The Steeple Times

Tag: Reading

  • Why pay less?

    Why pay less?

    Living life to the full Donald G. Abbey style

     

    “Why pay less when you can pay more?” is a mantra that some strangely choose to live by. In my time, I have encountered a couple with a different Ferrari for each day of the week, someone who proudly declared their home had a window for each day of the year and an heiress who insists upon the local baker feeding her dog daily with a freshly baked caviar pie.

     

    When I discovered a house in California priced at $78,000,000, I didn’t expect to subsequently find out that the same vendor is also selling another of his homes in Montana at the very same price. Having done a little research into Donald G. Abbey, the commercial real estate tycoon who owns both The Bradbury Estate and Shelter Island, I discovered that here indeed is another personality whose excess knows no bounds.

     

    I suppose when people sell homes of this worth, the asking price they set is quite irrelevant. “What,” I’m sure they ask, “is $5 million between friends?” Equally, when it comes to developing such properties, characters of this nature do not show any reserve. Bling is most definitely the order of the day and the larger and flashier one can build, I guess, the better.

     

    An aerial shot of The Bradbury Estate, 172 Bliss Canyon Road, Bradbury, California, CA 91008, USA
    The front elevation of the main house
    The owner and his guests need not get wet on arrival in their limousines

     

    Abbey’s Bradbury Estate is a case in point. This vast property consists of a 33,000 square foot main house with 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. It is almost entirely made of French limestone and includes a chef’s kitchen with a pizza oven, a 2,000 bottle wine cellar, an oak paneled elevator and a leather paneled poker room. Bedrooms include domes with hand painted frescos and in addition there is a detached 6,700 square foot guest house above a 10 car garage and a 5,700 square foot pool house with a catering kitchen, gym, massage room and a subterranean EPA certified 25 yard rifle shooting range complete with a gun storage room and 2 large safes.

     

    The hall of the main residence comes complete with a gallery and bar
    A vast library provides the perfect space to enjoy a good book
    The library’s glazed ceiling
    Another palatial reception room
    The house features a rather impressive kitchen
    Mr Abbey’s copper bath tub comes complete with a mat displaying his initials in front of it

     

    Within the 8 acre grounds there is a cross shaped infinity-edged pool – perhaps Mr Abbey is religious – that is “just a few feet short of Olympic length.” It requires 350,000 gallons of water if it is to be filled to capacity. Adjoining this is something even more ludicrous: a 1,000,000 gallon, temperature-controlled rainbow trout pond that cost some $8,000,000 to construct. The pond is said to be “adorned with perennials,” is heated by a custom gravity separator with UV filters and is “chilled for the trout by a 300-tonne central cooling plant.” At Bradbury, thoughts of water crisis in Sudan and Ethiopia come way behind the needs of Abbey’s rainbows.

     

    The rear of the house viewed from above The Bradbury Estate’s $8,000,000 trout pond
    The estate’s 350,000 gallon near Olympic length cross shaped infinity edged swimming pool
    The property’s EPA certified 25 yard rifle range

     

    For those wanting to avoid California’s UV rays, Bradbury also boasts an acre of porches, decks, loggia and walkways. A 600ft blue stone driveway completes this “once in a lifetime trophy property” that “belongs in the portfolio of the most astute collector” and it has space for “60 foot truck access or multiple limousines.”

     

    When Mr Abbey has tired of California, he is able to retreat to his own island in Montana. The 24 acre Shelter Island on Flathead Lake includes 7,000 feet of frontage to the water, a world class sporting clay course and 3 computer controlled tracks and docking systems that allow boats to be landed in the dry dock without riders ever leaving the craft or handling a line. The island is powered via an underground armoured utility cable that carry 12,000 amps to it along with CAT-5 computer cable and phonelines and the main entertaining space features a mammoth television of some 120-inches in size.

