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.
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