IN the late 1800s, the poet and scholar A. E. Housman famously hailed four settlements in Shropshire's picturesque Clun valley-Clunton, Clunbury, Clungunford, and Clun-as being 'the quietest places under the sun.
No matter how quiet those places may be, they're surely not as quiet as the ancient east Hampshire village of Binsted, which, despite being listed in the Domesday survey, has no written history for the period from the 12th century until the early 19th century. According to the village website, this is because 'nothing of any significance appears to have occurred in Binsted during that period, or if it did, it seems to have escaped the attention of those responsible for documenting history.
Although located less than three miles from its nearest neighbour, the well-documented village of Bentley, and less than four miles from the Georgian market town of Alton, Binsted was, historically, a small, isolated farming community, set in a tranquil landscape of farms and woodland where life followed the seasons from one year to the next.
Now, change is on the horizon, following the launch onto the market, for the first time in 70 years, of the timeless, 569-acre Hay Place estate at the southern end of the village, at a guide price of $12.5 million through Savills in Winchester (01962 857441). Fortunately, any change at Hay Place is likely to be minimal, given that the estate falls within the South Downs National Park, although planning consent has been granted to convert a range of traditional farm buildings thought to date back to the mid-Victorian era' into four residential units.
Denne historien er fra August 17, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 17, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.