Hidden Herefordshire

The launch onto the market of three landmark country houses reveals why the county is increasingly seen as a quiet alternative to the Cotswolds

- Penny Churchill

BOUNDED by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Powys to the west, dreamy, landlocked Herefordshire, best known for its fruit, cider and cattle, is one of the smallest, least-populated and most rural counties in England.

Having tested the water at the height of the pandemic, Will Matthews of Knight Frank (020-7861 1440) and Crispin Holborow of Savills (020-7016 3780) are overseeing the relaunch onto the market of the pristine, 266-acre Poston Court estate at Vowchurch, nine miles from Hay-on-Wye and 11 miles from Hereford, at a guide price of $9.55 million.

The focal point of the estate is Grade II*listed Poston House, which stands on the site of a medieval deer park high in the western hills, looking out over the glorious Golden Valley to the Black Mountains and the Forest of Dean.

The original Georgian house was designed in 1765 by the architect Sir William Chambers, of Kew Gardens fame, as a shooting lodge for Sir Edward Boughton, whose father bought the manor of Poston from the 5th Duke of Beaufort's trustees in 1749. In the late 1800s, the house was altered and extended, with the addition of east and west wings. The estate grounds were laid out by Sir Thomas Robinson, who was master gardener to George III, and many of the magnificent trees seen at Poston today were planted at that time.

In the 1960s, the estate was sold to a local farmer, after which the 'very charming shooting box' mentioned in Pevsner went into rapid decline. By 1988, when Esmond and Susie Bulmer bought the Poston estate, the house was a virtual ruin, its classic late18th-century rotunda a nesting place for hens.