A Georgian legacy

Down in Wiltshire and Somerset, two country houses and estates have been well tended by their owners

LAUNCHED before Easter at a guide price of £8 million through Strutt & Parker (020–7591 2213), Georgian, Grade II*-listed Chalcot House at Dilton Marsh, near Westbury in Wiltshire, has set the pace in what promises to be a busy spring market for classic country houses. Selling agent Oliver Custance Baker is already seeing a steady flow of enquiries from mainly London-based buyers, for whom Westbury’s accessibility by rail and road is a major incentive.

Only a handful of high-profile owners have possessed Chalcot House since Henry Phipps, a prosperous clothier, began buying property in Westbury towards the end of the 16th century; his sons, Henry and Nicholas, became lords of the manor of Westbury Mauduits in 1585. According to the Victoria County History, ‘the Phipps family ‘continued to accumulate lands and manors until, by the end of the 19th century, they were among the area’s largest landowners, occupying two of Westbury’s largest country houses, Chalcot and Leighton House. In 1722, Paul Phipps, who added extensively to the family estates, was still actively engaged in the clothing industry,’ a connection that lasted ‘until the end of the 18th century by which time the Phippses had entered the ranks of the landed gentry’.