LAKESIDE LIVING

Property developer John Hitchcox and his wife, Phoebe Vela, invite HELLO! into their waterfront dream house, where they count Kate Moss and Simon Le Bon as neighbours

- MELANIE MACLEOD

Celebrities and the Cotswolds have long been a match made in heaven – just ask Sir David Beckham – but nowhere is this more apparent than at Lakes By Yoo, the luxury 850-acre 160-home private estate in Lechlade.

Once a disused quarry, it is now the destination for celebrities looking to escape to the country: prices start at £1.4m for a lakeside cabin and can reach £9m for a six-bedroom villa, with each property surrounded by trees to ensure privacy.

Kate Moss holds her birthday party here every year, Jade Jagger, Take That’s Mark Owen and Simon and Yasmin Le Bon have long had second homes here, and both Jodie Kidd and David Gandy have taken cold-water dips in one of its 11 lakes.

But it’s not just the location of Lakes By Yoo that keeps supermodel Kate and friends such as Sadie Frost and Meg Mathews coming back: it’s Kate’s beloved godson, eight-year-old Marley, son of Lakes By Yoo’s owner, developer John Hitchcox, and his wife Phoebe Vela-Hitchcox, who is managing director.

“Kate is the best godmother,” John says of his superstar neighbour, who lives in the nearby market town of Faringdon, when he meets HELLO! for this exclusive interview and shoot on the estate. “Not only does she buy Marley the best gifts, she buys the best presents for me too. At the christening (which was held here), all the kids were chanting: ‘We want Kate!’”

John, 63, and Kate met through their mutual friend Jade Jagger, with Kate revealing: “John and I became friends through our love for the English countryside (and the pub) and have shared a close friendship since.”