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As 2023 comes to a close, three splendid properties with business potential have come to the market, one of which was the Cornish venture of supermodel Jean Shrimpton

- Penny Churchill

THREE landmark late entrants to the 2023 market will pique the interest of buyers or entrepreneurs who are looking to move westwards next year. Imposing, Grade II*-listed Cheney Court, which is for sale through Strutt & Parker's country department (020-7591 2213) at a guide price of $4.5 million, stands on a gentle south-facing slope in the hamlet of Ditteridge in the Wiltshire Cotswolds. It's 3½ miles west of the picturesque town of Corsham, 5½ miles north-east of Bath and just under 1½ miles from the Three Shires Stones, where the counties of Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire meet.

According to its Historic England listing, Cheyney Court, as it was originally known, was recorded as the manor of the Cheyney family in the 15th century, although the present house was rebuilt in about 1620 by George Speke, who died in 1656. During the English Civil War, Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I, reputedly hid in a barn on the property as she fled from Oxford to Exeter on her way to seek refuge in France.

In about 1726, the Spekes sold Cheney Court to the Northey family, wealthy landowners who used it as an investment property, letting it out as a desirable house convenient to Bath, suitable for the 'middling sort' of people. According to the writer Alan Payne, an early tenant was John Neate, a prosperous Bristol merchant, who lived there in 1769 before he built Middlehill House nearby. In the late 1890s, George Edward Northey decided to move with his family to Cheney Court, where he embarked on a major renovation of the rambling, 18-bedroom house. He found the court rather too quiet for his liking, compared with the busy social whirl of his father's house at nearby Ashley Manor, and invited his many friends to visit him at his new home.