One of Norfolk’s most historic houses for sale for a staggering £3.95 million just a year after it was last sold for £2.75 million
Henry VII stayed there and left barefoot to visit the nearby shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and its moulded brickwork was described as “exceeding anything of the kind in England” by Humphry Repton, the landscape architect. Now, Wolterton Manor (formerly known as East Barsham Manor) is for sale for £3.95 million ($6.1 million, €5.7 million).
Sold by Sir John Guinness in July 2014 after the death of his wife, the house is now back on the market just a year later for a staggering £1.2 million ($1.9 million, €1.7 million) more than its last asking price of £2.75 million ($4.3 million, €4 million). It has been redecorated in a contemporary style but what surprises, given the vast increase in price, is that the gardens Lady Guinness so lovingly restored now look somewhat overgrown and neglected.
Built between 1520 and 1530 by Sir Henry Fermor as what Country Life described as “a powerful statement of his family’s rising status, both in his native county and at Court”. The Tudor building subsequently fell into ruin in the 18th century and was restored between 1915 and 1938 by first a Lincolnshire farmer and subsequently a self-styled count named Count Jeremie Hapsburg-Lothringen – who was actually born Jeremy Willoughby.
In the ownership of the former diplomat Sir John and Lady Guinness between 1997 and 2014, the 9,416 square foot house set in 4.6 acres was “maintained in a way that’s very faithful” according to the 2014 selling agent, Louis de Soissons of Savills. It includes 7 bedrooms, a Great Hall, 7 reception rooms and there is also a gate house and a cottage that provide a further 3,907 square foot of accommodation.
Wolterton Manor is for sale through Sotheby’s International Realty.
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