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Country houses for sale

A remarkable Edwardian country house in one of Herefordshire’s most enviable locations hits the market for the first time

Penny Churchill Penny Churchill

Whitney Court stands in the glorious Wye Valley and has been in the hands of the same family for more than 120 years.

The glorious Wye Valley, which straddles the border between England and Wales, provides a spectacular backdrop to one of Herefordshire’s most remarkable country houses, Whitney Court at Whitney-on-Wye, six miles north of Hay-on-Wye and 17 miles east of Hereford. For sale for the first time since it was built — at a guide price of £3 million through Peter Daborn of Savills in Telford — the grand Edwardian country house stands in 22 acres of gardens and wooded parkland at the heart of the ancient Whitney estate, which was acquired by the Hope family in 1897.

Quite the entrance hall.

According to a history compiled by the owners, the house was born of a collaboration between various members of the Hope family, the prime mover being Lady Mary Nugent, the widow of the Hon James Hope-Wallace of Featherstone Castle, Northumberland; her daughter-in-law Eliza Coats, youngest daughter of textile magnate Sir Peter Coats, joint founder of the Scottish thread-making firm of J. & P. Coats; Eliza’s favourite brother, another Peter Coats, ‘who found the necessary cash’; and Lady Mary’s second son, James Louis Alexander Hope, who ‘handled the aesthetic side of things, siting the new house brilliantly and choosing both architect and building style’.

The site chosen lay ‘high and dry above the river valley and, not, like its two predecessors (both of which were eventually demolished), down and damp beside the River Wye, where cellars could flood several times a year’.

Spacious ground floor reception rooms, currently used as a wedding venue.

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The third Whitney Court was to be a state-of-the-art structure for its day, with an electric-bell system for the whole house, ducted-air central heating on the ground floor, six bathrooms — at a time when most Herefordshire houses were lucky to have more than one — and one of the first private power plants in Britain. The neo-Jacobean house was built, for the most part regardless of cost, by the prize-winning architect Thomas H. Watson, his designs based on John Thorpe’s Jacobean Somerhill House near Tonbridge, Kent.

Lady Mary laid the foundation stone in 1898 and, at first, all went well. However, two years later, James Louis fell ill (both he and Lady Mary were to die in 1904), whereupon Eliza and her brother, Peter, took immediate charge of the project. Alarmed by the new building’s escalating costs, brother and sister made big changes to Watson’s scheme, drastically reducing the court’s intended size and, among other major alterations, forcing him to make his main south windows a good deal bigger and include generous staff accommodation — even with their own bathroom — on the top floor. Eliza died in 1906 and was survived by her brother Peter, who lived at the court in his spacious first-floor flat, devoting his energies to his herd of pedigree Hereford cattle and the overall running of the estate, until his death seven years later on the eve of the First World War.

The dining room.

The estate was inherited by Coats’s ward, the young Nugent Hope. Whitney Court itself was greatly damaged by army occupation during the Second World War and remained empty until 1950. Nugent’s first wife, Hilda, had died from the after-effects of a hunting accident in 1938, and the remodelling of the house was undertaken by his second wife, Constance, who further reduced both house and garden to a more manageable size.

Nugent died in 1973, but Constance lived on at Whitney Court until her death, aged 95, in 1996. Since then, Nugent’s grandson, Augustine Hope, and his American wife, Maureen, have redecorated its two lower floors and established them as the setting for civil weddings and business and family entertaining.

One of the many bedrooms.

However, being based in the US, the couple have less and less time to spend at the house, hence the decision to sell. Also for sale, by separate negotiation, are the splendid original stable block and yard, both located opposite the main gates to the court; the stable flat has been recently renovated and has potential for further redevelopment.

Whitney Court, which is unlisted, offers 19,924sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including the grand entrance hall with its spectacular hall ceiling based on a heraldic drawing made to mark Lady Mary’s 80th birthday in 1891. There are four formal reception rooms — drawing room, dining room, library and morning room — most of which enjoy far-reaching views over the surrounding parkland and the Wye valley.

The entrance and driveway

A new kitchen was created by Constance Hope in 1950 out of a former office and a nursery wing, originally designed for the young Nugent and his sister, Violet, was adapted in the 1920s for Nugent’s own children. The first floor houses nine bedrooms, two with en-suite bathrooms, plus three family bathrooms. The second floor offers a vast amount of attic space, including seven large rooms and two bathrooms, with access to the roof and magnificent views towards Hay Bluff.

Exceptional views across the Wye Valley.

Outside, a pathway leads to immaculate formal gardens dominated by specimen trees, yew hedging and towering cedars. A raised terrace with rose border lines the front of the house, which boasts planted borders and a stone balustrade. The front of the house is draped in wisteria in spring and summer with magnolia trees in the foreground. Stone steps lead down to a lower terrace and onto the parkland, which is planted with an abundance of the splendid oak trees that are a special feature of Whitney Court.

Whitney Court is for sale with Savills for £3 million. For more information and pictures, click here

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