Quiet places under the sun

A litany of talent has occupied these beautiful houses and estates, from the D'Oyly Cartes of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, to the actor Sir John Mills and 'Mr Men' and 'Little Miss' creator Roger Hargreaves

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.