A historic manor in Surrey believed to the be the oldest continuously inhabited home in the United Kingdom, has recently hit the market for $13.5 million (11 million British pounds). Listed through Savills and Strutt & Parker, the home dates back to 1016 and is described by the Pevsner Architectural Guide The Buildings of England as “the most impressive of Surrey’s moderate collection of half-timbered houses.”
According to Architectural Digest, Sitting on 10 acres of land, the 11,255-square-foot property is largely divided between two wings: Great Tangley Manor West and Great Tangley Manor. The former encompasses three reception areas, a kitchen, a study, a cloakroom, five bedrooms, and three bedrooms, and in recent years it has been used as a vacation rental home for guests. Great Tangley Manor, on the other hand, has been used as the family home of the current owners and features three reception halls, a drawing room, a dining room, five bedrooms, two dressing rooms, three bathrooms, an office, and a 40-foot indoor heated pool and sauna. “The house, although impressive in stature and size, is welcoming, reassuring, and charming,” Oliver Custance Baker, Strutt & Parker’s head of the country department, said in a statement.
Aside from its extensive size and lengthy existence, the home has a unique history spanning run ins with British royalty, American aristocrats, and world-famous architects and interior designers. Reportedly, the manor started as reportedly King John’s hunting lodge, though parts of it were later lost in a fire. In the 15th century, the Tudor façade, upper floor, and some paneling were added, rebuilding the home as a medieval hall house. The owner at the time reportedly aided in the British fight against the Spanish, and was given timbers from the Spanish Armada, which are now in the dining room. “Homes like Great Tangley Manor don’t come to the market very often, and the launch of its sale is yet just another moment in this building’s long history,” Custance Baker added.
Wycham Flower, a founding member of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings, bought the home in he late 1800s and hired Phillip Webb—often described as the father of the Arts and Crafts movement—to renovate the home. William Morris was hired to furnish the interiors. After Flower’s death, Colonel Kennard, a member of Parliament, bought the property and hosted visitors such as Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Queen Mary, George V, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Kent later visited the home when Kennard’s daughter, Victoria, and her husband Frederick Ponsonby, took over the home. King George V and Queen Mary even signed the window of the dining room with a diamond ring. King George VI’s signature can also be found on a window in the master suite.
Gladys Vanderbilt, a member of the Vanderbilt family who married Hungarian Count László Széchenyi, spent a summer in Tangley Manor in 1913. The current owners of the house purchased the two wings of the property separately and carried out extensive renovations to unite both sections. “Great Tangley Manor is simply the most beautiful and historic country house I have seen in a very long time,” Phillipa Dalby Welsh, a real estate agent in Savills country department, said in a statement. “With a home being on the site for over a thousand years and possibly the longest inhabited house in Britain, naturally Great Tangley has evolved over time with each addition and renovation being carefully designed and carried out by the best craftsmen of the day.”
Sources: Architectural Digest
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