The ups and downs of the property market in 2023 have led to all sorts of headlines — not least in our Property Talk articles, which last week spoke of how the conditions for buyers 'are the best in years', according to agents.
But amid the talk of percentage price drops, number of days on the market and so on, in some areas of the market asking prices have changed considerably since the peak of the boom. Recently we wrote about the £3.5m discount Great Tangley Manor in Surrey; today, we take a look at one of Yorkshire's finest privately-owned homes: Studley Royal House.
It was back in the summer when the exquisite, Grade II*-listed Studley Royal House — near Ripon, North Yorkshire — came on the market. It was originally at a guide price of £8 million through Savills Country Department, but now is down to £6.25m, via the same agent.
Can a house with a mid-seven-figure price tag be called a bargain? Well, if ever that were the case then it probably is here. Studley Royal House offers a rare chance to enjoy the privacy and pleasure of a grand country estate with none of the bother, thanks to its location at the heart of the magnificent, 800-acre Studley Royal Deer Park, now owned by the National Trust.
North Yorkshire’s only World Heritage Site, the park is not only home to a large herd of fallow, red and sika deer, it also boasts famous 18th-century water gardens fed by the River Skell, which meanders past the atmospheric ruins of Fountains Abbey — a setting described by Christopher Hussey in his English Gardens and Landscapes 1700-1750 (1967) as ‘one of the most spectacular scenic compositions in England’.
Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 and, by the mid 13th century, was one of the richest religious houses in the kingdom. Following the Dissolution, the abbey was sacked, before the buildings and more than 500 acres of land were sold to Richard Gresham, an MP and former Lord Mayor of London. He later sold them to Stephen Proctor, who further despoiled the abbey, using the stone to build the Elizabethan Fountains Hall.
In 1699, John Aislabie, an ambitious politician who was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1718, but expelled from Parliament in 1720 following the South Sea Bubble debacle, inherited the Studley Royal estate, where, for the rest of his life, he indulged his passion for landscape gardening. It was a passion shared by his son, William, who inherited the estate in 1742 and began extending the pleasure grounds into the eastern part of the Skell valley.
In 1760, having acquired the neighbouring Fountains estate from the Messenger family, he incorporated the dramatic abbey ruins into an extension of his father’s gardens. On William’s death, the estate passed through the female line to the Vyner family, who sold it to West Riding County Council in 1966.
In 1983, North Yorkshire County Council sold it to the National Trust, after which the entire park was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.
The Aislabies’ house in the northern part of the park, which was home to Queen Ethelburga’s School during the Second World War, burned down in 1946 and was never rebuilt.
Instead, the splendid Georgian stable block, built for John Aislabie’s racehorses between 1728 and 1732, was converted into an elegant Palladian country house set in 2½ acres of private formal gardens on high ground overlooking the deer park towards Ripon Cathedral in the distance.
Built of stone under a slate roof with distinctive pavilion towers in each of the four corners, the pristine, 11,708sq ft house surrounds a central square courtyard overlooked by all the main rooms and dominated by the working clock tower.
For selling agent Crispin Holborow, ‘Studley Royal House combines the convenience of modern living with the ambience of a classic period house, and the added bonus of the right to use the Trust’s adjoining and neighbouring property’.
The house offers elegant accommodation on two floors, with six public rooms, including a magnificent drawing room, a ballroom, a study and library, a sumptuous master suite with two dressing rooms, a bathroom and a shower room, plus five further bedroom suites and a two-bedroom guest wing.
The private gardens to the west of the house are approached through a coach arch from the courtyard and are protected from deer by a gravelled walk that runs around the perimeter between hornbeam and yew hedges.
Stone steps lead down to a large Italian garden with meticulously maintained flowerbeds, privet hedges, clipped yew and extensive topiary.
Studley Royal House is for sale at a guide price of £6.25 million through Savills — see more details and pictures.
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
-
West London's spent the last two decades as the laughing stock of the style set — here's how it got its groove backThe style set is returning to the very West London neighbourhoods it once made a habit of spurning, finds Will Hosie.
-
The new property hotspots where you can have it all: Beautiful houses, great schools and idyllic lifestyleAcross the country people are selling up and heading to the towns where there's no compromise on dream homes, outstanding schooling and the good life, according to analysis from two of Britain's top estate agents. Anna White explains.
-
The new property hotspots where you can have it all: Beautiful houses, great schools and idyllic lifestyle
Across the country people are selling up and heading to the towns where there's no compromise on dream homes, outstanding schooling and the good life, according to analysis from two of Britain's top estate agents. Anna White explains.
-
Where Venice once ruled: The roving Venetians left handsome imprints across the Greek world, from its religion to its rambling villasMatthew Dennison explores the lingering traces of Venice's vanished empire — and the best places to buy where it once stood.
-
A delightful 16th century home with some of Kent's most beautiful gardens has come on to the marketThe Grange puts the 'garden' into the Garden of England.
-
A pristine Scottish island for sale at the price of a garage in FulhamA dot on the map of the west coast of Scotland has come on to the market, where you'll be surrounded by sea, living off grid and be neighbours with the local seal colony.
-
18 beautiful homes, from charming cottages to a Highland mansion with unbeatable views, as seen in Country LifeOur look at some of the best homes to come to the market via Country Life in the past week includes Georgian manor houses, charming commutable homes and the grandest home in Newcastle.
-
The gorgeous Somerset home of the designer behind one of Glastonbury's chicest spotsThe Manor in Hinton Blewitt is a glorious Georgian home that ticks every box.
-
A 600-year-old National Trust property that you can call homeThis blooming property in Kent showcases the original garden of England. Penny Churchill takes a look.
-
A wisteria-clad delight with lawns running down to the Thames is the prettiest riverside home for sale in London todayDeodar Road, near Putney High Street, offers unrivalled views of the Thames and is characterful in excess.
