TODAY sees the launch onto the market of Grade I-listed Knightstone Manor at Ottery St Mary, Devon, described by Christopher Hussey in COUNTRY LIFE (September 8 and 15, 1950) as 'one of the most complete surviving examples of a 14th-century manor house, now for sale through Knight Frank (01392 423111) for 'offers over $4.5 million.
For the past 20-odd years, Knightstone has been the much-loved family home of the charismatic Jan-Eric Osterlund, a man of boundless energy and wide-ranging interests, who chaired a public investment company in his native Sweden before moving, in 1983, to England, where he built up a venture capital group investing mainly in medical technology and biotech. Second, only to his love of sailing and photography, a passion for historic houses led him, in 2000, to the deepest Devon, where he was introduced by property adviser Martin Lamb to a little-altered medieval hall house set in 18 acres of magical gardens, parkland and paddocks in a peaceful hidden valley, a mile from Ottery St Mary and 13 miles from Exeter.
Research compiled by Mr Osterlund reveals that Knightstone Manor was built in 1380 by Thomas de Bittlesgate on land sold to him by Richard de Knightstone. It remained with the Bittlesgate family until 1494, when the last Bittlesgate died without issue, leaving the property to Lady Cicely Harington, the wife of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset. Her estates eventually passed to their grandson, the Duke of Suffolk, who was attainted and beheaded in 1554, following his unsuccessful attempt to establish his daughter, the equally ill-fated Lady Jane Grey, on the English throne.
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