Untouched North Yorkshire estate with 2,116 acres and 44 houses for sale for £20 million for the first time in 150 years
Officially launching to the market on Monday 4th April, the West Heslerton Estate, near Malton in North Yorkshire is a truly rare beast in that it is a time warp that has been owned by the same family for circa one hundred and fifty years.
Left by Oxford educated dolls’ house collector Miss Eve Dawnay (1926 – 2010) to a number of members of her family five years ago, the West Heslerton Estate is to be sold as a whole with a guide price of £20 million ($28.5 million or €25 million) and includes a vast 21 bedroom mansion, West Heslerton Hall, that has been unoccupied for thirty years and 2,116 acres of land. In addition, there are 43 additional houses and cottages that form the village of West Heslerton, a pub and restaurant, a garage and fuel station and a sports pavilion and playing fields and it is reported that income of £388,000 per year ($552,000 per year or €485,000 per year) is generated from total rent and subsidies.
Of the sale, Tom Watson, a director of Cundalls, the agents managing the sale, told The Mirror:
“Miss Dawnay was a wonderful lady… She was very kind and the property rents are, and have always been, very low. This has helped keep a village community with a mixed group of ages and there are obviously a lot of people hoping that somebody with a similar benevolent nature will come along to take over the estate. It would be perfect for somebody wanting to build up and leave a legacy”.
“The estate has been very much untouched in the past fifty years and is now a blank canvas ready to be shaped for the next generation. In many respects time has stood still in West Heslerton. There are now endless possibilities to convert buildings, develop plots and explore commercial opportunities. But I know that in an ideal world Miss Dawnay’s family would really like to see the estate carry on in a similar vein”.
London based Veronica Elliott, Miss Dawnay’s younger sister, added:
“It’s not the prettiest of villages. It wouldn’t go on the front of a chocolate box but my great grandfather, grandfather and father loved it. We all loved it and it would be very hard to find a village with more loyal and lovely people living in it. There is a real sense of community, which is hard to find these days”.
“There are generations of families who have lived in the estate houses. In fact, there was a time when nobody ever seemed to move away”.
“I can’t say strongly enough what the village and the people who have lived there meant to my family. The loyalty of those villagers has been tremendous. It will be strange to return and not be able to just wander around like I always have; that it will belong to somebody else. But times have changed, especially when it comes to farming, and it will be lovely to see new life breathed into the estate”.
Wannabe Lord Grantham’s will no doubt be queuing round the block.
Subscribe to our free once daily email newsletter here:
Another one for the wrecking ball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even the family that own it think the place ugly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If that’s worth £20000000 then I’m Howard Hughes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Matthew
I know you pride yourself on giving freedom for us all to express, within reason, our myriad views, but Rod’s contributions are so inane and imbecilic that he really does lower the tone of what is a very interesting online publication. If I were new to Steeples Times I would be quite turned off.
I think Glenmore made a sensible point about his stupid use of exclamation marks.
My sense is that like Igonikon Jack, who bores on in the DT, Rod is using the ST to boost his silly online marketing business.
This latest excretion is just so silly that it cannot even be considered a point of view: it’s just an attempt to rile other readers.
It needs a lot of work in all areas but for a rich man, this could be the perfect project. North Yorkshire is a glorious area of Britain and what better than maintaining a community?
‘Jones the idiot’ at it again. No awareness. No values. No appreciaciation or knowledge of this country. His every posting exposes what a waste of space he is. A total ignoramus.
Well it all looks magnificent to me, if I had the dosh I would buy it tomorrow.
My only worry is, some overseas Chinese or Arab billionaire with no taste or ethics will stap it up and turn it into a massive shopping centre. Bang, there goes another chunk of good old blighty.
Even her sister lives in London. The new owner will soon put the rents up, and destroy the community.
It is priced about right for the land acreage and the various properties. I doubt that a Arab or Chinese will buy it actually, I have a hunch it will go to a Yorkshireman from humble roots who has made some ‘brass”out of broadband or “summit” like that. He will still put the rent up though.
Does anyone know whether this was the birthplace of Jean Dawnay, Dior model and later Princess George Galitzine?
Paul Sykes – Yorkshireman – founded Planet Online – worth £650 million. He’s your man Charles!
Didn’t he lose a huge chunk of his fortune quite recently?
Ugly morbid place! Gives me the creeps.
A sensational opportunity for someone of wealth and good taste.
I remember years ago being asked by Sykes to come up and advise him on his PR. Talk about dour Yorkshiremen!
We ended up having one of the worst lunch’s in living memory in a pub that was like something out of the ’30’s.
Paul seemed to find the fare very satisfying! Nice chap though.
This estate could b another Sledmere.