An Elizabethan country house near Wymondham surrounded by a water-filled moat and owned by a Norfolk sun-bed tycoon yesterday went up for sale for a guide price of £2.
An Elizabethan country house near Wymondham surrounded by a water-filled moat and owned by a Norfolk sun-bed tycoon yesterday went up for sale for a guide price of £2.65m.
Morley Old Hall, owned by Richard and Alison Warden, once belonged to Field Marshal The First Lord Ironside, as well as Janet Shand Kydd, first wife of Peter Shand Kydd, stepfather of Diana, Princes of Wales. It is for sale with Strutt & Parker - which recently sold the Kelling Hall estate for in the region of £25m.
The house was built on the site of a former estate and originally owned by the Sedley family and would have had a drawbridge and an arsenal. It stayed in this family until around 1790 and was bought by the current owners about eight years ago. Mr Warden was one of the first people to introduce the sunbed to Britain in the 1970s and built up a major business, still supplying sunbeds and other tanning equipment to venues across the UK. Yesterday he said: “We have restored Morley Old Hall inside and out and enjoyed the estate of 32 acres for our three horses but we are now thinking of moving to Kent for a quieter life.”
The property is a Grade I listed late 16th-century manor house set in a spectacular secluded position on a garden island of just over half an acre surrounded by a moat filled with water and located at the end of a three-quarters of a mile drive. Built of red sand-faced bricks under a tiled roof over three storeys, the hall has stone mullioned windows. The principal reception room, formerly known as the Great Chamber, has marvellous views down the drive and over the gardens on both sides with a magnificent fireplace. The dining hall has a large Tudor-style fireplace and polished flagstone floor and there is a kitchen/breakfast room with exposed timbers.
On the estate are three renovated cottages, barns and stabling, garaging, paddocks and woodland.
Tom Goodley, of Strutt & Parker, said: “Morley Old Hall is the finest property on the market in Norfolk.”
For more information, contact Strutt & Parker on 01603 617431.
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