Best-kept secrets

With the arrival of spring, the rural property market in Norfolk has taken off in style, as some of the county's less well-known, but historically significant country houses come to the market

- Penny Churchill

CHARLIE GRAHAM-WOOD of Sowerbys in Norwich (01603 761441) is handling the sale of the pristine Tasburgh Hall estate in south-east Norfolk, an imposing red-brick, neo-Jacobean country house set in 23 acres of landscaped formal gardens, parkland and woodland bounded by the River Tas, eight miles south of Norwich and a mile west of the ancient village of Tasburgh. He quotes a guide price of £3.1 million for the estate, comprising the painstakingly restored, late-19th-century manor house, which is unlisted and offers luxurious accommodation on three floors, including six grand reception rooms, seven bedrooms, a guest and leisure wing, plus outbuildings, a two-bedroom gatehouse and lake.

Tasburgh Hall stands on the site of an earlier, 17th-century house known as Tasburgh Lodge, which, according to White's Directory of Norfolk 1836, was the 'pleasant seat' of Gen William Gwyn, a one-legged veteran of the Napoleonic Wars who bought the estate in 1815. Sometime about 1880, the estate was acquired by Edward Johnson, son of John Johnson of St Osyth Priory in Essex. Between 1885 and 1890, Philip Berney Ficklin, scion of a distinguished Norfolk family, replaced the lodge with the present Tasburgh Hall. A serious art collector, philanthropist and a generous host, he extended the house considerably, adding a gatehouse and a ballroom.

During the Second World War, the Hall was taken over by the army and later became a Buddhist centre, before being sold to four families who lived there in separate dwellings. In 2007, Tasburgh Hall was acquired by the current owners, who embarked on a massive 15-year project to bring it back to a single private home of great distinction. During that time, the hall has been renovated down to the smallest detail, with the installation of elaborate plaster mouldings, gilded radiators, oak and stone flooring, luxury designer bathroom fittings and a bespoke Clive Christian-designed kitchen.