As one of New York’s trendiest designers of contemporary jewellery, Dorset-born Stuart Moore knows how to spot a diamond in the rough. He and his French-born wife, Sylvie, had been looking for an English base from which to expand their European operation for more than two years when, in 2003, they drove up the drive to dilapidated, Grade I-listed Whitestaunton Manor near Chard, Somerset, and immediately fell in love with it.
They little knew that they were embarking on a £5 million restoration project that would take 10 years to complete, but they have no regrets, and are intensely proud of their ‘recently polished red diamond, the rarest of gems’, set in 83 acres of land in an idyllic hidden valley. Now, they need to spend more time with family in France and their precious manor is on the market through the country department at Savills (020-7016 3780) at a guide price of £8m.
Whitestaunton Manor, £5m, Savills
The restoration of one of Somerset’s most archaeologically complex and historically intriguing houses is a remarkable achievement, which has involved dozens of mainly local craftsmen and historic-building experts, the whole operation rigorously overseen by English Heritage and other conservation bodies, who have since showered the owners with their most prestigious awards. No ancient stone was left unturned as Whitestaunton’s historic treasures were progressively revealed.
They include the remains of a 3rd-century Roman bath house unearthed by Channel 4’s Time Team in 2003; the county’s best example of a medieval hammerbeam roof, dated 1438 and uncovered when a floor built halfway up the walls of the Great Hall was removed; and some striking examples of Elizabethan coffered ceilings and Jacobean decorative plasterwork discovered behind layers of ugly modern plaster.
The restoration unveiled the manor’s wonderful medieval rooms, including the Great Hall itself (formerly five bedrooms), the panelled music room, the 16th-century oak-panelled Great Parlour, now the dining room, and the 15th-century solar, discovered behind the walls of a small room at the junction of the 15th-century main house and the 17thcentury top floor. The ‘youngest’ room in the house is the 18th-century Somerset Room (the present drawing room), built by the Elton family to house a magnificent 16th-century royal fireplace previously stored at Hampton Court.
After the Conquest, Whitestaunton manor was held by the De Staunton family, later passing to the Hugyns and the Bretts. The Brett family crest can be seen, with that of the Elton family, who bought the estate in 1718, above the fireplace in the music room. In the early 1920s, Frederick Elton sold off most of the land; his widow retained the house and lordship of the manor (also included in the present sale) until 1925, when both were sold to Lt-Col Percy Reynolds Mitchell.
Evacuees from London were housed at the manor during the Second World War, after which it changed hands several times, before falling into disrepair in the 1990s. As a designer, Stuart Moore is admired for the clean, uncluttered lines and modern ‘architectural’ forms of his pieces, attributes displayed at Whitestaunton in the seamless integration of state-of- the-art, 21st-century systems-electrical, plumbing, heating, water, waste and drainage-within the fabric of a Grade I-listed building. The result is a house of ‘formidable beauty’ geared to modern living-yet supremely manageable with 6,666sq ft of living space on three floors, including the Great Hall, three grand reception rooms, three bedroom suites, four further bedrooms and two bathrooms; there is also a three-bedroom lodge.
Mr Moore’s trademark attention to detail is also evident in Whitestaunton’s magical gardens, originally laid out by the Victorian architect and garden designer John Dando Sedding.
Savills are also handling the sale- at a guide price of £6.25m-of another architectural gem, Grade II*-listed The Manor House at Fyfield, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Described by Pevsner as ‘a remarkable survival’, the exquisite 14th-century manor house, built for Sir John Golafre in about 1325, is now all the more remarkable, having undergone a recent, no-expense-spared restoration by its current owner. The ‘survival’ relates to the substantial part of the original hall that still exists- flanked by the grand gables of the 16th-century wing to the right and the 16th-/17th-century wing to the left. Golafre descendants lived at the manor until 1448, after which it was owned for a time by the De la Poles, Dukes of Suffolk. In 1510, Henry VII gave it to Lady Catherine Gordon, the widow of Perkin Warbeck, who was executed for trying to seize the English throne after the Wars of the Roses.
The Manor House, Savills, £6.25m
After her death, the manor was bought by Sir Thomas White, a wealthy London merchant, who donated it to St John’s College, Oxford, which he founded in 1555. From 1978 until 1992, it was used as an antiquarian bookstore by Oxford bookseller Blackwells. The present owners bought it from American heiress Drue Heinz in 2002.
The Manor House stands in six acres of lovely ornamental gardens next to Fyfield’s 13th-century church of St Nicholas, and comes with a two bedroom cottage, garages, barns, a tennis court and a formal walled herb garden, with an orchard and meadow beyond. The imposing main house has unusually large, high-ceilinged rooms for a building of its age: they include an entrance hall, a dining room, two drawing rooms, the medieval solar b(currently used as a combined library, sitting room and snooker room), six bedrooms, four bathrooms, and, importantly-this being within Oxford’s zone of influence-two large, climate-controlled wine cellars.
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