     

    An aerial view of Donald G. Abbey’s Shelter Island
    Mr Abbey’s passion for copper continues with a conservatory made out of the metal on the lakeside elevation of the main residence on Shelter Island
    The Great Room of the main residence on Shelter Island
    Mr Abbey’s passion for fine wines is displayed in a bar and tasting room in the property
    The owner and his guests can access their boats without having to go anywhere near the water

     

    Abbey has built over 44,000 square foot of accommodation on his island. The main house has 5 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. His “Great Room” features ceilings of some 45 foot in height and in addition to yet another indoor shooting range, there is a kitchen that woudn’t look out of place in The Savoy hotel.

     

    In the UK, the property most similar to anything Abbey has built has to be Updown Court at Windlesham in Surrey. Developed by a former bricklayer named Leslie Allen-Vercoe, the house was described by him as being: “The most important residence to be built in England since the 19th century.” Architectural critics did not agree and some went as far as to say that it looked like: “A cross between a Tesco superstore and Center Parcs.”

     

    Allen-Vercoe’s behemoth of a house is gargantuan in size. With 103 rooms it includes 24 bedrooms, 5 swimming pools, a 2-lane bowling alley, a squash court, a floodlit tennis court, a 50-seat cinema and a panic room. The heated driveway that led to the house is entirely made of marble and cost some £2.5 million to construct but plainly none of this appealed to the market as it languished for sale at a price of £70,000,000 from 2006 to 2011 before being repossessed by the Irish National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). Updown Court was sold for half the original asking price to a foreign buyer in October 2011 and is, I believe, due to undergo extensive remodeling.

     

    Updown Court, Chertsey Road, Windlesham, Surrey, GU20 6HY, UK

     

    Allen Vercoe once stated: “If Elton John were a house, he’d be Updown Court.” Equally, I imagine if Mr Abbey’s residences were to be compared to any celebrities they’d be the vulgar car crash that is Donatella Versace and the ludicrous money obsessed singer with a dollar sign in her name, Ke$ha.

     

    Updown Court, Shelter Island and The Bradbury Estate all illustrate that money cannot buy you good taste. I suppose, though, that those who ultimately come to live in them will have plenty of space to choose how and where to enjoy their own form of misery.

     

    For more information about Donald G. Abbey, go to: http://www.theabbeyco.com

     

    For information on both The Bradbury Estate and Shelter Island, contact Bob Hurwitz of the Hurwitz James Company on +1 310-477-8865. Website: http://www.hurwitzjamesco.com

     

    A website devoted to The Bradbury Estate can be viewed at: http://www.bradburyestate.com

     

    A video of Shelter Island can be watched at: http://vimeo.com/11404637

     

    For more details on Updown Court, go to: http://www.updowncourt.com/

     

  • The land of Tarka and Salar

    The land of Tarka and Salar

    The North Devon countryside that inspired Henry Williamson, R. D. Blackmore and Charles Kingsley

     

    Much of my childhood was spent reading the works of superb authors and amongst the best of them were Arthur Ransome (1884 – 1967), Denys Watkins-Pitchford (1905 – 1990), who wrote many of his works under the pseudonym “B.B.”, and Henry Williamson (1895 – 1977). As a youngster, I was lucky enough to be read to by Ransome’s nephew, a most captivating professional storyteller, and was given first editions of many of the works of all three of these early to mid twentieth century authors.

     

    I had my first sailing lessons on Windermere, where Ransome set many of his works, and went shooting in the Forest of Bowland, a place dear to B.B. Though I also fished in many wonderful locations, until now I’d never been to the land of Henry Williamson and his most famous creation, Tarka the Otter. I currently find myself here enjoying a break from London and yesterday I randomly discovered, I am staying next to the setting of one of Williamson’s lesser known stories, Salar the Salmon, on the River Bray close to Exmoor.

     

    “Salar the Salmon” by Henry Williamson (1935)
    Henry Williamson (1895 – 1977) photographed by Mark Gerson, cibachrome print from original transparency, August 1970
    “Tarka the Otter” by Henry Williamson (1927)

    Originally published in 1935, Salar the Salmon combines Henry Williamson’s great talent as a writer with his insight as a naturalist. The story tells the tale of a five-year old salmon named Salar, whose name means the “leaper,” and his return to the stream of his birth. Salar’s migration through the riverways of Devon involve him surviving porpoises, seals, nets, fishermen, otters, poachers and weirs and Williamson’s account truly gives the reader an insight into one of nature’s great journeys.

