Grade I listed 40,000 square foot Oxfordshire stately home on the market for just £3.6 million – but inevitably there’s a catch
Cornbury Park at Charlbury, near Chipping Norton is a house that many would dream of living in – and now, for just £3.6 million ($5.2 million or €4.6 million) that is entirely possible. Architecturally more significant than the houses featured in Downton Abbey, Gosford Park and The Remains of the Day without doubt, this 38,364 square foot Cotswold mansion is in part Tudor but dominated by a Classical façade added by Hugh May in the 1660s.
Currently owned by Robin Cayzer, the 3rd Baron Rotherwick and his family and part of an estate that extends to about 5,000 acres in total, Cornbury Park – or Cornbury House as it is alternatively known – is a two-storey, eleven-bay property. Its current internal layout was set out in the 1960s with decoration by John Fowler and currently centres around 4 formal reception rooms. In addition to having 14 bedrooms in the main house, there is also a 3-bedroom cottage, a 1,238 square foot chapel and an outdoor swimming pool. In their 16-page marketing brochure Savills refer to how “the setting of Cornbury can compete with the noblest houses in the Cotswolds” and add that 13.25 acres of formal gardens are included in the price.
Cornbury Park was last made available in January 2014. At the time, Lady Rotherwick – the “lively” sister-in-law of Bank of England Governor Mark Carney – told the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay: “These big houses are tough to maintain and very expensive to run”. She and her husband, the report stated, live in a “modest cottage” on the estate and also in a rented house in Oxford.
The catch? The £3.6 million sum previously mentioned is simply for a lease of ten years (or if you prefer, it will cost you £7,500 per week).
Pluses: An architectural gem and the quintessential English country home; the perfect setting to entertain in great style.
Minuses: A buyer seeking peace and quiet won’t get it. Instead, they will have to put up with the thousands of visitors that flock to the annual Wilderness Festival (4th to 7th August 2016) and also to the new Field & Country Fair (10th to 12th June 2016). Both are held on the estate.
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