One of the top country house hotels in the Bath area has come back onto the market with a further £1.5m reportedly cut from its asking price.
Grade I listed Ston Easton Park, pictured, near Shepton Mallet – the childhood home of North East Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg’s family – is being sold by upmarket estate agents Christie & Co and Savills for a reported £4.5m.
It is the third time in just over four years that the Georgian Mansion House, which has 20 individually styled bedroom suites and seven reception rooms, has been put on the market – with the price dropping each time.
Agent Strutt & Parker was appointed to sell it in 2020 with a price tag of £9.5m shortly before its then owners went in administration.
When rival firm Knight Frank took over the sale in late 2021 the asking price had been slashed to £6m.
Now the Palladian mansion is being offered for sale at an asking price of £4.5m
Ston Easton Park also boasts a restaurant, games room and billiard room as well as an orchard and tennis court in its 28 acres of landscaped gardens and grounds.
A Grade II listed three-bedroom gardener’s cottage and a Grade II* listed coach house are included in the deal.
Ston Easton Park had been owned by the Hippisley family from the days of Henry VIII to the 1950s. While the present house dates from around 1760, it replaced a Tudor building on the same site.
In 1958 a Preservation Order was obtained to stop it being demolished and six years later it was bought by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s father and former editor of The Times William Rees-Mogg, who undertook the first phase of restoration.
In 1982 it was sold again, to hoteliers Peter and Christine Smedley who converted it into a 22-bedroom luxury venue before selling it to fast-growing Bath-headquartered prestige hotel group Von Essen in 2000.
A year after the Von Essen group collapsed with debts of nearly £300m in 2011, the four-star hotel was bought by entrepreneur and former Dragons’ Den presenter James Caan’s private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw for a reported £3m. It was then returned to former Von Essen director Andrew Davis to run.
The impact of the pandemic hit the hotel hard and it entered administration in June 2020.
While not used as a hotel for more than three years, Ston Easton Park has found a new role as a location for period dramas.
It has featured in the BBC’s The Pursuit of Love and is currently being used as an elegant backdrop for the ITV series Sanditon.
The estate is being sold on the instructions of the joint LPA fixed charge receivers James Liddiment and Paul Greenhalgh of Kroll Advisory.
Christie & Co regional director Ed Bellfield, who is handling the sale, said: “Ston Easton Park offers an exciting opportunity for a creative, imaginative buyer to become the latest custodian of one of Somerset’s greatest properties.
“It is rare that a property of this magnitude comes to the open market and considering its location, the estate will offer a buyer potential for a variety of alternative uses, subject to obtaining planning permission.”
Savills director Alistair Heather added: “It is a privilege to represent the sale of one of Somerset’s most impressive and historic country estates The property offers incredible potential for use commercially or, subject to the necessary consents, reinstated as a residence of considerable grandeur.”
