Everleigh Manor, a listed mansion in 30 acres of grounds with a lifestyle business attached, has come to the market in Wiltshire. Penny Churchill takes a look.
Grand, Grade II-listed Everleigh Manor sits at Everleigh, on the north-east edge of Salisbury Plain, 4½ miles south-east of Pewsey. Currently for sale through The Country House Dept in Oxford at a guide price of £6.75m, Everleigh Manor offers six fine reception rooms, eight luxurious bedrooms and seven bath/shower rooms on three floors in the main family house, with various service rooms at lower-ground level.
Highlights include the splendid vaulted entrance hall, the orangery with its ornate ceilings and the principal reception rooms, where countless windows ensure a flood of natural light and wonderful views of the manor’s 30-odd acres of gardens and grounds.
Since 2016, the West Wing, comprising a reception area, kitchen, utility, dining room and 10 bedrooms on three floors, has been run as a successful bed & breakfast enterprise with its own separate entrance.
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Credit: thecountryhousedepartment.com
The house has had its share of ups-and-downs over the years. Owned by the Crown during the reigns of Henry IV, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the Everleigh estate was acquired by Sir John Astley in 1765 and continued in the ownership of the Astley baronets until the turn of the 20th century. The present manor house was built in the 1700s, possibly on the site of an earlier house, and later extended with the addition of east and west wings.
The Astleys left Everleigh Manor in 1856, after which it was leased to a series of tenants, including Charles William Curtis, a wealthy gunpowder maker, from 1880 to 1886. In 1882, a fire destroyed much of the central part of the house, although the damaged area was rebuilt the following year.
Credit: thecountryhousedepartment.com
In 1917, the manor was sold to a timber merchant, who stripped the house of its mainly oak timbers. Sold again as a convalescent home after the First World War, the house was requisitioned in 1939 by the War Department as a military hospital and, later, a research laboratory. The building reverted to private residential use when the army left in 1991.
The manor had lain empty for some time when, in 1999, it was acquired by its present owner, who embarked on a major renovation of the 21,265sq ft main building, where everything is about ‘the bigger picture’.
Everleigh Manor is for sale via The Country House Department at £6.75m — see more details and pictures, or find other homes for sale in the area.
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