Estate agents aren’t generally known for under-playing the homes for sale on their books, but sometimes they come out with a really big statement which still demands that we sit up and pay special attention.
‘This is one of the finest country-house conversions we have seen in the north of England,’ says Jamie Adam of Savills. And despite the number of superb places we’ve come across in recent years, it’s hard not to see where he’s coming from with Stone Cross Mansion, a grand Victorian house in the Lake District that’s been transformed.
Stone Cross Mansion was originally built for the Kennedy family in 1874 and has been converted and refurbished into 19 two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging from £250,000 to £600,000.
Pictured on this page, as well as some of the highlights from the communal areas, is one of the latter: the 1794sq ft Wilfred Suite.
This flat has three bedrooms (one of which is en-suite) and an enormous living-dining-lounging area, adorned with marble columns, original plaster ceilings and a feature fireplace that is a reproduction created by craftsmen using photographs of the Victorian original.
The apartment opens up through windows double glazed but in the original style onto its own outdoor space.
The Wilfred Suite is accessed directly from the main hall, with its ‘Imperial Staircase’ featuring a triptych of paintings by Lucien Besche depicting Tennyson’s Sleeping Beauty, which were restored by a Harrogate-based specialist during the conversion work.
Developer Charles Church has painstakingly restored the property, adhering to its strict Gothic-cum-Scottish baronial style.
That much you’d gather from the pictures, but what you won’t see is the fact that they have installed state-of-the-art technology, such as SkyQ services and fibre-optic broadband, plus video-entry systems and intruder alarms.
Stone Cross Mansion is equally eye-catching on the outside, with landscaped gardens and tree-lined avenues complemented by views of Morecambe Bay and the Sir John Barrow Monument in the distance. The pretty market town of Ulverston is also nearby, with its cobbled streets, railway station and easy access to the main A590.
The apartments at Stone Cross Mansion are for sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.
A walk through the Forest of Bowland: 'I feel the immensity of the history of this place and am deeply moved by it'
A solitary dawn walk through the Forest of Bowland is a magical experience, says Fiona Reynolds.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
Best country houses for sale this week
An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for
-
Child stars, Prince and nursery rhymes: It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, December 5, 2025It's all in today's quiz.
-
‘Calf’s brains have a bland, gentle richness that soothes and cossets': Tom Parker Bowles on the joys of eating offalEating offal it is more sinned against than sinning, but it offers the ultimate in magnificent, fully immersive eating.
-
The wave of downsizing about to hit the property market in the UKThe Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget — and specifically the 'Mansion Tax' — has fired a starting pistol for downsizers, and the waves will wash across the entire property market. Annabel Dixon spoke to property experts across the country to gauge how it will play out.
-
A Georgian farmhouse that's an 'absolute gem' in an ancient village on Salisbury PlainJulie Harding takes a look at the beautiful West Farm in a gorgeous Wiltshire village.
-
It'd be crazy to buy this 500-year-old farmhouse just because of its utterly gorgeous Aga — so thank goodness that the rest of this place is also really nicePerry Mill Farm is an immaculate yet characterful four-bedroom dream home in the country at a price that will make city dwellers immediately start Googling 'working from Worcestershire'.
-
'A masterpiece of timeless elegance' for sale on the charmed Surrey estate once owned by Henry VIII and the Guinness familyThe Manor House in Burwood Park is a grand, enormous and undeniably impressive. Annabel Dixon takes a look.
-
A grand hall in Yorkshire with 400 years of historyCarlton Hall is a wonderful family home amid glorious gardens in a quaint village location. Penny Churchill looks inside.
-
Why don't more of us live in brightly coloured homes?It's not often that you see a home sporting the colour palette that you'd get if you hired a four-year old as your interior designer. But why not? The Blue House in Bethnal Green asks this and many more questions.
-
Five magnificent mansions, from a former monastery to an Art Deco wonder in the South Downs, as seen in Country LifeWonderful homes, including a superb beach home in Cornwall, all fresh on the market via Country Life.
-
A 14-bedroom 'miniature Downton Abbey' to call your own — and there's not a penny of Mansion Tax to be paidNorton Manor is an incredible period home that's on the market for £1.3 million.