     

    Henry Williamson wrote both Salar the Salmon and The Children of Shallowford (1939) whilst living beside the River Bray in a hamlet named Shallowford, near Lynton in Devon. The river plainly inspired him and whilst he lived there on the Fortescue Estate he also sired four children, joined Oswald Moseley’s British Union of Fascists, was briefly imprisoned for his views and conducted several extra-marital affairs.

     

    “War Horse” author Michael Morpurgo OBE

    Salar the Salmon is a story I am not alone in recommending. Another Devon based author and poet, Michael Morpurgo OBE, best known for his acclaimed work, War Horse, speaks very fondly of Williamson and the novel in a dedication he prepared for a recent reprint of it:

     

    “It is a rare gift indeed for a storyteller to be poet as much as a storyteller, to tell a tale so deeply engaging that the reader wants to know what will happen and never want it to end, and yet at the same time tells it in such a way as to leave a reader wide-eyed with amazement at the sheer intensity of feeling that can be induced by the word-magic of a poet. Henry Williamson is just such a story-maker poet.”

     

    Where I am staying, I have a view of the very river on which Salar made his journey and here also a detached barn conversion is currently available to rent at a price of £1,150 per month. Malle’s Barn is a 2-bedroom stone-built property that includes a 25ft by 12ft open plan sitting room with a fully fitted kitchen and a dining area, as well as a study and shower room.

     

    The exterior of Malle’s Barn, Brayford, Near Barnstaple, Devon, EX32 7QB
    A large open plan reception room includes sitting, dining and kitchen areas
    The setting of Malle’s Barn overlooking the valley of the River Bray

     

    Tenants of the house will have access to the owner’s 60-acre estate which includes a mile of salmon and brown trout fishing on both the Rivers Bray and Holewater, ancient woodland and a lake in addition to a private garden and adequate parking for several vehicles.

     

    Malle’s Barn would make a perfect retreat for any author or artist and is just 10 minutes from South Molton, Barnstaple is 9 miles away and Exeter 40 miles. The location is 30 minutes from J27 of the M5 and Tiverton Parkway Station, which provides mainline links to London Paddington within 2 hours.

     

    Close to Malle’s Barn are the prettiest sections of a footpath named the Tarka Trail. Consisting of over 180 miles of footpaths and cycle tracks that take in the Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks and the North Devon Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The trail takes in many of the locations described in Williamson’s most famous novel but this area of North Devon also galvanized the pens of a number of other authors.

     

    Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825 – 1900)
    Professor Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875)

    Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825 – 1900) set Lorna Doone: A Romance on Exmoor in the locality in 1869 and Professor Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875) put pen to paper here when he wrote Westward Ho! in 1855. A village of the same name was subsequently established near Bideford in the 1860s by entrepreneurs, led by Lord Portsmouth, who saw an opportunity to capitalise on the novel’s success. Westward Ho! is the only place in the United Kingdom with an exclamation mark in its name. The only other place in the world that shares such is Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Quebec, Canada.

     

    Aside from literary connections, the locality is famous for its excellent fieldsports. The Earl and Countess of Arran’s Castle Hill and the Molland shoot are considered amongst two of England’s finest high bird pheasant shoots and both the Devon and Somerset Staghounds and Devon and Somerset Foxhounds hunt on Exmoor.

     

    Johnny Kingdom

     

    Johnny Kingdom, who describes himself as having been “a farmer, quarryman, forestry worker, gravedigger and, if truth be told, a poacher” in his youth, also lives in the locality and is well known as a wildlife photographer, filmmaker and television presenter. He sets many of his series on Exmoor because of the vast array of wildlife he comes across here and is, like Williamson before him, often to be found exploring the valley of the River Bray.

     

    In a 1965 BBC interview Henry Williamson was asked: “What influence has this [the Devon] countryside had on you?”:

     

    “Everything, I should say. I came down here as a youth, aged just 18 in 1914, spent a fortnight’s holiday here in the beginning of May, beginning of June. I walked 20 to 25 miles every day. Everything I saw was radiant and beautiful.”

