After buying a cocker spaniel, are the Beckham family about to embrace country life by moving to Gloucestershire?
David and Victoria Beckham count Guy Ritchie amongst their close friends and having attended his wedding to Jacqui Ainsley at his 1,134-acre Ashcombe Estate in July and bought a cocker spaniel from a renowned country PR shortly afterwards, the duo are allegedly hankering after a country pad in the Cotswolds.
In recent days, according to reports in the Mail Online, the former footballer and his wife have viewed homes in Gloucestershire priced between £5 million and £30 million. The first they were said to be interested in came in the form of a £5.4 million, 15,041 square foot manor house named Amberley Court at Amberley, near Stroud. It is described as “immaculately refurbished” and “located in a secluded position on the top of a Cotswold escarpment”. It comes with an infinity pool complete with a zip wire but perhaps is lacking in the ability to provide the privacy such people as the Beckhams likely crave given the house is surrounded by just 4.3-acres (with a further 17 acres of equestrian land located ¼ mile away)
Gloucestershire, GL5 5AE
On Sunday, the newspaper made a bolder declaration and suggested the former owners of a pad dubbed “Beckingham Palace” have set their hearts on a much more expensive offering. Featured in The Steeple Times in July 2014 and on the market for £27 million, Abbotswood House is better described as a barrack than a house but to the Mail what is important is that it has “enough land for 380 football pitches” (774.23 acres). It is 22,293 square foot in size, was designed primarily by Sir Edwin Lutyens and comes with two entrance lodges and eleven cottages.
Though we cannot quite imagine Victoria Beckham taking up horse riding, there is plenty for her husband – who recently took up fishing and shooting after being introduced to the sports by Guy Ritchie – to enjoy. The estate includes fishing on the River Dilker, lakes and woodland with the “potential for a pheasant and partridge shoot”.
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