This home with a royal surprise.
A 117-acre estate bordering Prince Charles’ beloved Gloucestershire home, known as Highgrove, is up for sale at $10.1 million.
The Elmestree House Estate, first built in 1844 in Elizabethan style, is on the market for the first time since 1949.
“Family owned estates such as Elmestree rarely come to the market and this estate is particularly special,” Matthew Sudlow, head of Estates and Farm Agency at Strutt & Parker, told The Post in a statement. “To find a house that is as architecturally pure as Elmestree in this part of the world, with many original features along with a model farmstead of this size intact, is remarkable.”
To the left of the house is a 17th-century four-bedroom farmhouse known as Farm End, connected to the main house via a wing built in 1900.
Spanning over a colossal 19,000 square feet, the connecting wing was historically used as a carriageway and, in more recent history, a ballroom.
Features include imposing wooden double front doors, a sweeping staircase with a glass dome, mullioned windows, intricate cornicing and stone floors.
The estate is considered a grade II listing, which means it is of historical nature and everything should be done to preserve the property.
There is space for everyone in the estate, which is made up of 11 bedrooms in the main house. The Farm End is accessed by a separate entrance with four bedrooms. A self-contained three-bedroom annex adjoins to the rear of the main house and there’s also a cottage with two bedrooms.
External features include extensive lawns, a small lake and some remaining features of 19th-century pleasure gardens.
“It’s likely to attract attention from many different types of buyers, both those in the UK and overseas looking for a private residence thanks to its location in prime Cotswolds countryside, and proximity to the much sought after market town of Tetbury,” Sudlow said.
Prince Charles purchased the estate next door in 1980.
When he married Diana in 1981, the couple moved to the Highgrove Estate, where they raised their two sons, William and Harry.
According to Andrew Morton’s tell-all biography, “Diana: Her True Story,” she was not particularly fond of the countryside living, preferring city life at Kensington Palace instead.
She referred to her trips to their Gloucestershire home as “a return to prison” and “rarely invited her family or friends,” according to Morton.
Morton quoted Diana’s friend, actor James Gilbey, who revealed: “She dislikes Highgrove.”
“She feels that Camilla lives just down the road and regardless of any effort she puts into the house, she never feels it is her home.”