A Cluedo board rendered real at a country pile with 19 bedrooms, and a gym in the chapel
There aren't many privately-owned houses in Britain where you need a map to get around. Burton Hill House is one of them.
Arabella Youens
Billiard room, music room, drawing room, library, dining room, study, cinema, gym, golf room... wait, golf room? That's right: Burton Hill House, on the southern edge of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, is not your normal country house.
This enormous, Grade II-listed house — for sale via Strutt & Parker at £7.5 million — and stands in about 12 acres of gardens and land, and it was built for entertaining on a lavish scale.
The floorplan alone takes a while to get your head around, as if someone has bought a charity shop's entire stock of Cluedo sets, and set about cutting up and re-arranging the boards into an epic, sprawling home of more than 22,000 sq ft.
There are 19 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and eight reception rooms in this mid-19th century house, but that's just the start: the various other spaces include boot rooms, utility rooms and the aforementioned 'store/golf' room, which isn't pictured on the agent's details, but has us imagining a golf nut's storage space, with endless rows of putters, wedges and drivers.
As the pictures show beautifully, this is a house that has been meticulously updated. The current owners have embarked upon a wonderfully sympathetic restoration project, with intricate plasterwork, oak panelling and joinery.
Even the home cinema has a fittingly period feel: it has rows of 1930s-style fold-up cinema seats, rather than the shapeless, sprawling sofas you often find in such rooms.
Another lovely example: the stair-gates aren't the usual white-painted metal contraptions you get from John Lewis, but instead there's a beautifully custom-made wooden gate, stopping little ones climbing too high while perfectly matching the original bannisters. This is so nicely thought out.
At the same time, there's a wonderful sense of whimsy and 21st century panache in a lot of the decisions that have been made. What else could account for the decision to put the gym in the old chapel, letting you lift weights and pound the treadmill as the sunlights pours in through stained glass windows?
And once you're done pumping iron, there's a wellness spa with with pool and sauna that open out onto one of the terraces. It's the sort of slick-looking thing you'd see at a top-end country house hotel.
No wonder the agents wax lyrical, calling it 'one of the area’s most impressive private homes. Its scale, design, and meticulous presentation create a residence that balances historic integrity with refined modern living.'
Burton Hill House is for sale via Strutt & Parker at £7.5 million — see more details.
