Country houses for sale

Gorgeous Georgian former rectory with formal gardens designed by Verity Hanson-Smith

Grade II-listed Foxley Lodge has been a much loved family home for years.

Philip Harvey of buying agents Property Vision has an interest in the East Anglian property market that stems from considerations beyond professional interest: his father’s house, Grade II-listed Foxley Lodge at Foxley, 16 miles north-west of Norwich, is currently for sale at £1.3m through Savills in Norwich.

Selling agent Louis de Soissons quotes a guide price of £1.3m for the house, which is reluctantly for sale following Mr Harvey’s mother’s death some 18 months ago.

‘My father would have dearly loved to stay at Foxley Lodge, which has been his home since 1990, but common sense has prevailed,’ he says.

Recommended videos for you

‘One of the biggest problems in this situation is finding the help needed to run a house of this size with more than three acres of gardens and grounds and, with the present gardener heading for 80 and his home help nearing retirement age, he’s finally decided to call it a day.’

Although built in 1842, the imposing, 5,000sq ft former rectory is typically Georgian in style, with elegant and well-proportioned rooms, including three reception rooms, a master bedroom suite, six further bedrooms and three bath/shower rooms. A range of traditional outbuildings includes garaging and stabling – the latter an essential for those wishing to make use of the paddock on the grounds.

And then there are those gardens, as laid out by Verity Hanson-Smith, which include a tremendously picturesque walled garden as well as lawn areas and