Pride of place

Two country houses with a fascinating history and beautiful surroundings have flourished after careful restoration by their current owners

- Penny Churchill

THE launch onto the market of the historic Chobham Park estate, near Chobham, in leafy north-west Surrey, at a guide price of £15 million through Knight Frank (01483 565171), signals the resumption of normal service at the upper end of the country-house market following the Christmas break. Built using older materials in about 1700 on a site owned by Chertsey Abbey since 675, the principal estate house, Grade IIlisted Chobham Park House, has been in its time a manor house, a royal hunting lodge, a gentleman’s country seat, a tenanted farmhouse, a grand country house and now, once again, is the heart of a pristine country estate.

First recorded in 1535, Chobham Park was reputedly purchased by Henry VIII from John Cordery, Abbot of Chertsey, two years before Chertsey Abbey itself was dissolved; soon afterwards, the King had the park extended to some 500 acres. In July 1558, Henry’s daughter, Queen Mary, sold the manor to her chancellor, Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, for £3,000. On the Archbishop’s death, the Chobham manor house and estate passed to his nephew, Thomas, who sold them in 1606 to Francis Leigh, later 1st Earl of Chichester.