Last orders
Country Life UK|December 06, 2023
As 2023 comes to a close, three splendid properties with business potential have come to the market, one of which was the Cornish venture of supermodel Jean Shrimpton
Penny Churchill
Last orders

THREE landmark late entrants to the 2023 market will pique the interest of buyers or entrepreneurs who are looking to move westwards next year. Imposing, Grade II*-listed Cheney Court, which is for sale through Strutt & Parker's country department (020-7591 2213) at a guide price of $4.5 million, stands on a gentle south-facing slope in the hamlet of Ditteridge in the Wiltshire Cotswolds. It's 3½ miles west of the picturesque town of Corsham, 5½ miles north-east of Bath and just under 1½ miles from the Three Shires Stones, where the counties of Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire meet.

According to its Historic England listing, Cheyney Court, as it was originally known, was recorded as the manor of the Cheyney family in the 15th century, although the present house was rebuilt in about 1620 by George Speke, who died in 1656. During the English Civil War, Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I, reputedly hid in a barn on the property as she fled from Oxford to Exeter on her way to seek refuge in France.

In about 1726, the Spekes sold Cheney Court to the Northey family, wealthy landowners who used it as an investment property, letting it out as a desirable house convenient to Bath, suitable for the 'middling sort' of people. According to the writer Alan Payne, an early tenant was John Neate, a prosperous Bristol merchant, who lived there in 1769 before he built Middlehill House nearby. In the late 1890s, George Edward Northey decided to move with his family to Cheney Court, where he embarked on a major renovation of the rambling, 18-bedroom house. He found the court rather too quiet for his liking, compared with the busy social whirl of his father's house at nearby Ashley Manor, and invited his many friends to visit him at his new home.

Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin December 06, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin December 06, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

COUNTRY LIFE UK DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
Save our family farms
Country Life UK

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.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
A very good dog
Country Life UK

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.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
The great astral sneeze
Country Life UK

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

time-read
3 dak  |
November 27, 2024
'What a good boy am I'
Country Life UK

'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

time-read
3 dak  |
November 27, 2024
Forever a chorister
Country Life UK

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

time-read
4 dak  |
November 27, 2024
Best of British
Country Life UK

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.

time-read
3 dak  |
November 27, 2024
Old habits die hard
Country Life UK

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

time-read
4 dak  |
November 27, 2024
It takes the biscuit
Country Life UK

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

time-read
3 dak  |
November 27, 2024
It's always darkest before the dawn
Country Life UK

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

time-read
4 dak  |
November 27, 2024
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
Country Life UK

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.

time-read
3 dak  |
November 27, 2024