Iconic rally driver Paddy Hopkirk lived at this wonderful house which is now on the market in a very commutable location near Beaconsfield.
The charming, Grade II-listed Parsonage Farm near Penn, Buckinghamshire is an immaculate, timber-frame, late-16th or early-17th-century farmhouse set in 7¼ acres of lovely gardens and grounds, 1½ miles from Penn village centre and 2½ miles from the commuter hub of Beaconsfield.
Currently for sale through Savills at a guide price of £4.75m, Parsonage Farm was, for many years, the cherished family home of the legendary rally driver Paddy Hopkirk, who died earlier this year.
Hopkirk is the man who made the original Mini a sensation in rallying, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in a Mini Cooper S in 1964 alongside co-driver Henry Liddon.
Rallying was hugely popular at the time, and Hopkirk became a household name: he received congratulatory telegrams from everybody from the prime minister to The Beatles, was given the Freedom of the City of his native Belfast, and was invited (along with his Mini) onto Sunday Night at the London Palladium.
Approached off a country lane along a tree-lined gravel drive, the farmstead stands next to Woodland Trust-owned woodland on the edge of this quintessential English village, with its duck pond and village green, and roughly half a mile from The Royal Standard of England, said to be the oldest pub in the country.
The main house offers 4,388sq ft of light and cheerful accommodation on two floors, including three elegant, beamed reception rooms, a large, quarry-tiled kitchen/breakfast room, five bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Further accommodation is available at the front of the house by way of a connected converted barn with an office/sitting room, bedroom and bathroom that could be used as an annexe.
Outbuildings include a large barn/workshop, a vaulted barn/games room and a granary.
Amenities include a paddock, an all-weather artificial-grass tennis court and a swimming pool screened from the rose garden by a brick-and-flint wall and clipped yew hedging.
Parsonage Farm is for sale through Savills at a guide price of £4.75m — see more details.
A house that's straight out of Cider With Rosie, and a picture-perfect cottage that's commutable to London make it into
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