky films such as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, is severing ties with his Grade II-Listed property in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. The Georgian home, ensconced in 17 acres of land, is for sale with Savills, for £4.5million.
Burton purchased Mill House, as it’s called, with his then-partner Helena Bonham Carter (Lady Jane, Les Misérables, The Crown), and it boasts its own wonderful backstory worthy of its own movie. The story begins in the 17th century with the original paper mill — a site of national significance because it was commissioned by the Bank of England, no less, to produce hard-to-forge paper for bank notes. In 1741, Mill House itself was built for the factory’s foreman, and paper was produced, even long after the Bank of England contract expired in 1724, until the end of the 19th century. In the years that followed, Paper Mill and its trademark chimney fell into a sad state of disrepair and was subsequently demolished.
However, the tale does not end quite there.
Second act; enter Prime Minister Henry Asquith (1852-1928), the only person in his position to take office on foreign soil (Biarritz to be exact). In 1913, Asquith and his wife moved to Sutton Courtenay and purchased The Wharf — a house that still exists to this day and which he much-preferred to Chequers. In 1914, Asquith signed the declaration that took Britain into the First World War inside its walls; in 1917, he acquired Mill House, which happens to be next door, for visiting guests. The Liberal politician died in February 1929, and is buried in the village churchyard.
And, well, we know what happens in the third act. Burton. Who bought the house in 2006 and held onto it — a quintessential British countryside idyll away from the bright lights of Hollywood — after his 2014 separation from Bonham Carter. His reasons for selling it are, so far, not public knowledge — and looking at the pictures and information it’s hard not to think he’s mad for doing so.
Mill House comes with eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and four reception rooms, a book-lined study and exquisite paned windows embellished with 19th century, cast iron window boxes. There’s also a dual aspect drawing room with striking marble fireplace surround, a four-door Aga in the kitchen and a good size boot-room. But it is the outside that really makes jaws drop.
The front door is approached through a rose courtyard; the gardens are scarred by a web of waterways which snake romantically around three islands — included with the property; paths trail off mysteriously through woodland which, come Spring, are blanketed in nodding bluebells. The list of other plants and trees includes wisteria and virginia creeper (smothering a pergola), horse chestnut, copper beech, yew and cherry, pleached hornbeam, plus endangered dawn redwoods.
Wood and rope bridge crisscross the mill streams and Thames tributaries; lilypads cluster elegantly around a picturesque jetty — oh, and there’s a rose parterre and a croquet lawn, shaded thoughtfully by two ancient Cedar of Lebanon trees. Put quite simply, Mill House is the filmic house of all our dreams.
Mill House is for sale at £4.5m — see more details and pictures
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