Dream of living like a Jane Austen heroine? Edgecote House may just be for you.
It cannot be a universally accepted truth (to misquote the opening line of Pride and Prejudice), but property underpins everything in Jane Austen’s novels. Gaining and losing housesAnd the luck associated with them, is everything in a world where the heroine’s fate depends on marrying well. So, it’s no surprise that TV and film productions flock to him to score the most glorious period properties for their screen adaptations. One of these is the Edgecote estate in Banbury, Northamptonshire, which would never live up to the BBC’s 1995 version of Netherfield Park, Charles Bingley’s vaguely elegant rented retreat. Pride and Prejudice. Yes, Colin Firth emerging from a lake wearing a wet shirt is one of the most replayed costume-drama moments of all time.
Even more excitingly, Edgecote House is now for sale on the open market for the first time in over a century. You’ll need deeper pockets than Mr Bingley if you want to buy him: only offers above £45 million are invited. For that, you will not only find a wonderfully symmetrical Grade I-listed manor – a masterpiece. Georgian Architecture Designed by William Jones between 1748 and 1754 – the 1,700-acre park includes woodland and farmland, the remains of a Roman villa, formal garden Landscaped by Capability Brown, a private racecourse, and a residential portfolio of 31 houses, The cottage And Flat. The lake isn’t immortalized by Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy – that scene was filmed in Lime Park in Cheshire – but it’s no less picturesque for it.
