Penny Churchill takes a look at a huge home which has come up for sale near Badminton.
A splendid and enormous house has come up for sale in the small south Gloucestershire farming village of Tormarton, near Badminton, where the Duke of Beaufort and Sir James Dyson are nearby neighbours. The Cirencester office of Strutt & Parker is handling the sale, at a guide price of £6.5 million, of historic, Grade II-listed Tormarton Court, a beautifully renovated Georgian family house set in more than 10 acres of wonderfully private gardens, parkland and woodland on the edge of the village.
The house, originally a rectory, was altered and enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries. The village became part of the Duke of Beaufort’s Badminton estate in 1789 and, in 1812, the house was extensively remodelled for the Duke’s son, Lord William Somerset, who was rector of the village’s 12th-century St Mary Magdalene Church. In 1929, the Church Commissioners sold the former rectory to Edward Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham, who renamed it Tormarton Court.
In 1996, the present owners acquired the property and embarked on a substantial renovation and modernisation of the main house to provide 9,462sq ft of elegant living space, with five spacious reception rooms arranged around the splendid reception hall that is the hub of the house.
All seven first-floor bedrooms, including the impressive principal suite, are large and come with original fitted wardrobes and garden views; there are four further bedrooms on the second floor.
In addition, there are plenty of relaxed family rooms, including a small sitting room, a large country kitchen and a games room.
The original gardens were created on former 16th-century rectory glebe land by Lady Altrincham in the 1950s. Impeccably restored by the incumbents, they include an Italian courtyard garden, a walled garden with a kitchen garden and swimming pool and a traditional apothecary garden — all previously open under the National Garden Scheme.
With some prospective purchasers looking to move their businesses lock, stock and barrel out of London, Tormarton Court offers a tried-and-tested formula with no worries about social distancing. Former stables, garaging and two staff apartments have been converted to a 3,627sq ft conference building, and a converted, 2,842sq ft stone barn, known as Somerset House, provides a further two floors of green and pleasant office space.
Tomarton Court is for sale via Strutt & Parker — see more pictures and details.
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