Baycliffe Farm has survived aeons, yet comes up for sale in 2022 looking quite probably as good as it has ever done. Penny Churchill reports.
Think of a country farmhouse and you tend to think of homes that are, well, a little rough around the edges. That couldn’t be farther from what’s on offer at the pristine Baycliffe Farm in Maiden Bradley, on the Wiltshire/Somerset border, six miles south-west of Warminster in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB.
Savills quote a guide price of £3.75m for the handsome, Grade II-listed, stone-and-brick thatched farmhouse, which dates mainly from about 1820 with earlier, 17th-century origins, although the 108-acre farm itself has been continuously occupied since 1087.
The lovely main house is a five-bedroom home with over 4,000sq ft of space, with the ground floor arranged around a main hall space. There is a drawing room (which was once the ‘cheese room’, rather brilliantly), a dual-aspect dining room and a lovely kitchen-breakfast room with flagstone floor and inglenook fireplace, among other attributes.
Upstairs the galleried landing leads to the bedrooms, one of which is a ‘work-in-progress’ in which two smaller rooms are being knocked together to create a master suite complete with balcony overlooking the swimming pool garden. There is also a separate studio annexe with its own entrance.
Having acquired Baycliffe Farm in ‘a dilapidated and ever-declining state of repair’ in 2003, racehorse owner and breeder William Harrison-Allan embarked on a three-year programme of building and restoration that saw the farmhouse, extensive outbuildings and land converted into an outstanding breaking and pre-training yard serving the racehorse-training profession. The farm has also operated as a racing stud in recent years.
Baycliffe Farm and some of the facilities as seen from the air.
The equestrian facilities are impressive. They include a front yard of 12 stables set around a picturesque central courtyard. The main yard, which is situated away from the house, comprises a range of converted farm buildings housing American barn-style stabling, a large storage barn and an indoor manège. There is also a Monarch horse-walker.
Much of the land is split into well-fenced paddocks for grazing and has been impeccably maintained over the years. The paddocks run down to a large field from which a crop of hay is taken each year.
An all-weather gallop crosses the field on a gentle uphill slope, whereas a 1½-mile grass gallop runs around the perimeter, with a belt of mature woodland forming the southern boundary of the property.
Baycliffe Farm is for sale via Savills at £3.75m — see more pictures and details.
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