Anyone heading for the Game Fair at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, this week should double-check their satnav before setting out to ensure it doesn’t take them to Haffield House in Herefordshire. Unless, of course, you happen to be in the market for a superbly renovated, classic late-Georgian house, with a cottage, stabling and outbuildings set in 120 acres of pasture, parkland and woodland, in which case Worcester-based agent Andrew Grant may be able to offer you the country estate of your dreams.
Haffield House, listed Grade II and on the market at a guide price of £5.5m through Andrew Grant Country Homes, comes with impeccable credentials. In the early 18th century, the estate was owned by Jacob Tonson, publisher of Alexander Pope and a keen gardener, whose friend Lord Peter-borough introduced the first tulip tree to England in 1688. It may even have been Tonson who planted the fine tulip tree that still graces the garden at Haffield House.
The present Haffield estate was created in 1813 by John Biddulph and the main house, designed by eminent architect Sir Robert Smirke as an ‘unpretentious Greek Revival house’, was built in 1819.
In 2016, the 18,600sq ft house, by then in need of considerable repair, was bought from the Cadbury family by interior designer Rebecca Coady and her husband, who were looking for a Georgian country house to renovate as their ‘forever’ family home.
Three years later, following a root-and-branch restoration, Haffield House has been transformed into a splendid, easily managed country house that literally exudes new life, its roof having been removed and fitted with a breathable membrane, together with fresh slates, battens and chimneys.
The exterior render was replaced with a natural hydraulic lime coating. A biomass system was installed for heating and new, historically faithful radiators fitted through-out. All 180 windows were repaired, with their handmade glass retained, and 28 original craftsman-made fireplaces were preserved.
Outside, all the outbuildings have been restored and the grounds revived, with driveways and paths transformed with Cotswold stone. Inside, the 14 bedrooms have been converted to seven suites with luxury bathrooms, plus two further bedrooms and a cinema room. The lighting has been ingeniously planned, with three chandeliers making a brilliant centrepiece in the main reception rooms.
What would have been a small, unassuming kitchen now has bespoke oak furniture and marble tops, a separate ‘prep kitchen’, a light-filled breakfast room and a freezer room.
Sadly, the best-laid plans of mice and men can sometimes go horribly wrong and, after Mrs Coady’s husband’s return to work in Dubai, their country idyll remains a dream.
Credit: Knight Frank
The best country houses for sale this week
Catch up on the best houses that have come up for sale via Country Life in the last few weeks.
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Bunny Mellon: The Truman Capote ‘Swan’, muse and horticulturalist whose creations for The White House were recently lost foreverAs Tiffany & Co. pay homage to Bunny Mellon with a new Bird on a Rock collection, Owen Holmes takes a look at the most iconic garden designs of this heiress-horticulturist, from her Virginia estate to the White House to Versailles.
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BLDA ArchitectsChelsea-based BLDA Architects have a team of architects, interior designers, and technicians.
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A beautiful old farmhouse in 15 acres of breathtaking Scottish scenery, for sale at just £825,000A wonderful country home with almost 15 acres of land has come up for sale at a price which will make urban dwellers question their life choices.
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A country house that was the set for one of the best-loved sitcoms of the 1980s is for sale, with 40,000sq ft of space, 39 bedrooms and almost endless potentialLynford Hall, a vast neo-Jacobean house that's been everything from a country hotel to an agricultural college, has come to the market. Toby Keel tells its story.
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A sprawling castle set amid ancient woodland has come to the market for the first time in 150 yearsGyrn Castle, set amidst woodland on the outskirts of an ancient village, is now seeking new owners. Penny Churchill reports.
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A Tudor Revival home built by a Victorian adventurer, with beauty, grandeur and its own putting greenFulford Hall is an idyllic country home, yet is situated less than a dozen miles from Birmingham. Penny Churchill tells more.
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Five glorious properties for sale from the 11th to the 21st centuryA tithe barn, a Grade I-listed Norman keep, and a Georgian masterpiece all graced the pages of Country Life this week
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You can now rent King William IV’s former home in London’s Mayfair — for a princely sumThe London property — with royal lineage — is on the market with the estate agency Wetherell for £25,000 a week.
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Dream of revolution inside the 18th-century villa once occupied by Napoleon's French troopsAn apartment inside historic Villa Gnecchi Ruscone is on the market and it comes with a grand ballroom rumoured to have been frequented by Napoleon.
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May the force be with you if you move into this London apartment block that Obi-Wan Kenobi (and Cher) once lived inOliver’s Wharf was once the residence of megastar Cher and the actor Sir Alec Guinness — as well as Mark Knopfler of the Dire Straits.
