The times they are a-changin'

Through busy centuries and multiple owners, these Cotswold estates have been loved and enhanced

- Penny Churchill

THE launch onto the market in today’s COUNTRY LIFE of the timeless Elmestree House estate at Doughton, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, marks the end of an era for the Wilson family, who have farmed it since 1949. Matthew Sudlow, Head of Estates and Farm Agency at Strutt & Parker (01865 366640), seeks ‘offers in excess of £7.5 million’ for the wonderfully unspoiled, Grade II-listed manor house and farmstead set in 117 acres of ancient parkland abutting Highgrove, The Prince of Wales’s Cotswold home since 1980.

The Elmestree estate lies within the Cotswold AONB, two miles from the historic wool town of Tetbury, in an area of gently rolling hills and pasture ideally suited to the rearing of sheep and cattle. The manor of Elmestree, or Elymundestre as it was then known, dates from the 12th century, when it was owned by the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of St Ebrulph, Normandy. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Crown granted the manor to Sir Ralph Sadler, later Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

The Cotswolds wool and cloth trade was still flourishing when, in 1685, Elmestree was acquired by Thomas Deacon, a London silk merchant. His son, also Thomas, was succeeded at the manor by his sister, Mary, who left it to her cousin, Robert Jenner, who was professor of Civil Law at Oxford. By 1803, Elmestree was owned by Thomas Brookes of Redmarley d’Abitot in the Forest of Dean, who died unmarried in 1812, leaving the estate to his brother, William.