Burglars and bargains

The Steeple Times

11 years ago

A Grade II* listed mansion for under £1.5 million

In London, if you’re lucky £1.475 million will buy you a basement flat in the outer parts of Chelsea. In Cumbria, the same figure will get you a vast Grade II* mansion on the border with Scotland. It may be isolated to the minds of some, but frankly, could you acquire a better weekend party pad anywhere else in the UK for such a figure?

Netherby Hall is described as being a handsome Grade II* listed house

The mansion is not quite as grand as Downton Abbey but it’s not far off

Netherby Hall at Longtown, near Carlisle is a house that the selling agents Strutt & Parker describe as “substantial”. We’d call it “colossal” and are not surprised that they’ve opted to neglect to include the total square footage in their 16-page brochure. The main building centres around a 14^th century pele tower but was primarily constructed in the 18^th and 19^th centuries for the Graham family and built to the designs of the “celebrated Victorian architect” William Burn.

An aerial shot of Netherby Hall illustrates how vast this property truly is

A postcard of the building during the Victorian era

The entrance hall celebrates Netherby Hall’s proximity to the Scottish border

The grandeur of the house is clear in the impressive Great Hall

A much larger table could easily be accommodated in this dining room

The stereo looks a little out of place in this drawing room

The style of the kitchen is somewhat “twee”

An aerial shot of the one acre walled garden (which is sadly excluded from the current asking price)

Coop House owned by the Landmark Trust and not included was formerly part of the estate (and is also excluded from the sale)

The Lodge Cottage and other properties are now separately available also

A plan of the full 37 acres that the vendor currently owns

Constructed from Cumbrian sandstone, the house – if you could call it that – includes 7 reception rooms, 6 bedroom suites, 4 further bedrooms and various ancillary accommodation. Originally priced at £2.75 million, Netherby Hall came with 37 acres and 5 cottages and 5 apartments. At the revised price – complete with a reduction of £1.275 million– the property incorporates just 17.36 acres and is split from the majority of its secondary residences. We’d suggest that any purchaser ought not to take this option as the inevitable result will be a dramatic loss of privacy. The estate, after all, at its peak was about some 60,000 acres in size.

One of Netherby Hall’s greatest claims to fame is for being the location of the theft of a collection of precious stones belonging to the then Lady Graham in 1885. The burglars were all hanged for their parts in the crime after they killed one of the police officers who tried to apprehend them. Though the Graham family had been “unpopular” according to the selling agents in the 16^th century, a mob tried to lynch the burglars – James Baker, John Martin and Benjamin Rudge –before they reached the scaffold in 1886.

Equally significantly, the estate – which is said to have “hosted dignitaries and royalty” – was the setting that supposedly inspired Sir Walter Scott to write Young Lochinvar. Whomever parts with shy of £1.5 million, will have to be similarly inspired. The heating bill for this mansion must be beyond vast.

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