     

    This idyllic part of Devon that Williamson loved so much remains unspoilt to this day. If you haven’t visited yet, it really should be added to your bucketlist.

     

    For more information about Henry Williamson, go to The Henry Williamson Society’s webpage: http://www.henrywilliamson.co.uk

     

    Watch the 1965 BBC interview with Williamson at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8475000/8475989.stm

     

    For details and a map of the Tarka Trail, go to: http://www.devon.gov.uk/tarkatrail and http://www.devon.gov.uk/tarka-trail-circular-routes.pdf

     

    For information on the Molland shoot, go to: http://www.bettwshall.com/molland.htm

     

    For more information about the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, go to: http://www.devonandsomersetstaghounds.net

     

    For more information on the Devon and Somerset Foxhounds, go to: http://www.exmoorfoxhounds.co.uk

     

    View the official website of the author and poet Michael Morpurgo at: http://www.michaelmorpurgo.com

     

    View the official website of Johnny Kingdom at: http://www.johnnykingdom.co.uk/

    For more information about Malle’s Barn, contact Charles Mitford Cust at: [email protected]

  • To the manor born

    To the manor born

    The Manor, Bucklebury: a house that shortly may become home to Carole and Michael Middleton

     

    First reported by The Daily Telegraph’s “Mandrake” columnist Richard Eden in May, the talk of today is that The Duchess of Cambridge’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, have just purchased a Georgian manor house at Bucklebury in West Berkshire.

     

    The exterior of The Manor, Bucklebury, Reading, West Berkshire, RG7 6RP
    The eastern side of the house includes a steel framed garden room

    The property’s formal gardens with parkland beyond

     

    Currently owned by a Morgan Stanley banker named Justin Mason and his landscape artist wife, Jill, The Manor was subject to a bidding war featuring four parties and has now been taken off the market. Agents Savills have refused to confirm the name of the winning bid but this morning’s Mail Online claims the Middletons, who are said to be worth some £30 million from their Party Pieces empire, have “triumphed” and are paying some £4.7 million for the property. It was last sold in 2001 for circa £1.8 million.

     

    The house’s formal drawing room

    The family kitchen complete with full sized AGA

     

    Featuring 7 bedrooms, 5 reception rooms, a swimming pool and tennis court, The Manor is set in 18.9 acres and situated 8.8 miles from Newbury. The Grade II listed house merges “contemporary and traditional styles” of décor and a main feature is a large kitchen that the agents describe as being “the heart of the house.” One could, indeed, imagine Mrs Middleton cooking up a feast fit for a future King in this vast room.

     

    The current Middleton family residence: Oak Acre, The Avenue, Bucklebury, Reading, Berkshire, RG7 6NS

    Carole and Michael Middleton on the driveway of their current home

     

    Whilst many and most especially the Daily Mail mock this family, and if indeed they are the purchasers of The Manor, it is most certainly a most fitting residence for them. Their next step on the Monopoly board is much deserved.

     

    For more information on The Manor, Bucklebury contact Michael Gatehouse of the Newbury office of Savills on +44 (0) 1635 277700 or email [email protected]

  • Barnaby Rodgers

    Barnaby Rodgers

    The son of screen legend Anton Rodgers is one to watch in the drinks industry. He’s worked with some of the top brands but is now embarking on a new chapter guiding strategy for a variety of clients. He’s a dab hand in the kitchen and also responsible for the phrase: “I’d rather eat wasps.”

  • Andrew Davis

    Andrew Davis

    He was labeled “Baron Von Essen” but evidence of his pedigree failed to surface. Starting in 1990, this buccaneer built up a collection of 26 luxury hotels but the £300m empire, developed with loans from bankers who plainly asked very few questions, collapsed in 2011. Since then, instead of quietly going to ground, he’s bought a Rolls-Royce from his friend Michael Winner and appeared at quite a few parties. Watch out: “The Talented Mr Davis” is plainly plotting his next move.